Re 2000 "catapultabile"

Dogwalker · Dec 27, 2005

Ready on the catapult.

Engine start.

Launch.

Take off (another plane).

The steam catapult used to launch the Re2000 from italian ships was one of the creations of Sergio Stefanutti, chief designer of SAI Ambrosini.

DogW

the lancaster kicks ass · Dec 27, 2005

was it intended to be like the CAM ships with the hurricanes where the huricanes always had to ditch and so weren't reuseable?

Dogwalker · Dec 27, 2005

Even these planes weren't reusable (a transport ship had to carry the plane back to the launch ship), and the task is similar, but not completely the same.
The Regia Marina, had the need of replacing the old Ro 43 biplane as ship-board catapult plane on capital ships. Navy's high grades were impressed by the operational range and low minimum speed of Re2000, showed at the selection for the new front-line fighter made at Guidonia in 1939, so they viewed the possibility to substitute the obsolete twin-place seaplane, launched by catapult and having only reconnaissance and observation tasks, with a real fighter (two for big ships like cruisers) that could ensure aerial defense against enemy planes.

To launch such an heavy plane from a ship was a completely new task for italian navy and even the planes have to be modified, so, the first takeoff were made only on 9 may 1942, after several problems had to be solved.
However, several ships were equipped with Re2000 first than 8 september 1943, and the only surviving Re2000 in Italy today is one of this "catapultabile" planes (on board on "Vittorio Veneto" cruiser).

DogW

Gnomey · Dec 27, 2005

Interesting stuff Dogwalker, good pics too.

Dogwalker · Dec 31, 2005

Another one-

DogW

DerAdlerIstGelandet · Dec 31, 2005

Good pics.

loomaluftwaffe · Jan 3, 2006

and info too, excellent

evangilder · Jan 3, 2006

Kind of reminds me of a Brewster Buffalo with a stretched rear fuselage,

Dogwalker · Jan 3, 2006

evangilder said:
Kind of reminds me of a Brewster Buffalo with a stretched rear fuselage,

That of the derivation of Re20

fighters from Seversky's design is a long story. :lol:

According to M. Cappone: "The P-35 darwinism gave origin to two different evolution lines: the big, radial engined, P-47 and the slender, in line engined, RE 2005, both of them at the top of the best fighters of WW 2"

DogW

maxs75 · Jan 27, 2006

However, several ships were equipped with Re2000 first than 8 september 1943, and the only surviving Re2000 in Italy today is one of this "catapultabile" planes (on board on "Vittorio Veneto" cruiser).

Do you know which ships were equipped with Re 2000?

Thanks

Max

Dogwalker · Jan 27, 2006

Surely the warships Roma, Vittorio Veneto (two each) and Littorio (one), of these five, only one survived after the armistice, but six more "catapultabile" planes appear in the German inventory of requisitioned italian aircraft.

DogW

DerAdlerIstGelandet · Jan 28, 2006

I have a pic of the Italia (which was the Littoria until August 1943. (I will see if I can scan it) that has a Re-2000 on it. It is in my 1945/1946 edition of the Janes Fighting Ship.

red admiral · Feb 14, 2006

Dogwalker, are you sure that it was a steam catapult and not pneumatic or explosive?

Dogwalker · Feb 15, 2006

red admiral said:
Dogwalker, are you sure that it was a steam catapult and not pneumatic or explosive?

So I read. Surely it wasn't an explosive or rocket catapult like that of the CAM ships.
The carrier Aquila instead had to be fitted with two pneumatic catapults of german design for the launch of the Re-2001.

DogW

red admiral · Feb 15, 2006

Can I ask what your source is please? The normal view is that steam catapults weren't developed until post war.

Dogwalker · Feb 15, 2006

In this case is the De Agostini "Enciclopedia dell'Aviazione" of various autors, in the part dedicated to the various Stefanutti's secondary designs (no many people know, for example, that he is the designer of the modifications of Macchi C-200's wings to prevent the stall phenomenon).

DogW