Officine Meccaniche Reggiane SpA (commonly referred to as ''Reggiane'') was an Italian industrial manufacturer and aviation company. Reggiane was founded during 1904 by its parent company

Caproni Caproni, also known as ''Società de Agostini e Caproni'' and ''Società Caproni e Comitti'', was an Italian aircraft manufacturer. Its main base of operations was at Taliedo, near Linate Airport, on the outskirts of Milan. Founded by Giovan ...

, which was in turn owned by the

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

Giovanni Battista Caproni Giovanni Battista Caproni, 1st Count of Taliedo (July 3, 1886 – October 27, 1957), known as "Gianni" Caproni, was an Italian aeronautical engineer, civil engineer, electrical engineer, and aircraft designer who founded the Caproni aircraft-manu ...

. Throughout the company's existence, it was involved in numerous industrial activities, such as

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

, aeronautics, and processing machinery. During the first half of the Twentieth Century, Reggiane became well known for the design and production of aircraft. Through the development of the Re.2000, an all-metal monoplane, Reggiane gained a reputation for producing relatively agile single-seat fighter aircraft. Following the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, the majority of Reggiane's fighter production was taken over by the '' Regia Aeronautica'' (the Italian Air Force). However, the company continued to manufacture and deliver fighters for various other

neutral Neutral or neutrality may refer to: Mathematics and natural science Biology * Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity Chemistry and physics * Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction in ...

and

Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...

-aligned nations around this period, such as for the ''

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

'' of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, the

Hungarian Air Force The Hungarian Air Force ( hu, Magyar Légierő), is the air force branch of the Military of Hungary, Hungarian Defence Forces. The task of the current Hungarian Air Force is primarily defensive purposes. The flying units of the air force are or ...

and the Swedish Air Force. Following the end of the war, the company turned its back on aircraft production, instead focusing upon the civil sector. Throughout the second half of the century, Reggiane came to specialise in the supply of cranes and other dockside equipment.

History

The company established its main facilities in Reggio Emilia, a city of what today is the

Emilia-Romagna egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title ...

region of Italy. At its height, Reggiane's factory in the city was the fourth largest in Italy, its footprint covering an area as large as the center of Reggio Emilia, employing as many as 11,000 employees at a time. It was primarily through this plant that Reggiane performed its various industrial activities, becoming involved in the nations's

s, manufacturing a number of locomotives, as well as the agricultural sector, producing a range of food processing equipment.

During the 1930s, the company branched out into aircraft production; the first aircraft to be produced by the firm was the Piaggio P.32bis, a

medium bomber A medium bomber is a military bomber aircraft designed to operate with medium-sized bombloads over medium range distances; the name serves to distinguish this type from larger heavy bombers and smaller light bombers. Mediums generally carrie ...

, which had been developed from the

Ca.405C ''Procellaria''. However, Reggiane's management were keen to branch out into developing their own aircraft designs, rather than solely producing other company's aircraft under license. During 1938, work commenced at Reggiane on a new fighter design; the company's design team, which was headed by Roberto Longhi and Antonio Alessio, set about designing an aircraft that would be offered to the Italian Air Ministry that would not only meet but exceed the requirements of its Programme R.Angelucci and Matricardi 1978, p. 214. Having little development time available, Reggiane considered various options, including the potential for manufacturing an American-developed fighter aircraft under license instead; however, under the influence of

, a completely original design was rapidly prepared. The design team took inspiration from the contemporary American fighter

Seversky P-35 The Seversky P-35 is an American fighter aircraft built by the Seversky Aircraft Company in the late 1930s. A contemporary of the Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Bf 109, the P-35 was the first single-seat fighter in United States Army Air Co ...

; their resulting design, the Reggiane Re.2000, bore a superficial resemblance to the P-35.Cattaneo 1967, p. 3. It was the first aircraft to be designed by Reggiane to employ

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

stressed skin In mechanical engineering, stressed skin is a type of rigid construction, intermediate between monocoque and a rigid frame with a non-loaded covering. A stressed skin structure has its compression-taking elements localized and its tension-taking ...

construction, as opposed to the wooden or mixed wood and metal structures that had been traditionally used in contemporary Italian aircraft such as the Savoia-Marchetti SM.79, another aircraft which had also been produced by Reggiane under license.Cattaneo 1967, p. 4. On 24 May 1939, the prototype Re.2000 conducted its

maiden flight The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets. The maiden flight of a new aircraft type is alw ...

at Reggio Emilia,

, Italy, flown by

Mario De Bernardi Mario de Bernardi (1893–1959) was an Italian World War I fighter pilot, seaplane air racer of the 1920s, and test pilot of early Italian experimental jets. Early life De Bernardi was born on 1 July 1893 in Venosa, Italy. In 1911, at the age ...

