Piaggio P.2
| {{Infobox aircraft begin
|name=Piaggio P.2 |image=Piaggio P.2.jpg |caption= }}{{Infobox aircraft type |type=Fighter |manufacturer=Pegna-Bonmartini and Piaggio |designer=Ing Giovanni Pegna |first flight=1923 |introduced=1924 |retired= |status= |primary user=Regia Aeronautica |more users= |produced= |number built=2 |variants with their own articles= }} |
The Piaggio P.2 was an Italian fighter prototype of advanced design built by Piaggio in 1923.
Design and development
In 1923, the Pegna-Bonmartini workshops at Sestri Ponente in Genoa, Italy, were constructing a fighter aircraft prototype designed by Ing Giovanni Pegna around the smallest airframe that could accommodate the 224-kilowatt (300-horsepower) Hispano-Suiza HS 42 eight-cylinder water-cooled engine. After the Piaggio company purchased Pegna-Bonmartini that year, construction of the prototype continued and resulted later in 1923 in the completion of the Piaggio P.2.Green and Swanborough, p. 471.
The P.2 was an aerodynamically clean, single-seat, low-wing, cantilever monoplane of very advanced design for the time with either a monocoqueAccording to Green and Swanborough, p.471. or semi-monocoque fuselage and fixed landing gear. It was built of wood, with plywood skin and fabric-covered control surfaces, and was armed with two machine guns—sources differ on whether the machine guns were of 7.62-millimeter (0.3-inch) or 12.7-millimeter (0.5-inch)Green and Swanborough, p. 471 caliber—synchronized to fire through the propeller.Green and Swanborough, p. 471. It had two radiators, one mounted on each side of the fuselage, forward of the open cockpit.
Operational history
Piaggio built two P.2 prototypes and entered the P.2 in the 1923 Italian official fighter contest. The P.2 was probably ahead of its time, however; the Italian Air Ministry distrusted monoplanes at the time and the P.2{{'}}s performance did not meet the level that Pegna had predicted, and for these reasons no production order followed. However, the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) purchased one of the prototypes for evaluation, taking delivery of it on 23 March 1924.Green and Swanborough, p. 471.
Operators
;{{flag|Kingdom of Italy}}
Specifications
{{Aircraft specs
|prime units? = met
|crew=one
|length m=7.00
|length ft=22
|length in=11.67
|span m=10.58
|span ft=34
|span in=8.5
|height m=2.20
|height ft=7
|height in=2.67
|wing area sqm=20.08
|wing area sqft=216.15
|empty weight kg=867
|empty weight lb=1911
|gross weight kg=1182
|gross weight lb=2606
|eng1 number=1
|eng1 name=Hispano-Suiza HS 42 eight-cylinder water-cooled piston
|eng1 kw=224
|eng1 hp=300
|max speed kmh=233
|max speed mph=145
|endurance=2 hours 36 minutes
|armament = *2 × machine guns7.62-millimeter (0.3-inch) caliber or 12.7-millimeter (0.5-inch) caliber.
}}
Notes:
- Time to 1,000 m (3,280 ft): 3 min 18 sec
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
{{commons category|Piaggio P.2}}
- 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. {{ISBN|0-8317-3939-8}}.
{{Piaggio aircraft}}
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