(Piaggio) P.108 @·AIRCRAFTUBE

  • Piaggio P.108B Piaggio P.108B
    Piaggio P.108B
  • The MM.22001 prototype in natural metal, probably at Villanova d'Albenga (1939) The MM.22001 prototype in natural metal, probably at Villanova d'Albenga (1939)
    The MM.22001 prototype in natural metal, probably at Villanova d'Albenga (1939)
  • Three-view drawing Three-view drawing
    Three-view drawing
  • P.108B with the Savoy cross on the fin P.108B with the Savoy cross on the fin
    P.108B with the Savoy cross on the fin
  • P.108B - period colour photograph P.108B - period colour photograph
    P.108B - period colour photograph
  • Regia Aeronautica officers inspecting a P.108B Regia Aeronautica officers inspecting a P.108B
    Regia Aeronautica officers inspecting a P.108B
  • The bombardier's glazed nose (colourised photo) The bombardier's glazed nose (colourised photo)
    The bombardier's glazed nose (colourised photo)
  • Engines running Engines running
    Engines running
  • P.108 bearing the "PF" marking P.108 bearing the "PF" marking
    P.108 bearing the "PF" marking
  • Full-scale wooden mock-up of the P.108C airliner in the Piaggio workshops Full-scale wooden mock-up of the P.108C airliner in the Piaggio workshops
    Full-scale wooden mock-up of the P.108C airliner in the Piaggio workshops
  • P.108C or T under maintenance, engine cowlings open P.108C or T under maintenance, engine cowlings open
    P.108C or T under maintenance, engine cowlings open
  • Luftwaffe P.108T "GENERAL" Luftwaffe P.108T "GENERAL"
    Luftwaffe P.108T "GENERAL"
  • Luftwaffe P.108T "GENERAL" and its ground crew Luftwaffe P.108T "GENERAL" and its ground crew
    Luftwaffe P.108T "GENERAL" and its ground crew
  • A Luftwaffe P.108T seen beneath the wing of another aircraft A Luftwaffe P.108T seen beneath the wing of another aircraft
    A Luftwaffe P.108T seen beneath the wing of another aircraft
  • Allied airmen in front of a P.108 flown over to the Allies, Grottaglie (1943) Allied airmen in front of a P.108 flown over to the Allies, Grottaglie (1943)
    Allied airmen in front of a P.108 flown over to the Allies, Grottaglie (1943)

Piaggio P.108

The Piaggio P.108 Bombardiere was an Italian four-engine heavy bomber designed by Giovanni Casiraghi and built by Piaggio. It was the only four-engine strategic bomber used by the Regia Aeronautica during World War II. The prototype first flew on 24 November 1939 and the type entered service in 1941, but it was not used in combat until June 1942.

Four versions of the P.108 were designed, but only one, the P.108B bomber, was produced in any quantity before the Italian armistice of September 1943: the P.108A anti-shipping aircraft armed with a 102 mm gun, the P.108C pressurised airliner capable of carrying 32 passengers, and the P.108T military transport. Only one P.108A and 24 P.108Bs were built; depending on the sources, the total for all versions and prototypes was between 35 and 44 aircraft. After the armistice, the transport versions were seized by the Germans and were used by Luftwaffe transport units until the end of the war.

Design and development

In 1937, the Italian Air Ministry launched a requirement for a fast, long-range day and night bomber. Piaggio had already studied a large bomber with the P.50, designed by Casiraghi on the basis of a layout drawn up by Giovanni Pegna. The P.50-I of 1937, with four tandem-mounted Isotta-Fraschini engines, and the P.50-II of 1938, with four conventional tractor radial engines, were both disappointing: of mixed and wooden construction, the P.50-II was underpowered and unable to take off at its designed maximum weight.

Giovanni Casiraghi, an experienced engineer who had worked in the United States from 1927 to 1936, then designed a radically new aircraft on the basis of his American experience. The P.108 was an all-metal cantilever low-wing monoplane with duralumin skinning and a retractable tailwheel undercarriage, the main wheels retracting forward into the inboard engine nacelles. It was powered by four Piaggio P.XII RC.35 18-cylinder air-cooled radial engines of 1,350 to 1,500 hp, driving three-bladed variable-pitch propellers. The design won the official requirement over the CANT Z.1014 and the projects of Fiat and Caproni, because the other competitors could not deliver useful numbers of aircraft before the mid-1940s.

The prototype (MM.22001) was completed at Finale Ligure and made its first flight on 24 November 1939 in the hands of test pilot Nicolò Lana. It performed well in the test programme, but an accident at the end of the first series of tests seriously damaged the aircraft and slowed down development. A second example was completed at Pontedera in September 1940, and the type was delivered to the Regia Aeronautica for official evaluation in October 1940. The "teething problems" of the P.108 led to a very long period of debugging, and the reliability of its engines and hydraulic system was never fully satisfactory.