.Green and Swanborough 1990, p. 57. According to Cattaneo, early flights had quickly demonstrated the type's favourable flying attitude, including good speed and high manoeuvrability. Only minor modifications were required after the successful completion of the initial factory flight test programme; these including changes to the exhaust, the lengthening of the carburetor air intake, and the replacement of the round windshield with a framed counterpart. During testing, the Re 2000 demonstrated the ability to perform better than other existing fighters then in production. In mock

dogfight A dogfight, or dog fight, is an aerial battle between fighter aircraft conducted at close range. Dogfighting first occurred in Mexico in 1913, shortly after the invention of the airplane. Until at least 1992, it was a component in every majo ...

s, it could successfully fight not only the slower Fiat CR.42 biplane, but even the more modern Macchi C 200 and the German Messerschmitt Bf 109E fighters. However, the Re.2000 was afflicted by a major handicap in the form of the unavailability of reliable in-line engines of sufficient power; as such, the RE.2000 was able to represent only a limited advance over the rival Macchi C.200. Throughout the

, the company would develop numerous improved variants of the Re.2000, including the Re.2001, Re.2002, Re.2003, Re.2004, Re.2005, and Re.2006, some of which never progressed beyond the stages of prototyping or limited production. It has been alleged that the Reggiane had been working on developing their own wartime jet-propelled fighter, the Re.2007; however, some figures have cast doubts over the authenticity of the documentation produced.

Postwar activities

Following the conclusion of the conflict, Reggiane's factory was occupied by a large contingent of its work force, during which time its works were converted for to produce goods orientated towards the civilian market instead. This industrial action followed a pattern similar to the nationwide wave of

factory occupations Occupation of factories is a method of the workers' movement used to prevent lock outs. They may sometimes lead to "recovered factories", in which the workers self-manage the factories. They have been used in many strike actions, including: *t ...

of the years 1920–1921. The company, which is currently still active (though with a name and a location different from the original, due to the changes of ownership and name), specializes in the production of cranes and trolleys for lifting containers. The company was taken over first by the group Fantuzzi (Fantuzzi Reggiane) and then recently acquired by American company Terex Corporation. The current name is: Reggiane Cranes and Plants S.p.A.

Products

Reggiane2000 San Diego Air Space Museum 1

Aircraft production

* Reggiane Re.2000 ''Falco'' * Reggiane Re.2001 ''Falco II'' * Reggiane Re.2002 ''Ariete'' * Reggiane Re.2003 * Reggiane Re.2004 *

Reggiane Re.2005 The Reggiane Re.2005 ' ( en, Archer, Sagittarius) was an Italian monoplane fighter and fighter-bomber produced for the ''Regia Aeronautica'' during the later years of World War II. Along with the Macchi C.202/ C.205 and Fiat G.55, the Reggiane ...

''Bifusoliera'' *

''Sagittario'' * Reggiane Re.2006 * Reggiane Re.2007 * Reggiane Re.2008 * Caproni-Reggiane Ca.400 * Caproni-Reggiane Ca.8000

Locomotives

* FS Class D.341 *

FS Class E.428 The FS E.428 was a class of Italian railways electric locomotives. They were introduced in the course of the 1930s, for fast services on the Florence–Rome railway, being decommissioned in the 1980s. History When in the 1930s, in the course of ...

FS Class E.636 The FS E.636 is a class of Italian articulated electric locomotives. They were introduced in the course of the 1940s until the 1960s, and have been decommissioned since 2006. They have been one of the most numerous Italian locomotive group, and ...

* FS Class E.656 * FS Class E.424

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Angelucci, Enzo and Paolo Matricardi. ''World Aircraft: World War II, Volume I'' (Sampson Low Guides). Maidenhead, UK: Sampson Low, 1978. . * Cattaneo, Gianni. ''The Reggiane Re.2000 (Aircraft in Profile Number 123)''. Windsor, Berkshire, UK: Profile Publications Ltd., 1967. No ISBN. * Green, William and Gordon Swanborough. "RE 2000... The 'State-of-the-Art' Reggiane". ''

Air Enthusiast ''Air Enthusiast'' was a British, bi-monthly, aviation magazine, published by the Key Publishing group. Initially begun in 1974 as ''Air Enthusiast Quarterly'', the magazine was conceived as a historical adjunct to ''Air International'' maga ...

'', Forty-one, Midsummer 1990, pp. 54–69. Bromley, UK: Tri-Service Press. ISSN 0143-5450.

External links

Reggiane Cranes and Plants S.p.A. Official website
{{Authority control Forklift truck manufacturers Crane manufacturers Firearm manufacturers of Italy Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Italy Manufacturing companies established in 1901 Italian companies established in 1901 Italian brands Companies based in Reggio Emilia Caproni