The Caproni Vizzola F.5 was an Italian fighter aircraft that was built by

Caproni Caproni, also known as ''Società de Agostini e Caproni'' and ''Società Caproni e Comitti'', was an Italian aircraft manufacturer. Its main base of operations was at Taliedo, near Linate Airport, on the outskirts of Milan. Founded by Giova ...

. It was a single-seat, low-

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

monoplane 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 wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

with retractable

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for taxiing, takeoff or landing. For aircraft, it is generally needed for all three of these. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, s ...

Development

The F.5 was developed in parallel with the Caproni Vizzola F.4, with which it shared a common

airframe The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aeros ...

. Design began in late 1937 by a team led by F. Fabrizi. The aircraft had a welded steel-tube

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

and wooden

s; the fuselage was covered with flush-

rivet A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylinder (geometry), cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the deformed e ...

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age hardening, age-hardenable aluminium–copper alloys. The term is a combination of ''Düren'' and ''aluminium'' ...

, while the wing had a stressed

plywood Plywood is a composite material manufactured from thin layers, or "plies", of wood veneer that have been stacked and glued together. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards, which include plywood, medium-density fibreboa ...

skin. The F.5 (standing for Fabrizi 5) had a two-row 14-

cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...

Fiat A.74 R.C. 38 The Fiat A.74 was a two-row, fourteen-cylinder, air-cooled radial engine produced in Italy in the 1930s as a powerplant for aircraft. It was used in some of Italy's most important aircraft of World War II. Design and development The A.74 marked ...

radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating engine, reciprocating type internal combustion engine, internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinder (engine), cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. ...

, unlike its cousin the F.4, which Fabrizi and his design team intended to be powered by a water-cooled engine. The F.4 project was not pursued immediately because the Italian

Ministry of Aeronautics The Ministry of the Air Force () was a department of the Kingdom of Italy, and subsequently of the Italian Republic, with jurisdiction over both military and civil aviation. Established in 1925, it was abolished in 1947 when it merged with the ...

held its proposed engine in disfavor, but development of the F.5 continued.Green and Swanborough, p. 109 The F.5

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

first flew on 19 February 1939. The aircraft displayed very high maneuverability during official testing, prompting an order for both a second prototype and 12 preproduction models. The last of the preproduction aircraft was selected for use as a prototype in a renewed F.4 program, but the rest of the F.5 order was delivered to the Italian ''

Regia Aeronautica The Royal Italian Air Force (''Regia Aeronautica Italiana'') (RAI) was the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Regio Esercito, Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was ...

'' (Royal Air Force). No F.5 production models were built as Caproni decided to produce the more developed Caproni Vizzola F.6M fighter instead.

Operational history

The ''Regia Aeronautica'' assigned the 11 preproduction F.5 fighters to the 300° ''Squadriglia'', 51° ''Stormo'' for operational use. By 1942, they were serving as night fighters in the 167° ''Gruppo''. The F.5 was offered to foreign customers. Peru purchased a license to build the F.5 in 1939, with the aircraft to be built by Caproni's Peruvian subsidiary, the ''Fábrica Nacional de Aviones Caproni Peru'' (FAN). However, the Peruvian nationalisation of FAN in 1940, followed by the signing of a military cooperation agreement between Peru and the United States in 1942 meant that no F.5s were ever built in Peru.Tincopa & Rivas 2016, p. 231

Variants

;F.5 :Prototype and preproduction aircraft, powered by a

radial engine, 13 built, plus a 14th airframe which was completed as the Caproni Vizzola F.4. ;F.5bis:One re-engined F.5, powered by an

Alfa Romeo R.A.I000 R.C.44-la Monsonie The Daimler-Benz DB 601 was a German aircraft engine that was built during World War II. It was a liquid-cooled inverted V12, and powered the Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Bf 110, and many others. Approximately 19,000 601s were produ ...

(Monsoon) (license-built DB 601A-l) engine. ;F.5 Gamma :A one- or two-seat advanced

trainer aircraft A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristic ...

with an estimated maximum speed of , powered by a Isotta Fraschini Gamma R.C.35 IS air-cooled engine, armed with one

Breda-SAFAT Breda-SAFAT (''Società Italiana Ernesto Breda per Costruzioni Meccaniche / Breda Meccanica Bresciana'' - ''Società Anonima Fabbrica Armi Torino'') was an Italian weapons manufacturer of the 1930s and 1940s that designed and produced a range of m ...

machine gun. Not proceeded with.

Operators

; *''

Specifications (F.5)

Notes

References

* * *Green, William, and Gordon Swanborough. ''The Complete Book of Fighters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Every Fighter Aircraft Built and Flown''. New York: SMITHMARK Publishers, 1994. . * {{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation Vizzola F.5 Low-wing aircraft 1930s Italian fighter aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1939