The P.108 was an expensive aircraft: it cost 5.2 million lire, compared with 1.7 million for a Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 and about 2.1 million for the average Italian bomber. However, to deliver a given weight of bombs at the same distance, the four-engine bomber had the advantage: a squadron of nine P.108s, able to carry 3,500 kg of bombs over 1,100 km, was estimated to be as effective as a group of 26 SM.79s carrying 1,000 kg over 1,000 km, for about the same total cost but with only 54 crewmen instead of 130.

Armament

The defensive armament of the P.108B was very advanced for its time. In addition to two 7.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns in waist positions, a 12.7 mm machine gun in a semi-retractable ventral turret and another in a nose turret, the bomber was fitted with two remotely controlled turrets on top of the outboard engine nacelles, each armed with two 12.7 mm machine guns. These barbettes were aimed by two gunners seated under transparent blisters in the upper fuselage, a layout that was only to be found again on the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress several years later. However, the barbettes could not fire forward, their ammunition supply was limited and they proved unreliable in service.

The bombardier was housed in a glazed extension under the nose, which allowed the nose turret to be set further back and left the nose gunner free to move during the bomb run. The bomb bay, divided into three sections, could carry up to 3,500 kg of bombs: 34 bombs of 100 kg, 20 of 160 kg or seven of 250 or 500 kg. The carriage of three torpedoes (one internal, two external) was also studied and tested at the torpedo bomber school in Gorizia in 1942, but the P.108 never flew operationally with this load.

The second production series, the P.108B Serie II, had the nose turret removed. While this reduced defence against head-on attacks, the aircraft was mainly used at night, and the weight reduction and more aerodynamic nose gave a speed gain of 10 km/h. Compared with the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress or the Consolidated B-24 Liberator, the P.108B offered a comparable bomb load and range, but its performance at altitude was clearly inferior.

Operational history

The only Regia Aeronautica unit to fly the P.108B was the 274a Squadriglia Bombardamento a Grande Raggio (274th Long-Range Bomber Squadron), formed at Pisa on 1 June 1941 under the command of Captain Bruno Mussolini, son of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. The first aircraft arrived at Pisa on 19 July 1941. On 7 August 1941, during a training flight from Pisa-San Giusto, Bruno Mussolini's P.108 lost speed at low altitude and crashed into a house short of the runway. The cockpit section separated from the rest of the airframe; the aircraft did not catch fire but was totally destroyed, and three of the eight crew members were killed, including Bruno Mussolini. The squadron was later named after him.

Crew training lasted far longer than anticipated: by the end of 1941, the P.108B fleet had flown just 391 hours. On 2 March 1942, three aircraft flew in formation over Rome for the anniversary of the creation of the Regia Aeronautica, and the 274a Squadriglia became operational in June 1942.

Gibraltar

On 26 June 1942, seven P.108s left Pisa for Decimomannu in Sardinia. On the night of 28 June, five of them took off to bomb Gibraltar. One had to turn back with engine trouble, while the other four dropped 66 bombs of 100 kg and six of 250 kg on the target from 4,000 to 4,300 m without being hit by anti-aircraft fire. The return flight turned into a disaster because of an unforeseen high fuel consumption: only the aircraft of Lieutenant Colonel Gori Castellani, the group commander, managed to return to Decimomannu after more than nine hours of flight. Another landed at Palma de Mallorca and was able to take off again the next morning, while the prototype MM.22001 crash-landed on a beach near Valencia and MM.22005 was badly damaged while landing without fuel at Los Alcázares; both crews were interned in Spain.

Further raids against Gibraltar were flown in July and October 1942, each involving between one and four aircraft and generally from Sardinia. Losses reached about one third of the aircraft engaged, through enemy action, engine failures and forced landings, while the results were poor: a Lockheed Hudson and some artillery positions destroyed on the ground during the first mission, and limited damage afterwards.

Algeria and North Africa

After the Allied landings in North Africa (Operation Torch) in November 1942, the P.108Bs were used for night attacks on the ports and airfields of Algeria, including Algiers, Bône, Philippeville, Blida, Maison Blanche and Oran. They were the only Italian bombers able to reach Oran, some 2,000 km away. With only eight aircraft, the 274a Squadriglia flew just 28 sorties in eight night missions during a whole month. Some ships were damaged and a few aircraft destroyed on the ground, but three bombers were shot down by night fighters, including two by Bristol Beaufighters of No. 153 Squadron RAF over Algiers. The last mission, against Oran, was flown by two P.108Bs on 20 January 1943, after which the worn-out unit was withdrawn to Siena, Guidonia and Foligno.

