Reggiane
3 types · 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
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Aircraft Types
Reggiane Re.2000 Falco
The Reggiane Re.2000 Falco I was an Italian single-seat fighter of the Second World War and the first of Reggiane's wartime fighter series. First flown in May 1939, it performed strongly in trials, but the Regia Aeronautica rejected it because its fuel was carried in unprotected integral wing tanks, and an order for 188 aircraft was cancelled. Reggiane built the type mainly for export instead: seventy went to Hungary, which also produced a modified licence-built version, the MÁVAG Héja II, and sixty went to Sweden, whose J 20s guarded Swedish neutrality until 1945. Italian use was limited to a small Sicilian squadron and a few catapult fighters flown from battleships. Production totals differ by source and scope: History of War counts the export batches plus another forty aircraft completed, while Wikipedia's accounting gives 186 built in Italy.
Reggiane Re.2001 Falco II
The Reggiane Re.2001 Falco II was an Italian single-seat fighter of the Second World War, developed from the Re.2000 by replacing its Piaggio radial with the 1,175 hp Alfa Romeo RA.1000, a Daimler-Benz DB 601 built under licence. First flown in 1940, it entered service in late 1941 and fought over Malta and Sicily and in the defence of Italy as a day fighter, the CB fighter-bomber and the CN night fighter. Engine supply, which gave the rival Macchi C.202 first call, kept production small and its accounting is contested: 237 aircraft in Wikipedia's accounting, with History of War putting completions between 237 and 252 and the variant counts disagreeing between sources. Only nine aircraft survived Italy's division in 1943. Its afterlife rests on two survivals: the sea-recovered pre-production aircraft MM.8071 in Italian Air Force care, and the wreck of a Malta loss exhibited by the Malta Aviation Museum from 2026.
Reggiane Re.2005 Sagittario
The Re.2005 Sagittario was a single-seat fighter built by Reggiane around the Daimler-Benz DB 605 engine, produced under licence by Fiat as the RA.1050 Tifone. One of Italy's three Serie 5 fighters, it first flew in May 1942 and entered squadron service with the 22nd Group in April 1943, fighting over Naples and Sicily. An order for 750 aircraft came in February 1943, but only twenty-nine pre-production aircraft were complete when the armistice of 8 September 1943 split Italy, and the survivors were divided between the Co-Belligerent Air Force, the fascist air force in the north and the Germans. No complete aircraft survives; the rear fuselage of one is displayed at the Gianni Caproni Museum of Aeronautics in Trento.