mosquitoman wrote:
Looks even uglier than that Piaggio monster that you love so much
I agree it is a very unattractive plane.
_________________
"de gustibus non disputandum est"
I like ,more than the appearance not ugly ( but it is only a subjective opinion), the innovative ideas in this project:
-The streamlined fuselage , a design that will be repeated by engineer Zappata in 1940 for CANT Z-1018 medium bomber.
You can see that the transverse section of the fuselage is comparable to the section of the wing
A bomber with such a narrow fuselage didn't exist in 1938 yet,in 1945 an heavy bomber woould have been built by Junkers (Ju-288), in 1939 the twin-engined Lioret et Olivier LEO 451 with a comparable fuselage flew and showed excellent speed ( 500 km/h with 1075 HP radial engines) and handling performances, .With a better streamlined design of the engine nacelles (ex NACA-style) Italy could have in 1940 a heavy bomber which flew at 550 Km/h
-As a direct consequence of such a narrow fuselage the bomb bay could not be huge, so the smart idea of two small bomb bays in the outer engine nacelle , each for two 250 kg or 3- 160 kg weapons.
-The defence weapon system was the most powerful than any bomber , the serial aircrafts had to be armed by 6 Mg-151 or, more probably for economical motivations, with a mix of 12.7 and 20 mm guns.Each weapon can aim and shoot with a large free field.A weak undefended point exists;it is the bow as in most of WW2 bombers , but this problem could be quite easily resolved by a Breda-Z turret or by a light and small Caproni-Lanciani secon turret behind the pilot cockpit.....
It would not be an easy prey for Hurricane and Spitfires mk V, if its Alfa-Romeo engines just work decently for some hours.......