# Fiat G.55 "Centauro" to fly again soon....



## Ioshic (Feb 19, 2014)

Hello everyone,
I would like to point to a very cool news I discovered days ago.
Probably some of you already know it.

There are, and have been, very few air-worthy italian ww2 warbirds after the war's end.
Scarsity of airplanes, fear of crashes, lack of funds and a general disinterest in Italy for everything that was "in the war"
has killed many projects and ideas.

Today, beautiful and excellent machines as the Macchi C.202 and C.205 and Fiat G.55, S.M.79 and others are sitting
in Museums taking tons of dust...

Until a few years ago.
An American collector bought a Fiat G.59 in Italy, which was used as a Gate-Gurdian, and decided to modify it, and make it
a Fiat G.55 "Centauro", one of the best fighters of the war, made in 1942.
Differences are minimal. The 59 had the Merlin, the 55 had the Daimler Benz DB605A. Plans are to recover a 605 and install it in a new
modified structure.
Works are being made in Germany and in Italy , at Volandia, where a new engine canopy will be built for the 605.

I really can't wait to see finally a Regia Aeronautica fighter take the air again at Air Shows. Hopefully with Regia Aeronautica markings
instead of the ANR one.
It would truly be a revolution in this aspect. To see once again one of those great fighters flying again would be a dream come true.

I only wish it was a Macchi C.202 (not a great G.55 lover...), but it's still a great news.

More to read HERE.


Up until now, the only flying Regia Aeronautica fighter was a Macchi C.205 "Veltro", which used to fly with its original DB605 in the 80's.
It was modified by the AerMacchi factory back then, but a small incident and the company decided to ground it unfortunately.
This was it. It's still stored inside the AerMacchi factory.







Cheers

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## tomo pauk (Feb 19, 2014)

Really cool. G.55 is a timeless beauty, few others can parralel it.


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## vikingBerserker (Feb 19, 2014)

I agree, this is awesome news.


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## Lucky13 (Feb 19, 2014)

Fantastic!


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## Thorlifter (Feb 19, 2014)

That is wonderful. Thank you for sharing.


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## GregP (Feb 19, 2014)

I'll jump in and add my thanks. Great news. I wish there could be an airworthy MC.2002 / 205 and an Re.2005, which is my personal favorite from an aesthetic viewpoint.

Now if only you Italians would put the SAI Super Seven into production! The Falco would finally have a serious rival.


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## Ioshic (Feb 19, 2014)

GregP said:


> I'll jump in and add my thisnk. Great news. I wish there could be an airworthy MC.2002 / 205 and an Re.2005, which is my personal favorite from an aesthetic viewpoint.
> 
> Now if only you Italians would put the SAI Super Seven into production! The Falco would finally have a serious rival.



Agree! The SAI S.7 was an amazingly beautiful and graceful plane.
I'm always stunned by its elegant lines whenever I take a visit to the Air Force Museum in Vigna di Valle. (which happens quite often I must say, living not too far from there)
Such a cool little plane.

And...tt looks like we'll also see another RA fighter in the skies, the Falco.

I'm just amazed by the fact that somehow they found a running Fiat A.74RC38 engine...

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## Aozora (Feb 19, 2014)

Thanks for bringing us all the Italian news Ioshic. Great news about the G.55 and CR 42!  8)

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## GregP (Feb 19, 2014)

Here's an Re 2005 I threw together from a cutaway I found on the internet. I did the cleanup and coloring, but not the artwork ... so it only took a couple of hours.


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## Ioshic (Feb 20, 2014)

Nice one Greg. Beautiful plane, the 2005.


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## GregP (Feb 20, 2014)

Thanks! I wish I could draw cutaways like that myself!

I'm working on an MC.202 right now (line drawing). Getting the rivets in the right place is very time-consuming.

I would LOVE to find a good drawing of the Super Seven ... but it seems to be a bit of obscure history. good looking, though ...


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## Elmas (Feb 20, 2014)

SAI Ambrosini 7, Aerei militari, Schede tecniche aerei militari italiani e storia degli aviatori

Push on "Scheda tecnica" to find the drawings. Not the best, maybe.....


