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Fiat Cr.1

1924 GOLDEN AGE

History

Fighter biplanes proved themselves in combat during the First World War (1914-1918) as stable artillery and bomb-launching platforms. This wing arrangement is still the standard design choice for aircraft that emerged in the "interwar" years - providing the necessary lift that monoplanes still lack.

Fiat Aviazone would go on to produce some of the most famous Italian fighter jets of World War II (1939-1945), during which time it managed its first biplane - "CR.1".

Started work in 1923 to sell a new, state-of-the-art high-performance fighter to Regia Aeronautica (Italian Air Force). The result is a single-seat fighter powered by a single engine in the nose.

Overall, the system was fairly conventional for its time, save for a few unique elements - it used a "reverse" biplane wing arrangement, with the lower element spanning more than the upper element. Usually, the span of both wings is the same, or the span of the upper unit is larger.

The aircraft relies on a rigid Warren truss wing support network with angled parallel struts, while the structure is primarily fabric rather than wood.

As with previous biplanes, Fiat's design keeps its lone pilot in an open-air cockpit under and below the upper wing, so all-round visibility outside the cockpit is limited. The engine drives a two-bladed wooden propeller (fixed pitch), and the fixed wheeled landing gear is attached to the fuselage by struts.

Standard armament is a 2 x 7.7mm British Vickers machine gun mounted on a fixed forward-firing mount on the nose and synchronised to fire by rotating propeller blades. Power comes from a 320-horsepower Isotta-Fraschini Asso V8 engine, which has a top speed of 168 mph.

The operational range is 405 miles, with a reported service ceiling of 24,440 feet.

The Air Force ordered two prototypes from Fiat, "MM.1" and "MM.2". They are mostly copies of each other except for the altered rudder unit and the installed Hispano-Suiza engine model.

The evaluation phase allowed the Fiat product to demonstrate its formidable handling, maneuverability and straight-line speed in a way that impressed Air Force officials. The aircraft beat the SIAI's competing design (Model S. 52).

The prototype was finalized as "CR.1" (acronym for engineers Celestino Rosatelli / Casia Rosatlli), except for the use of a smaller area wing structure and a new hood to match the revised radiator unit. The Fiat factory initially ordered 100 aircraft, which were built between 1924 and 1925.

In 1925, SIAI contributed another 100 aircraft, and from 1925 to 1926, another 40 Meridionali (OFM from Naples) were added, for a total of 240 aircraft.

The first Italian squadron to be equipped with the model was the 1st Fighter Group, and by the middle of the century, a dozen squadrons were eventually assigned to use the new fighter. Latvia became the only foreign customer for the product, while Belgium and Poland showed enough interest for a formal evaluation (which no one was willing to accept).

Latvia has ordered nine aircraft from the Air Force and Navy with 300 hp Hispano-Suiza HS8N8 series engines. The fleet will serve until 1936.

In the 1930s, the Italian model itself was retrofitted with a 440 hp Isotta-Fraschini Asso engine. The series ends in 1937, just before Italy's involvement in World War II (1939-1945).

In addition to the standard fighter version listed, the CR. 1 appeared in several "one-off" prototypes. cr. 2 Tested British radial engine Armstrong Siddeley "Lynx" during CR. 5 Equipped with Alfa Romeo "Jupiter" radial and Lamblin radiator sets. cr.

The 10 was powered by a water-cooled Fiat A.20 V12 with 410 hp and a Lamblin radiator pack. cr. 10 "Idro" is a modified seaplane form of the CR. 10.

cr. 20 becomes the relevant modernized version of CR. 1. All-metal structure, but retain the biplane wing layout. The wings now have a typical sesquiplane arrangement, with the upper components spanning more than the lower components. cr. The No.

20 in 1926 was a considerable improvement over the 1924, and as the number of operators worldwide increased, the number of exports increased.