Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
light aircraft
A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997.
Light aircraft are used as utility aircraft c ...
, flown in the mid-1930s, that set one and two seat world records as both a landplane and a seaplane. Only one or two were built.
Design and development
During the 1920s the
Compagnia Nazionale Aeronautica __NOTOC__
Compagnia Nazionale Aeronautica was a manufacturer of aircraft and aircraft engines established in Italy in 1920 by Count Giovanni Bonmartini. Together with a group of World War I veteran pilots, he operated a flying school in Rome from a ...
(CNA) were best known for their flying school in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus ( legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, though they also manufactured experimental aircraft for the government. When they moved their Roman base from
Cerveteri
Cerveteri () is a town and '' comune'' of northern Lazio in the region of the Metropolitan City of Rome. Known by the ancient Romans as Caere, and previously by the Etruscans as Caisra or Cisra, and as Agylla (or ) by the Greeks, its modern nam ...
to Littorio in 1928, they built a factory in which they could produce both aircraft and aircraft engines; some were designed by other companies, some by themselves. The Eta was both CNA designed and powered.
The Eta was a conventional
parasol wing
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes.
A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...
light aircraft that could be configured as a single seater or with two seats in
tandem
Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction.
The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...
; it could also be fitted with either a fixed
conventional undercarriage
Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Ter ...
or floats. It was originally powered by an uncowled, 9-cylinder CNA C-7supercharged
radial engine
The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ...
but later flew with an inverted 6-cylinder air-cooled supercharged inline, the CNA C.VI. The slightly tapered wing was mounted on tall faired parallel
strut
A strut is a structural component commonly found in engineering, aeronautics, architecture and anatomy. Struts generally work by resisting longitudinal compression, but they may also serve in tension.
Human anatomy
Part of the functionality o ...
s from the mid-
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
, assisted by lighter diagonal struts and shorter, forward leaning supports from the upper fuselage. The single seat model placed the open cockpit just behind the wing
trailing edge
The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 199 ...
. The tail was conventional, with the
tailplane
A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplan ...
on top of the fuselage and braced from below. The vertical surfaces were rounded. In keeping with the rest of the design, the fixed wheeled undercarriage was very simple, with unfaired wheels mounted on slender V-form struts attached to the lower fuselage.
Operational history
The Eta was chiefly distinguished by setting three lightplane world records. At the time the FAI divided the lightest aircraft between to categories: C.II, single seats with empty weights less than 200 kg (41 lb) and C.I, two seaters weighing less than 400 kg (882 lb). These categories were then each sub-divided into landplane and seaplane. A 130 kW (170 hp) CNA C-7 engine had enabled a Fiat AS.1 to gain the Category I altitude record in December 1932 and on 6 November 1933 the single seat Eta, with the same motor and fitted with floats, set a new C.II record of 8,411 m (27.595 ft). It was then fitted with its wheeled undercarriage and flown to a new C.II landplane record of 10,008 m (32,835 ft) in December 1933. On both occasions the Eta was flown by
Furio Niclot Doglio
Furio Niclot Doglio, MOVM (24 April 1908 – 27 July 1942) was an Italian test pilot and World War II fighter pilot in the ''Regia Aeronautica''. Doglio set nine world aviation recordsCNA C-7 engine, both landplane and seaplane.
;Category I: two seat, CNA C.VI engine, both landplane seaplane.