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## GregP (Feb 20, 2014)

Thanks! It gives me a good place to start!

The drawing is of the S.7, but I believe the Super 7 was mostly an engine and propeller change.


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## Aozora (Feb 20, 2014)

From:


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## GregP (Feb 20, 2014)

I'll take the last one any day of the week ... as long as she doesn't stay for longer than a week. We could study body painting and make her a bit more colorful ... naaahhh ... finger painting.


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## Elmas (Feb 21, 2014)

Archivio storico-tecnico ? S.7 Project

Some more info.....


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## GregP (Feb 21, 2014)

Hi Elmas,

First, thank you for the info.

I don't read Italian. So ... are they returning an S.7 to flight status? That would be nice.

Or is this an old magazine article?


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## Elmas (Feb 21, 2014)

The last is a site entirely devoted to the S 7 family.
I don't think that an S 7 could be restored to a flyng condition, the wooden structure do resist to age much less than aluminium, let's think to woodworms....
By my personal point of view, with modern materials, expecially glues, it could be easier to build one from scratch.....


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## GregP (Feb 24, 2014)

Hi Elmas,

This as as far as I got with my MC.202. I cannot seem to find detailed shots of the MC.202 that are of sufficient quality to show rivet lines and I decline to just throw rivets in wherever they might logically be. Ah well, maybe in the future.






If you know of any shots or even other drawings that show rivet placement, it would be appreciated. I just noticed I forgot to put the pitot tube in the side view ... at least that is easy to correct.

Edit: Fixed it as well as the slight misalignment of the prop in the side view. Maybe someone can delete the one below?


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## Elmas (Feb 24, 2014)

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aircraft-pictures/vigna-di-valle-museum-33299.html

In 2012 I went to Vigna di Valle, Italian Air Force Museum, I could easily have taken all the photos necessary for your very nice drawings.....but I have to say that rivets in the Italian fighters are mostly flush, and not easily seen on the skin.
The aircrafts that I have seen with the worst rivets are the Russian ones.....
Wich program do you use to make your drawings, if I can ask?


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## GregP (Feb 24, 2014)

Thanks for the info and kind words.

I am using an application called Canvas. It started out as a Macintosh application by Deneba Software and was ported to the PC at some time. Later, Deneba was acquired by ACDSee who now market and maintain it. It isn't too expensive and had a lot of good features that even some of the more expensive ones lack.

It has some very powerful tools and can import and export to a large variety of formats.

One of the line thicknesses you can select is "hairline" which just barely shows up. So I usually put flush rivets in hairlines. You can see them but they don't intrude into the drawing, unless if is shrunk to a small size. I the drawing is enalrged for 11 x 14 or 11 x 17 use, then the hairlines are there but unobtrusive.

Another useful feature is layers. You can create a separate layer for the rivets and display them or not by changing their line thickness to "no line."

I sort of flop back and forth on depiction of propellers in 3-view drawings. Many people perfer them to depict a stationary prop, with a 3-blade then having one side shortened to reflect the propeller position. I do that on occasion but usually prefer to show the propeller arc so the viewer gets an idea of the size of the prop arc.


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## GregP (Feb 25, 2014)

Hey Elmas,

Here is a G.55 side view I did. I decided to show the prop in real view with dashed prop arc outline. From my point of view, the rivets don't intrude and add detail. I used gray ink and harilines for the rivets and rudder / aileron rib stitiching. I suppose I SHOULD have shown the rib stitch tape with the jagged lines created by pinking shears, but I chose the easy way ... slap me. If I had done that, I;d have to add the fabric edge tape, too. Possible, in a relatively short time.







Haven't added any background as yet and probably won't unless I actually use the drawing for something. Haven't yet started on the top / front views and probably won't unless the subject comes up again and is interesting enough to warrant the time and effort. That would mean that maybe I get something from the effort.

This one just for fun. I love the lines of the G.55, MC.202 / 205, and the Re.2005. But after you do a certain number of them the fun wears thin.


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## Ioshic (Feb 26, 2014)

For the C.202:

Clicking HERE, you can scroll down on the official "Nomenclature Catalog" of the Aer Macchi C.202, edition 1942 (I,II and III series).
Maybe it could help, especially for the wings.
As stated, most rivets were of "flush" type. The surface was really smooth.

