Retired In Kalifornia's Aeronautica Macchi C.201 & C.200bis Model Builds
Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 2:01 pm
The Aeronautica Macchi (Aermacchi) C.201 & later C.200bis & prototypes were both marginal performance improvements over the 1937-vintage C.200 Saetta (Arrow, Dart, Lightning depending on spoken vernacular) radial engine-powered interceptor fighter just one each having been built & flown.
Responding to a January 5, 1938 Regia Aeronautica Italiana request for a C.200 replacement Aermacchi proposed the C.201 with revised fuselage, Isotta Fraschini Astro A.140 RC.40 licensed variant of the 858 hp two-row 14-cylinder French Gnome-Rhone Mistral Major GR.14Krs radial engine later changed to the much more powerful 1,010 hp two row 18-cylinder FIAT A.76 R.C.40 radial. Two prototypes were ordered first one flying August 10, 1940 with the far less powerful 858 hp two-row 14-cylinder FIAT A.74 radial. Although Aermacchi estimated a top speed of 550 km/h (340 mph) the prototype was cancelled after FIAT abandoned the troublesome A.76 engine.
Converted from a production Società Italiana Ernesto Breda C.200 the C.200bis featured a 1,180 hp two row 18-cylinder a Piaggio P.XIX R.C.45 radial engine with enlarged “barrel” cowling & propeller. First flown on April 11, 1942 at Milano-Bresso by Luigi Acerbi top speed in trials was 535 km/h (332 mph), long since eclipsed by more advanced aircraft (i.e. V-inverted 12-cylinder liquid-cooled Daimler-Benz 605-powered FIAT G.55, Macchi C.205V & Reggiane 2005) it did not enter into production.
Both released in 2014 as full model assembly kits, not parts conversions, the 1/72nd Scale resin Czech LF Models Kit No.72102 Macchi C.201 & KORA Models Kit NO.72191 C.200bis currently are the only ones available in any scale of these largely forgotten WWII Italian aircraft prototype one-offs. Mail-order purchasing one each that year they were amongst the best-molded & detailed of any resin scale model airplane kits I’d ever came across. Utter delights building one must wonder why no injected plastic scale model company has ever bothered to produce & market them preferably as double-kits or even better with a production C.200 for modeling the complete line of flown Saetta production aircraft & variants!
Photos Taken January 29, 2019
Photos Taken February 8, 2019