From racing cars to aero engines

Fiat came to the sky through the engine bay. In 1908 the Turin carmaker adapted a racing-car engine, the SA 8/75, for aircraft, and its A.10 of 1914 became Italy’s first mass-produced aero engine, with 1,070 built in two years for Farmans and Caproni bombers. Giovanni Agnelli and technical director Guido Fornaca overrode cautious colleagues, and in 1916 Fiat set up the Società Italiana Aviazione to build complete aircraft, renamed Fiat Aviazione in 1918. Its engines then won fame of their own: the Fiat AS.6 powered Francesco Agello’s Macchi to a world speed record in 1934, and in 1926 Fiat bought the Ansaldo aircraft works in Turin to become Aeronautica d’Italia.

Rosatelli’s biplanes

For fifteen years Fiat’s aircraft carried the initials of one man. Celestino Rosatelli joined in 1918 and designed the CR fighters and BR bombers. His CR.32 biplane, first flown in April 1933, became one of the outstanding biplane fighters of its time in the Spanish Civil War, where at least 380 fought, and Spain built about 100 more as the Chirri. The CR.42 Falco of 1938 was more remarkable still: a biplane ordered into mass production as war loomed, about 1,819 of them. It fought over Britain, Malta, Greece and North Africa, and Belgian, Hungarian and Swedish pilots flew it too. His BR.20 was Italy’s first all-metal bomber.

Gabrielli’s G for everything

In 1931 Fiat’s general manager Vittorio Valletta hired a young Sicilian engineer who had studied under Theodore von Kármán at Aachen. Giuseppe Gabrielli would design 142 aircraft, all bearing his initial. His G.50 Freccia, first flown in February 1937, was Italy’s first single-seat all-metal monoplane fighter with an enclosed cockpit and retractable undercarriage. It was underarmed and unloved at home, but in Finnish hands it shone: 33 G.50s claimed 99 Soviet aircraft for three combat losses, a ratio of 33 to 1. Fiat also took over the CMASA seaplane works at Marina di Pisa in 1934 and ran airliners through the Avio Linee Italiane airline.

The best Axis fighter

Gabrielli’s wartime masterpiece came late. The G.55 Centauro, built around a licence-made Daimler-Benz DB 605, first flew on 30 April 1942. After comparing it with the Bf 109G and Fw 190 in 1943, Luftwaffe officials judged it the best Axis fighter, and Göring’s staff voted to build it in Germany. That never happened, and only 274 were completed in wartime, flying as high-altitude interceptors over northern Italy in 1944. After the war Fiat built 75 more for Argentina and Egypt. In 1951 Gabrielli’s G.80 became the first Italian jet aircraft, powered by a de Havilland Goblin.

NATO’s lightweight

Fiat’s last great triumph as an airframe maker was a competition. In 1954 NATO asked for a light strike fighter that could operate from rough strips. Gabrielli’s G.91 first flew on 9 August 1956 and in 1958 was confirmed as NATO’s first standard lightweight strike fighter. About 756 were built; West Germany licence-built it as the first combat aircraft made in Germany since 1945, and Portugal flew it in its African wars. Fiat was the only European company licensed to build the F-86K and led Italy’s F-104G programme. In 1969 Fiat and the state group Finmeccanica merged their aircraft work into Aeritalia. Fiat Aviazione carried on as an engine maker, today’s Avio.

Fabrieken

• Turijnse werken · Turin, Piedmont — Main aircraft and engine plant; includes the ex-Ansaldo works in Corso Francia bought in 1926
• CMASA · Marina di Pisa, Tuscany — Seaplane works acquired 1934; built the G.50
• Caselle airfield · Turin — Site of the G.91’s first flight
• Brindisi · Apulia — Production centre via the SACA company; later engine work

Mensen

• Giovanni Agnelli · Fiat founder member — Backed aircraft production against cautious directors
• Celestino Rosatelli · chief designer from 1918 — 1885–1945; CR fighters and BR bombers
• Giuseppe Gabrielli · head of aviation technical office from 1931 — 1903–1987; G.50, G.55, G.80, G.91, G.222
• Vittorio Valletta · Fiat general manager — Hired Gabrielli in 1931
• Riccardo Bignamini · chief test pilot — Flew the G.91 on its first flight

Records en primeurs

• Speed record of 300 km/h with the Fiat R.700, 1921
• Seaplane speed record and 1926 Schneider Trophy win by a Macchi with the Fiat AS.2 engine
• World speed record by Francesco Agello, 1934, in a Macchi powered by the 3,100 hp Fiat AS.6
• First Italian jet aircraft, G.80, 1951
• First NATO standard lightweight strike fighter, G.91, 1958