The Fiat G.80 was a military

jet trainer A jet trainer is a jet aircraft for use as a trainer, whether for basic or advanced flight training. Jet trainers are either custom designs or modifications of existing aircraft. With the introduction of military jet-powered aircraft towards the e ...

developed in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in the 1950s, and was that country's first true jet-powered aircraft. It was a conventional low-wing

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

with retractable

tricycle undercarriage Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

and engine air intakes on the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...

sides. The pilot and instructor sat in tandem under a long

bubble canopy A bubble canopy is an aircraft canopy constructed without bracing, for the purpose of providing a wider unobstructed field of view to the pilot, often providing 360° all-round visibility. The designs of bubble canopies can drastically vary; s ...

Design and development

Two G.80 prototypes were followed by three preproduction machines, but the '' Aeronautica Militare'' found it unsuitable for their requirements and did not purchase it in quantity. Undeterred, Fiat developed a more refined version, dubbed the ''G.82'', for entry in a

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

competition to select a standard jet trainer. Apart from many detail changes, the G.82 featured a longer fuselage, a

Rolls-Royce Nene The Rolls-Royce RB.41 Nene is a 1940s British centrifugal compressor turbojet engine. The Nene was a complete redesign, rather than a scaled-up Rolls-Royce Derwent"Rolls-Royce Aero Engines" Bill Gunston, Patrick Stephens Limited 1989, , p.111 w ...

engine in place of the G.80's

de Havilland Goblin The de Havilland Goblin, originally designated as the Halford H-1, is an early turbojet engine designed by Frank Halford and built by de Havilland. The Goblin was the second British jet engine to fly, after Whittle's Power Jets W.1, and the ...

, and wingtip tanks. Five aircraft were constructed, but when the competition was cancelled and the G.82 was not selected by either NATO or the ''Aeronautica Militare'', the development programme was finally terminated. Plans for specialised versions including

night fighter A night fighter (also known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor for a period of time after the Second World War) is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used i ...

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

, and close-support aircraft went unrealised, as did the G.84 that was to have been powered by an

Allison J35 The General Electric/Allison J35 was the United States Air Force's first axial-flow (straight-through airflow) compressor jet engine. Originally developed by General Electric (GE company designation TG-180) in parallel with the Whittle-based c ...

. The G.82s were used for a few years by the ''Aeronautica Militare''s training school at Amendola before being handed over to the '' Reparto Sperimentale Volo'' ("Department of Experimental Flight") in 1957.

Variants

* G.80-1B - prototype (two built) * G.80-3B - pre-production version (three built) * G.81 - definitive production version of G.80 (not built, development cancelled in favour of G.82) * G.82 - prototypes for NATO competition (two built) and four production * G.84 -

-powered version (not built)

Operators

; *

Italian Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = (Ordinance March of the Air Force) by Alberto Di Miniello , mascot = , anniversaries = 28 March ...

Specifications (G.82)

References

* *
Italian Defence Department fact sheet
(PDF format)

{{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation G.080 Abandoned military aircraft projects of Italy 1950s Italian military trainer aircraft FiatG.82 Single-engined jet aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1951

Design and development

Variants

Operators

Specifications (G.82)

See also

References