The Macchi L.2 was an Italian
biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
flying boat
A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...
developed from the earlier
Macchi L.1, itself a copy of a captured
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n Lohner flying boat.
Development
In an attempt to improve the performance of the L.1 flying-boat Macchi, the design was improved with a reduced span on the
swept biplane wings and a more powerful
Isotta Fraschini V.4B engine. The L.2 was a three-bay unequal-span biplane flying boat with a two-man crew in side-by-side
cockpit
A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft.
The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...
s. It was powered by a single
Isotta Fraschini
Isotta Fraschini () was an Italian luxury car manufacturer, also producing trucks, as well as engines for marine and aviation use. Founded in Milan, Italy, in 1900 by Cesare Isotta and the brothers Vincenzo, Antonio, and Oreste Fraschini, in 19 ...
engine, strut-mounted between the two wings and driving a
pusher propeller. It was armed with a single
machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...
on a trainable mounting and could also carry four light bombs. Ten L.2s were delivered to the Italian Navy, but they were soon replaced by the newer
L.3.
Operators
;
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Italian Navy Aviation
Specifications (L.2)
See also
References
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{{Portal bar, Italy, Companies, Aviation
1910s Italian military reconnaissance aircraft
Flying boats
L.02
Military aircraft of World War I
Single-engined pusher aircraft
Biplanes
Aircraft first flown in 1916