It was maybe excellent for a prototype and a racer, but in manufacturing a "war-machine" it was probably too costly and time-consuming considering
its beneficial effects. (IMO)

Some very visible rivets are seen on the MG covers, and some other small areas.
These pictures shows some interesting shots
















An interesting shot of the 205


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## GregP (Feb 26, 2014)

Thanks! These will be good references!

From the videos on your website, I decided my louvers on the G.55 were backwards in the drawing. Here is the revised drawing. Small details but noticeable if YOU draw them.






VERY interesting that the cockpit is "open" along the back edge on the MC.202! I bet that causes a LOT of cockpit airflow and noise! We work very hard to seal the cockpits to lower noise and airflow in the cockpit. We try to limit the airflow to the cockpit vents ... which let in some air, but not a 350 mph slipstream! Maybe the vents in the G.55 are SMALL and do the same thing?

Again, thank you - Greg

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## contaxrts (Dec 15, 2014)

GregP said:


> Hey Elmas,
> 
> Here is a G.55 side view I did. I decided to show the prop in real view with dashed prop arc outline. From my point of view, the rivets don't intrude and add detail. I used gray ink and harilines for the rivets and rudder / aileron rib stitiching. I suppose I SHOULD have shown the rib stitch tape with the jagged lines created by pinking shears, but I chose the easy way ... slap me. If I had done that, I;d have to add the fabric edge tape, too. Possible, in a relatively short time.
> 
> ...



Hi Greg

I allowed myself to compare your side view to the Fiat one in my possesson and this is the result

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## GregP (Dec 18, 2014)

Took awhile, but thanks for the comparison! I believe yours ...

Mine were done from internet photos and approximate positions of lines and features, so I'm quite likely to be the one that is wrong. Never saw a real one before ...

So, I defer to the real outline. I do this for my own fun. The drawings posted above are for free use, not for sale. Most of mine are WAY more detailed than the photo or drawing I use for reference, done with multiple sources for details. My thoughts are that, for a 3-view, the reference HAS to be a photo, not someone's drawing. Otherwise, what is the reference and how do you KNOW you are right?

I suppose I could sell what I have done, but that is not my goal. The market would be small in any case. Who is really a fan of an 80-year old war?

Only old guys ... like me.

Thanks again!


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## nuuumannn (Dec 18, 2014)

This is fantastic, guys. Greg, really like your efforts with the computer. The Fiat CR-42 is with The Fighter Collection at Duxford in Cambridgeshire and will hopefully soon be flying. TFC also have a Gloster Gladiator and it'll be interesting to see the two in the air in such close quarters for comparison. Now, if someone could get a Fiat CR-_32_ back into the air...


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## contaxrts (Dec 22, 2014)

I'm not disputing, I only share what I do... like you my friends...
theese are graphics for a 1:5.85 scale Fiat G.55 Centauro RC model


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## GregP (Dec 23, 2014)

Thanks for that, Contaxrts! I appreciate it. The only depictions I had were low-resolution bitmaps ...


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## contaxrts (Dec 23, 2014)

GregP said:


> Thanks for that, Contaxrts! I appreciate it. The only depictions I had were low-resolution bitmaps ...



I know there is not much about G.55 on Web... I'm decades collecting everyting I find and not yet found satisfactory fuselage sections...


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## contaxrts (Dec 29, 2014)

I'm thinking about the fin/rudder outline... unlike what has been shown on the books that say there are two types of fin/rudder arrangement, I've found at least three types and a hint of a fourth type... two types are those universally recognized and of which there are various photographic evidence... The third type is the one that is present in the factory drawing I have attached previously presenting the fin outline of the first tipe and the rudder of second tipe... the only evidence i've found of that type is the picture attached in this post... other pictures I have are too poor quality or too angled to prove or disprove... the hint of a fourth type is that the factory drawings I've of what I say third type specifically mention that it is the fourth type...


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## GregP (Dec 29, 2014)

Great info contaxrts. I appreciate it and am flying home today. Sometime later this week I'll get back on this thread and start one on the Re.2005.


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