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People also tend to forget that the Italian DB 605s had 100 HP less than the original German engines.What seems to be somewhat surpising is the performance claimed by these "5" series fighters considering that they are a good 200hp down on power from the SPitfire while carring a very impressive armament. Granted the German guns are lighter in weight but the ammunition loads are rather large.
The Italians did manage to develop an airborne radar called the Lepre. Never used operationally though...Long ranged twin engined fighters didn't really exist apart from the Ro.57 and Ro.58 produced in very small quantities. There was no airbourne radar for AI duties and so no real night fighters apart from some Caproni-Vizzola F.5s and Fiat CR.42s. The only night fighter design I'm aware of is the Breda-Zappata BZ.303 which was a development of the CANT Z.1018 with Lichenstein radar and 8x20mm cannon.
People also tend to forget that the Italian DB 605s had 100 HP less than the original German engines.
One of my main intrests is Italian aircraft and aircraft engines and it's a rather sad story all in all: a lot of great designs but the problem was the industrial capacity, especially when it comes to engines. Almost all of the 900+ HP engines were copies from the British/Americans/French/German and all of these were inferior to the original both in power as in reliability.
Kris
I recall that story of the Re.2005 being tested with a German made engine and prop and achieving higher speed. Of course the given speed in that story is unlikely - we've been through that before - but it's clear that the 5 series had a lot of potential, as shown by the G.56 with a German engine.The Ali D'Italia booklet on the G.55 states that the power from the RA.1050 (DB 605) was limited to 1350hp because the rpm was limited to 2650rpm instead of the full 2800rpm setting. Equipped with later developments of the DB 605 giving up to 2000hp the performance of these aircraft would have been awesome.
I recall that story of the Re.2005 being tested with a German made engine and prop and achieving higher speed. Of course the given speed in that story is unlikely - we've been through that before - but it's clear that the 5 series had a lot of potential, as shown by the G.56 with a German engine.
I'm glad you mentioned those wing radiators. What I've read is that it gave the Re.2001 a speed increase from 540 to 600 km/h. Not 70 but 60 but doesn't matter that much. I have never seen the primary documents on it so ...678km/h -> 700km/h doesn't strike me as unlikely given the 175hp extra and a larger more efficient prop. For this flight regime, power has a cubic relationship with speed, meaning that it is possible to estimate the speed with different power levels. V^3 = k * Power. We use the existing data for V=678 and P=1350hp to find k=61.35. Then we can find the likely speed with 1475hp, which is 698km/h, exactly in line with the reported results.
I like the wing radiators as well, when tested on Re.2001 MM.438 they gave a 70km/h increase in speed.
Italian fighters are notoriously underpowered when it comes to firepower, I disagree.
The only slight problem i can see are the Italian pilots :wink:[/QUOTE said:This is false, not fair and offensive, imho.
Oh man the mighty SLAAKMAN???? Dude get into the real world please. This is not about video games...