The Pasotti F.9 Sparviero () was a four-seat, low-wing touring aircraft, built in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in the 1950s. Designed by

Stelio Frati Stelio Frati (born in Milan Italy in 1919, died 14 May 2010) was an Italian mechanical engineer and aeroplane designer. He graduated from the Politecnico di Milano as a mechanical engineer in 1943, participating in the design of the Aeronautica Lom ...

, it was a single-engine version of his earlier twin-engined

Airone ''Airone'' () is an Italian science magazine devoted to science and technology issues. It is published in Milan, Italy, by Editoriale Giorgio Mondadori (former company, now a division of Cairo Editore, a subsidiary of Cairo Communication). His ...

. Only one was built.

Design and development

The F.9 Sparviero was a single-engined version of the earlier, twin-engined F.6 Airone, both Stelio Frati designs. The two aircraft shared many constructional details and had almost the same dimensions and weights, though the Sparviero's nose-mounted engine extended the

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 ...

. Engine layout apart, the two were very similar in appearance; they also both failed to reach production and only one Airone and one Sparviero were built. The Sparviero had an all-wood, low mounted

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 ...

wing of isosceles trapezoidal plan, built around a single spar and covered with 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, with differential ailerons and

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, 1997. ...

flaps. The fuselage was a ply skinned wooden

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

, built in two sections which bolted together just aft of the wings. The forward part held the cabin, which seated four in two pairs, with access via two wide doors over the wings. The roof line of the cabin continued aft into that of the rear fuselage. The Sparviero was initially powered by a 250 hp (187 kW)

Hirth Hirth Engines GmbH is an engine manufacturer based in Benningen, Germany. It is currently a part of the UMS Aero Group. Hirth began manufacturing aero engines in the 1920s, was taken over by Heinkel in WWII to develop the Heinkel-Hirth jet en ...

inverted V-8 air-cooled engine, though it was the intention to replace this with a 260 hp (194 kW) Lycoming horizontally opposed engine in production models and the prototype received one later. Fuel was fed from three tanks, two in the wings and one in the fuselage. The tail unit was conventional, with the tailplane just above the fuselage. The latter tapered in height rearwards, and the

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. F ...

merged into it with a

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage The fus ...

fillet Fillet may refer to: *Annulet (architecture), part of a column capital, also called a fillet *Fillet (aircraft), a fairing smoothing the airflow at a joint between two components *Fillet (clothing), a headband *Fillet (heraldry), diminutive of the ...

. The

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

construction was similar to that of the wing, except that the control surfaces were fabric-covered. The

tricycle undercarriage Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', that is arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one or more nose wheels in a single front undercarriage and two or more main wheels slightly aft of th ...

was retractable and fitted with

hydraulic brake A hydraulic brake is an arrangement of braking mechanism which uses brake fluid, typically containing glycol ethers or diethylene glycol, to transfer pressure from the controlling mechanism to the braking mechanism. History During 1904, Frederic ...

s. The Sparviero first flew on 27 July 1956, piloted by Vico Rocaspina who was responsible for all the early flight programme.

Operational history

The only Sparviero built, ''I-HAWK'', was in private hands by April 1958, based at Milano Linate and was still there in July 1964. It was withdrawn from use in 1968 and presented to the Milan Science Museum in 1972.''Archive'' 1982, p. 89

Specifications (Hirth engine)

References

* {{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation 1950s Italian sport aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1956