The Fiat CR.1 was an Italian biplane fighter aircraft of the 1920s. Of wood-and-fabric construction, it was designed by Celestino Rosatelli, from whom it gained the 'CR' designation. Its most distinctive feature was that the lower wings were longer than the upper ones.

Design and development

Regia Aeronautica requested two prototype aircraft from Fiat in the early 1920s. The results were designated MM.1 and MM.2, identical except for the

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally air or water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adve ...

(one had a rounded, counterbalanced rudder) and engines (they had differing marks of Hispano-Suiza piston engines). The airplane was a biplane of conventional layout, with fixed tailskid landing gear and an open cockpit, with the pilot's head aligned with the trailing edge of the upper wing. The

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

powered a fixed-pitch two-blade wooden propeller. The landing gear had a fixed axle between the wheels. It carried two synchronized 7.7 mm (.303 in)

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more men to move and o ...

s firing through the propeller arc. The two prototypes were evaluated against another biplane fighter, the SIAI S.52, and proved superior in maneuverability and top speed. Accordingly, contracts were issued to three Italian companies for three batches of production aircraft, to be designated CR.1: *109 units to be built by Fiat; * 40 units to be built by OFM of Napoli; *100 units to be built by SIAI. After two preproduction prototypes were again flight tested, a total of 240 units were placed in Italian military service, beginning in 1925.HTML CR.1 history
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Operational history

The '' Regia Aeronautica'' ordered 240 CR.1s and began equipping its 1st Fighter Group in 1924. By 1926, 12 Italian fighter squadrons had been allocated the aircraft. In the same year, Fiat introduced an updated all-metal version, the CR.20. Though both

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

evaluated and rejected the aircraft, an export order was received from Latvia. Their nine CR.1s, fitted with the 224 kW (300 hp) Hispano-Suiza HS8N8 engine, served in Latvian Naval Aviation until 1936. In the 1930s, some CR.1s were fitted with Isotta Fraschini Asso Caccia engines of 328 kW (440 hp), which improved their performance. These units were given to 163 ''Squadriglia'', based at

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

in the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...

. Those units were withdrawn from active service in 1937.

Variants

;MM.1 :Prototype. ;MM.2 :Prototype. ;CR.1 :Single-seat fighter biplane ;CR.2 :One evaluation model, equipped with an

Armstrong Siddeley Lynx The Armstrong Siddeley Lynx is a British seven-cylinder aero engine developed by Armstrong Siddeley. Testing began in 1920 and 6,000 had been produced by 1939. In Italy Alfa Romeo built a licensed version of this engine named the Alfa Romeo ...

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 ...

. ;CR.5 :One evaluation model, equipped with an

Alfa Romeo Jupiter Alfa Romeo built/designed a range of aircraft engines based on the Bristol Jupiter and Bristol Pegasus designs, designated Alfa 125, Alfa 126, Alfa 127, Alfa 128, Alfa 129 and Alfa 131. All these essentially similar engines were mainly fitted ...

radial engine. ;CR.10 :One evaluation moded, equipped with a Fiat A.20 water-cooled V-12 engine with two Lamblin radiators. ;CR.10 Idro :The CR.10 converted to a floatplane.

Operators

; *'' Regia Aeronautica'' ; *

Latvian Air Force Latvian Air Force ( lv, Latvijas Gaisa spēki) is the aviation branch of the National Armed Forces. The first air force (AF) units were established 1992. It has no air combat capability, thus the defense of Latvian air space is maintained by NATO ...

Latvian Navy Latvian Naval Forces ( lv, Latvijas Jūras spēki) is the naval warfare branch of the National Armed Forces. It is tasked with conducting military, search and rescue operations, mine and explosive sweeping on the Baltic Sea, as well as ecological ...

Specifications (CR.1)

References

External links

Fiat CR.1 (Spanish)
{{Fiat aircraft Biplanes Single-engined tractor aircraft 1920s Italian fighter aircraft CR.01