Macchi M.26

Back in 1924 the Italian Regia Marina was in need of a replacement for their aging M.7ter flying boat fighters so they issued a requirement for a new one.

As SIAI presented their candidature with their SIAI S.58 model, Macchi company presented the Macchi M.26 designed by their chief engineer, Mario Castoldi. It was a single seat biplane armed with two forward firing 0.303in Vickers Machine guns and was entirely made out of wood. It featured plywood and fabric skinning and had wings of equal span and unstaggered. It was powered by a single 296hp Hispano-Suiza HS.42 in a pusher configuration which was mounted on struts placed above the hull and below the upper ring. It was aerodynamically very clean.

It was completed in 1924 and made its first maiden flight that very same year. It showed good performance and Macchi built two prototypes, but the Regia Marina opted for re-engining the older M.7ter in order to save money. Therefore neither Macchi nor SIAI received production orders for their prototypes. However, it served as the basis for the more advanced Macchi M.41 which will be covered in a future post.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.26
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Arkhangelsky Ar-2

We come back to the letter "A" for this Soviet airplane, but first, a little bit of history.
As designer Andrei Tupolev was imprisoned in one of Stalin's purges, his second in command, Alexander Arkhangelsky was authorized to name any variants of the Tupolev SB after him. The Ar-2 was an attempt at enlargement the long lifespan of the SB that started some years before, in 1934. As Arkhangelsky himself worked in a refined version of the SB, named MMN but it proved to be dissappointing as it wasn't better than the SB. So it was decided that the more the Ar-2's design departed from the original SB, the better, in order to fit it in with the PB-3 bombsights grating it, that way, dive bombing capabilities.
Engine nacelles were more streamlined, new wings were fitted and a new glazed nose was added. The engine cooling system was placed inside wings having the air inlets on the leading edges with exits on the underwings. As it was intended to have dive bombing capabilities, air brakes were added. Initially it was named SB-RK and two prototypes were tested in October 1940, one month later the Soviet Air Defence Forces evaluated the type and, in December of that year, the NKAP named it after Arkhangelsky.
The Soviet Air Defence Forces liked the type even if it wasn't as fast as expected but it was highly maneouvrable and the dive-bombing capabilities didn't dissappoint. It was also pointed that it suffered from engine cooling problems and some mistakes on the defensive weaponry, nonetheless, the Soviet Air Defence Forces ordered the type to be massly produced. It started to be manufactured in very late 1940 but, at the time, other bombers like the Petlyakov Pe-2 and the prototype of the Tupolev Tu-2 were already showing better performance. That's why the factory where the Ar-2 was being produced, switched it's production towards the Pe-2 in early 1941 after having manufactured only 190 Ar-2s.
Arkhangelsky continued trying to improve the SB design, creating an even more revised version, the SBB in 1941, however when Germany invaded the USSR, Arkhangelsky was assigned to Zavod 156 to oversee the maintenance and repairs of the existing SB airplanes.
Most of the Ar-2 operated side by side with the SB, as they were assigned to units equipped with the Tupolev SB. It's known that at least two of them were destroyed in June/July 1941 and some of them continued to operate in small numbers until 1943.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkhangelsky_Ar-2
2. https://wiki.warthunder.com/index.php?title=Ar-2

Macchi M.14

The Macchi M.14 was an Italian single seat fighter that had the honour to be the first land based fighter developed by the Italian firm.
It was designed by Alessandro Tonini who designed it to be a single-seat wooden sesquiplane with Warren truss interplane bracing. It was armed with two forward firing synchronized Vickers 0.303in machine guns.
It had a fixed landing gear and was powered by a single 110hp LeRhône 9J engine.
Macchi started the testing in the spring of 1918 but the prototype was destroyed a bit later, in June 1918. However Macchi built another ten airplanes which were tested at Guidonia's test centre less than one year later, in 1919. In spite of not having being ordered and not being therefore massed produced, the ten ones served as advanced trainers and apparently one of them was sold to a private owner and flew with the registration I-BADG.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.14
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters.

Macchi M.7 & M.7ter

The Macchi M.7 was an Italian flying boat fighter that was designed both by Alesandro Tonini and manufactured by Macchi. It was similar in most aspects to the earlier M.5 but it featured an slightly modified hull and it was powered by an Isotta Fraschini V6 engine. The first airplane rolled out from the factory in mid-1918, so, due to the end of the World War I only 17 of them served with the Italian Navy.
As the war ended and they had a surplus of airplanes, they sold two to Argentina (who re-sold their ones to Paraguay), other two to Sweden in 1919 and some years later, in 1921 Brazil bought three of them.
In 1920 a new racing version, named M.7bis was designed, featuring a lighter structure and a smaller span-wings. It came foruth at the 1922 Schneider trophy that was hold in Naples.
There was also a third version, the M.7ter which featured a redesigned strengthned hull, a better wing configuration and a new tail. As it was thought to be an airplane designed to operate from seaplane tenders (in fact, it operated from the Giuseppe Miraglia seaplane tender) a version with foldable wings, named M.7terAR was built. It became the standard Italian flying boat fighter during the 1920s as, in 1924 six Italian naval squadrons were equipped with them and more of 100 of them were built, some of them serving until the early 1940s in private flying schools.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.7
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Aichi D3A - Part Four

Thanks to their maneouvrability, as the war progressed, many Vals were pushed into the role of interceptors where they survived thanks to the initially mentioned maneouvrability.
In june 1942 the prototype on an improved version was tested, it was powered by a 1299hp Kinsei 54 engine. However, as that engine was more powerful, the aircraft's range was reduced so additional fuel tanks were added in order to make it to reach the Salomon islands. It was known as the Aichi D3A2 and it started to replace the D3A1 in autumn 1942, rendering the D3A1 obsolete and being sent to training units.
When the better Yokosuka D4Y Suisei entered into service, the D3A2 were destined to land-based units or to smaller carriers where the Suisei couldn't operate due to it's fast landings. The D3A2 were actively employed by the Japanese in the Battle of the Philippines in late 1944 but, as they were seriously outdated, they suffered heavy casualties. By that date, both D3A1 and D3A2 were relegated to training duties in homeland Japan, where some units were modified into dual-control airplanes (we haven't found any pic or blueprint about that version though) and some of them were employed in kamikaze missions.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_D3A
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=296

Aichi D3A - Part three

The most famous action of the Aichi D3A Val was the attack on Pearl Harbour and all the subsequent aeronaval battles that happened 10 months after. They achieved various big successes like scoring an 80% of hits in their raids on the Indian Ocean against Royal Navy warships. They managed to hit two British heavy cruisers and an aircraft carrier with their bombs in April 1942.
Generally they acted together with the Nakajima B5N Kate torpedo bomber making their combination of dive bombing and torpedo runs, very effective. Without counting Pearl Harbour strike, the Vals were responsible for the sinking of 14 allied warships, among them 10 destroyers, 2 heavy cruisers, one aircraft carrier and one armed merchant cruiser. Certainly a true record that make of the Val the Axis airplane that destroyed more allied ships.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_D3A
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=296

Aichi D3A "Val" - Part Two

In December 1939 the Japanese Navy ordered the Val to be manufactured as the Navy Type 99 Carrier Bomber Model 11. Production models differed slightly from the prototypes as the wings were a little bit shorter and they were powered by either a 1000hp Kinsei 43 or 1070hp Kinsei 44. The initial stability problems were solved by adding a long dorsal fin-strake that started in the middle of the rear fuselage making the airplane highly maneouvrable.
It was armed with two forward firing 0.303in (7,7mm) Type 97 machine guns plus one defensive 0.303in Type 92 machine gun placed in the rear, at the observer's position. It could carry a single 250Kg bomb under the fuselage, between the landing gear, that was swung out under the propeller using a trapeze. It had capacity for two additional 60Kg bombs placed in underwing racks.
They started their carrier qualification trials on board of Akagi and Kaga carriers during 1940 and they had their baptism of fire operating from land bases in mainland China.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_D3A
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=296

Aichi D3A1 "Val" - Part One

Time for returning to the A letter! This time we bring you an iconic Japanese dive bomber from the World War 2.
During 1936 the Imperial Japanese Navy issued an specification for a monoplane dive bomber that could replace the biplane Aichi D1A. Aichi, Nakajima and Mitsubishi presented their designs and only Aichi and Nakajima were granted with prototypes building permissions.
The D3A was inspired by the Heinkel He.70 and it's fixed landing gear wasn't a problem when flying at low speed because the drag was unappreciable so, in order to make the design simpler and easier to manufacture, it wasn't changed. It was expected to be powered by the 709hp Nakajima-Hikari 1 radial engine.
In December 1937 the first prototype was completed and in January 1938 it flew for the first time, however the first tests were disappointing: it was underpowered and was very unstable, specially in wide and tighter turns that would normally lead to a snap roll. The dive brakes were also a problem as they added excesive vibration and slowed down the dive too much.
In order to fix all those problems, a second prototype was built. It was fitted with a 839hp Mitsubishi Kinsei 3, the cowling was redesigned and the vertical tail was enlarged to fix the maneouvrability problems. Wings were also enlarged and the tips were washed-out to cope with the snap rolls. Dive brakes were also replaced with new, more strengthned ones. All those changes fixed almost of it's problems except for the directional stability, but it was, however, enough to make it win against it's most direct rival, the Nakajima D3N1.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aichi_D3A
2. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=296

Macchi M.6

The Macchi M.6 was an Italian flying-boat fighter prototype that was completed in 1917 in order to compare it to the Macchi M.5 which differed from it in having a modified wing cellule. It had also Vee-type interplane bracing struts plus an sloping auxiliary vee struts that supported the upper wing making that way the parallel struts to be placed further outboard.
It was also powered by the Isotta-Fraschini V.4b that powered most of the versions of the Macchi M.5 and was armed with two Vickers 0.303 machine guns.
After comparative trials were performed between the M.6 prototype and an standard M.5, the results showed that the M.6 had not any advantage over the M.5 whatsoever, so it's development was abandoned and no more M.6s were built. The fate of the prototype is unknown.
Also, as there aren't any blueprints or profile drawings of this airplane, only black & white photos, so we decided to leave undrawn.

The only known pic of the Macchi M.6

Sources:
1. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.6

Macchi M.5 - Italian users

The first prototype of the Macchi M.5, which was labelled as the type flew for the first time in 1917 and was developed by engineers Buzio & Calzavera. Based directly on the previous Macchi M.3, it consisted on a single-step hull with an open cockpit placed forward on the wings, three more prototypes were tested, designated "Ma", "M bis" and "Ma bis" and the production version, finally was named as "M.5".
Like it's prototypes, it was powered by an Isotta-Fraschini 4Vb engine placed in a pusher configuration that could deliver 160hp of power. The first units were handed over to the Aviazione della Regia Marina (Aviation of the -Italian- Royal Navy) in the summer of 1917. A later sub-version was produced with redesigned wingtip floats and a more powerful engine, an Isotta-Fraschini V.6, placed also in the pusher configuration and delivering the respectable amount of 247hp of power. In total 244 of them were produced, 200 by Macchi itself and other 44 of them by Societá Aeronautica Italiana (SAI).

It was operated by the Royal Italian Navy's naval squadrons during The Great War with very satisfactory results. Some of them served also in the seaplane carrier Giuseppe Miraglia before they were scrapped after the creation of the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) in the successive years.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.5
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Macchi M.5 & M.5 mod - Foreign Users

And here we go with our first post of the "M" letter airplane, the Macchi M.5.

The Macchi M.5 was an Italian flying boat fighter that was designed by Nieuport-Macchi in the Italian city of Varese during the World War I. It was praised thanks to it's extreme maneouvrability and it was a match for their land-based counterparts. It had an improved late-production version with a better engine and redesigned wingtip floats, named M.5 mod.

It was flown by American pilots, as a trainer first and as an operational fighter later operating with the 263a Squadriglia (263th Squadron) from the Italian city of Porto Corsini, situated in the shores of the province of Ravenna. The first US Navy airman to be awarded with a Medal of Honor was piloting this airplane. On 21st August 1918 a Macchi M.8 piloted by Walther White and with Albert P. Taliaferro in the observer's position, was escorted by a flight of three Macchi M.5, in a leaflet-dropping mission over Pola, a city located in the Austro-Hungarian Empire's shores. When flying over the Adriatic, they were attacked by four Phönix land-based fighters. The Austro-Hungarian took down one of the Macchis, flown by the Ensign George Ludlow who could manage to ditch the plane at the sea. Seeing the life of his partner in risk, the pilot Charles Hamman landed his airplane close to Ludlow's one in order to take him on board. As Hamman's fighter was overloaded, he returned to base, where he crashed the airplane, however both pilots survived the crash. For that action Hamman was awarded the medal of Honor. Unfortunately, he died in a crash after the war, in June 1919 when he was piloting another Macchi.
As the Macchi had such good reputation, it comes no surprise that the Austro-Hungarians captured and used some of them, both of the M.5 and the M.5 mod version.

Sources: 
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.5
2. http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/macchi5.htm
3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Avro Canada CF-103

Now this is the last post before we switch on to another letter. Which one will it be? Who knows...

The Avro Canada CF-103 was a Canadian interceptor that never went beyond the improvised mock-up stage.

When the Canuck was still being designed, studies were already being carried out about it's development as the Royal Canadian Air Force was already looking for a high speed interceptor. Due to the Canuck's straight wing, chief designer John Frost, proposed a thinner swept wing. In December 1950 the design office decided to proceed with a redesign, basically adding swept wings to the CF-100 fuselage. It was also considered to have two streamlined fuel tanks blended into the leading edge of the wings near the three quarter position.
In spite of it's more powerful engines it was planned to reach a diving speed of mach 0.95 only marginally better than the Canuck Mk.2 and Mk.3.

In 1951 the Canadian Department of Trade and Commerce two prototypes and a static test airframe with the CF-103 designation. A wind tunnel test was carried out in November 1951 and a mock-up was built without undercarriage and engines with two tail wings configurations tested.
During the same year, when the test pilot Janusz Zurakowski flew the Canuck, it was evident that it was better than the predicted tests of the CF-103, so the design team tried to redesign it. The initial maiden flight date was expected to be the summer of 1952 but it was postpooned to mid-1953, however as the Cold War increased, the Canadian government made pressure to concentrate the aircraft manufacturing efforts on the CF-100 Canuck leading to the definitive cancellation of the CF-103 project in December 1951.

The mock-up was left at the factory's experimental bay with hopes of recovering the project, however in December 1952 Zurakowski achieved mach 1.06 with a Canuck Mk.4 in an unauthorized test flight, which leaded to the scrapping of the mock-up.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Canada_CF-103
2. http://canuck.purpleglen.com/cf103.html

Avro 765

Today we bring you another British design that never went beyond the design board.
The Avro 765 was a project for a VTOL lift-fan powered fighter dating back from 1959. Unfortunately not very much is known about it, besides that the air-intake would be located in the dorsal area just behind the cockpit.
As it seems that this project was kinda like a smaller version of the first Harrier, we have thought that it would also be armed with some air-to-ground weaponry, so we added some SNEB podded rockets underwings plus two Firestreak missiles at the wingtip in order to provide it with some air-to-air capabilities. It also seems that originally was intended to be armed with four ADEN 30mm Cannons located at the nose, just like it's contemporary, the Gloster Javelin.

Sources:
1. Midland Publishing - British Secret Projects - Jet Fighters since 1950
2. http://stingraysrotorforum.activeboard.com/t40970957/avro-vtol-and-rotary-wing-projects/

Arado Ar.95 - German Users

Now it's the turn for the native users of the Arado Ar.95.

The Arado Ar.95 was a single engined floatplane suitable for the reconnaissance and maritime patrol roles. It was designed and manufactured by Arado Flugzeugwerke.
It was designed in 1935 as a two-seated patrol airplane for coastal patrol, reconnaissance and light attack airplane. The first prototype, fitted with a BMW 132 engine flew in 1936 and the second one was powered by a Junkers Jumo 210. They were tested against the Focke-Wulf 62, it's most direct competitor.
The variant powered by the BMW won the competition and six of them were sent to Spain to be evaluated in combat.
It also served as the basis for the Arado Ar.195 torpedo bomber, one of the few types designed by Germany.
Although it wasn't ordered by any brand of the German Army, when the war started, the German authorities took over those planes that were built for Turkey. Those requisitioned were used for training and coastal operations in the Baltic Sea operating from the coast off Latvia and the Gulf of Finland from 1941 until 1944 serving with the Seeaufklärungsgruppe 125.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_95
2. http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/ar95.html

Arado Ar.95 - Foreign users

We go back to Arado's airplanes with this beautiful floatplane, this time we're centering on it's foreign users.

Even if it wasn't ordered neither by the German Luftwaffe or Kriegsmarine, Arado offered it for export sales in two versions, the W with floaters and the L version with a fixed spatted undercarriage.
In order to test them, six of them were sent to serve with the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War which were given over to the Spanish Air Force when the Spanish Civil War ended in April 1939. They remained in active service until 1950.
Chile bought six of them, three of the W version (AKA the "A" version) and other three of the L version (AKA the "B" version) which were delivered in the summer of 1939, just before the outbreak of the World War II.
Apparently, it also served with Finland during the early stages of the continuation war, but it's however unconfirmed and it was most probably replaced by the much better Arado Ar.196.
Turkey also ordered then at the same time as Chile, but they never were delivered as the war started and the Luftwaffe requisitioned them, however it never hurts to imagine them in hypothetical colours doesn't it?

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_95
2. http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/ar95.html

Avro 720, Avro 726 & Avro 728

Happy new year everyone! Today we bring you two never built airplanes that aren't very widelly known.

The Avro 720 was a project for a rocket fighter that could act as a point-defence interceptor in order to comply with the Air Ministry's Specification F.124T. Such specification was issued back in 1949 and was greatly inspired by other war-time point defence interceptors like the German Messerschmitt Me.163. As technology advanced, the initial version was expected to be armed with at least two 20mm Hispano Mk.V cannons, but later, as the missile technology was developed, they were replaced by just two Firestreak missiles. One mock-up 1:1 scale model was made and a flyable prototype was expected to be ready in 1956 but the programme was cancelled in May 1955.

The Avro 726 was a development of the 720 intended to serve as escort or interceptor, while the Avro 728 was a naval version intended to serve with the Fleet Air Arm. They were projected in January 1954 and early 1955 respectively. However, of these last two we couldn't find blueprints or reliable drawings, so, unfortunately, they're left undrawn.

Sources:
1. Midland Publishing - British Secret Projects - Jet Fighters Since 1950