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The Italian Thunderbolt
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From 11:00 GMT (3:00 PST) December 11th to 11:00 GMT (3:00 PST) December 12th - special discount for purchasing M.C.200 series 3, M.C.200 series 7 and M.C.202 fighters - 20%


The story of the outstanding Italian fighter aircraft the M.C.202 by Macchi Aeronautica started with a contract between the German and Italian governments according to which the Daimler-Benz company started to deliver its liquid-cooled DB 601 engines to Italy. Mario Castoldi as Macchi’s lead designer and engineer did not doubt the DB’s straight engines advantages over the radial ones that Italian manufacturers preferred in the 1930s.

Working on improving the previous M.C.200 model, the Italian engineer had managed to create a truly elegant design - a new full-metal M.C.202 monoplane built around the DB 601 straight engine significantly surpassed its predecessors in all characteristics, showing good maneuverability and climb rate. It’s streamlined form, reliable pilot protection and high assembling standards made the model the most widespread Italian fighter of World War II. It was nicknamed ‘Folgore’ (Thuderbolt in Italian).The design had its drawbacks though: the armament of 2xBreda-SAFAT 12.7mm machine guns (later complemented with another pair of Breda 7.7mm MGs) was plain weak, while the heavy cockpit armament resulted in a poor visibility of the rear viewing arc.

Around 1200 M.C.202’s were produced; the aircraft was used in all the major battles that Italian armed forces participated in after 1941, from North Africa to Stalingrad.

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