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