Ansaldo A.C.2

Good morning. We start this week with another Italian fighter of the 1920s.

The Ansaldo A.C.2 was an Italian monoplane single-seat parasol fighter made manufactured by the Italian company Ansaldo during the 1920s.

When the Dewoitine D.1 was flown for the first time in November 1921, it was one of the most advanced fighters of that decade, that's why Ansaldo was very interested in producing it, so it bought a production license, in order to produce am improved sub-variant of it.

That's how in 1925 Ansaldo bought a Dewoitine D.1ter (named by the own company as the Ansaldo A.C.1) and made their own version powered by a 300hp Hispano-Suiza HS 42-8 eight cylinder water-cooled and was armed with two synchronised 7,7mm Vickers machine guns.

In 1925 it was assigned to serve with the Italian 93ª,94ª and 95ª squadrons (squadriglia) all of them belonging to the 2º Stormo Caccia Terrestre (2nd land-fighter wing). being in active service with the Regia Aeronautica until 1929 when they were progressive replaced by the Ansaldo A.C.3. Some sources claim that the French Aéronautique Navale (French naval aviation) used some of them in their Mediterranean base, as the only reference about that airplane that we could find was only in text format, the drawing should be considered as speculative.

Sources:
1. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansaldo_AC.2
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters.