Tu | 24 Dec. | Open 10-15 hrs |
We | 25 Dec. | Closed: Christmas |
Th | 26 Dec. | Closed: Christmas |
Tu | 31 Dec. | Open 10-15 hrs |
We | 1 Jan. | Closed: New Year's Day |
Collect Megapoints for Megavouchers
Read the conditions...
Aviation Megastore offers unique Hold & Store service © for internet customers that wish to combine several individual orders to one single shipment, reducing the overall shipping cost significantly.
Read more...
Publisher/Brand Fonthill Media
No. Pages 212
Version Hard cover
Language English
Category Books on aviation
Availability only 3 remaining
This product was added to our database on Wednesday 6 October 2021.
Your reliable Aviation Book Source since 1989
The only modern and successful fighter produced by Italy during the Second World War in significant numbers
Based on primary sources from various national and international archives, including an extensive bibliography
Reconstructs the entire story of the Macchi C.202 from its early predecessors conceived for the Schneider Cup to its post-war use
A must-have for military enthusiasts, historians, modellers and those interested in the complexities of aircraft design and production during the Second World War
The Macchi C.202 Folgore aka 'Lightning' was probably the most successful Italian fighter during the Second World War.
It is generally agreed that the performance of the Macchi was superior to the Hawker Hurricane and the Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk and on par with the Supermarine Spitfire Mk. V. It is not by chance that nearly all the Italian top scoring aces flew this fighter either with the Regia Aeronautica or the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana.
At the same time, the C.202 was the symbol of a dysfunctional Italian military complex: a deficiency of sound industrial planning resulting in orders from the Regia Aeronautica for an exaggerated number of different aircraft; the lack of development of adequate engines limiting aircraft performance and capacity to inferior armament, which lacked punch; and the corruption of politics and culpable responsibility of the high military spheres.
The C.202 was therefore produced in limited numbers while there is a consensus that the air war, especially in the African theatre, would have been different had the aircraft been adopted in greater numbers