Sicily

In July 1943, the few remaining P.108Bs were sent against the Allied invasion fleet off Sicily, losing further aircraft to Beaufighter and de Havilland Mosquito night fighters. The last of the 24 P.108Bs ordered was delivered in August 1943. Of these aircraft, six were lost to enemy action (three over Algeria, two over Sicily and probably one over Spain), four in accidents, including the one involving Bruno Mussolini, and three in forced landings. In all, the P.108B flew only some thirty war missions. When the armistice was announced on 8 September 1943, most of the nine aircraft still on strength were sabotaged to prevent their capture by the Germans, and at least one P.108 was later flown to the Allied-held airfield of Grottaglie in southern Italy.

Luftwaffe service

After the armistice, the Germans seized all the P.108Cs and P.108Ts built or still on the assembly lines, and had further examples completed. Used by Luftwaffe transport units, they rendered good service on the Eastern Front, notably during the evacuation of Axis troops from the Crimea in 1944 after the fall of Sevastopol, when each aircraft carried 100 to 125 men. Some were destroyed in air raids in 1944 and 1945, but nine P.108Ts were still used by the Luftwaffe until the end of the war.

Variants

  • P.108B (Bombardiere) : Heavy bomber, the only version built in series before the armistice. 24 built, plus the prototype, in two series: Serie I with nose turret and Serie II without nose turret.
  • P.108A (Artigliere) : Anti-shipping version developed in response to a requirement of November 1942, armed with a 102 mm gun derived from the Ansaldo 90/53 anti-aircraft gun, mounted in a redesigned nose with a semi-automatic loading system. The single example (MM.24318) first flew on 3 March 1943 and was tested at Furbara. Development was stopped by the armistice; the aircraft was taken over by the Germans and later damaged in an Allied air raid.
  • P.108C (Civile) : Pressurised airliner with an enlarged fuselage and an extended wingspan, designed to carry 32 passengers on the South Atlantic routes to South America. The prototype first flew on 16 July 1942, when transatlantic services were no longer possible. Most of the P.108Cs were converted at the factory into military transports, able to carry up to 60 troops.
  • P.108T (Trasporto) : Unpressurised military transport ordered on 26 March 1941, with a cargo door, a reinforced floor and a modified tail, able to carry 60 soldiers or bulky loads. It first flew on 7 September 1942. Only a few were completed before the armistice; at least eleven others were completed under German control.
  • P.108M : Proposed version with heavier armament, not built.
  • P.133 : Further development with a lighter structure and improved performance. The prototype was nearly complete at the time of the armistice, but the programme was then abandoned.

Operators

  • Germany : Luftwaffe.
  • Italy : Regia Aeronautica (274a Squadriglia Bombardamento a Grande Raggio).

Accidents and incidents

  • 7 August 1941 : A P.108B of the 274a Squadriglia crashed into a house on approach to Pisa-San Giusto during a training flight. Three of the eight crew members were killed, including the squadron commander, Captain Bruno Mussolini.
  • 28 June 1942 : Returning from the first raid on Gibraltar, the prototype MM.22001 ran out of fuel and crash-landed on a beach near Valencia, Spain; the seven crew members were unhurt.
  • 3 July 1942 : P.108B MM.22601 failed to return from a raid on Gibraltar and was lost with its seven crew members in the Mediterranean.

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This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Piaggio P.108 of Wikipedia ( authors )

Piaggio P.108

  • Role : Heavy bomber.
  • Manufacturer : Piaggio.
  • Designer : Giovanni Casiraghi.
  • First flight : 24 November 1939.
  • Introduction : 1941.
  • Retired : 1945.
  • Status : retired.
  • Primary users :
    • Regia Aeronautica.
    • Luftwaffe.
  • Number built : 24 P.108B, 1 P.108A and about 15 P.108C/T, plus prototypes.
  • Developed from : Piaggio P.50.
  • Developed into : Piaggio P.133.

    • Specifications (P.108B)

  • Crew: 6 or 7.
  • Length: 73 ft 2 in (22.30 m).
  • Wingspan: 105 ft (32.00 m).
  • Height: 19 ft 8 in (6.00 m).
  • Wing area: 1,453 sq ft (135.0 m²).
  • Empty weight: 38,195 lb (17,325 kg).
  • Max takeoff weight: 65,885 lb (29,885 kg).
  • Powerplant: 4 × Piaggio P.XII RC.35 18-cylinder air-cooled radial engines.
  • Power: 1,500 hp (1,120 kW) each.
  • Propellers: 3-bladed variable-pitch.
  • Maximum speed: 267 mph (430 km/h, 232 kn).
  • Range: 2,187 mi (3,520 km, 1,900 nmi).
  • Service ceiling: 27,900 ft (8,500 m).
  • Guns: 6 × 12.7 mm (0.5 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns (nose turret, ventral turret and two remotely controlled twin turrets on the outboard engine nacelles) and 2 × 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns in waist positions.
  • Bombs: up to 3,500 kg (7,700 lb) in the internal bomb bay.

— — — = = — — —

This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Piaggio P.108 of Wikipedia ( authors )
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