WOW220 CR.42 Falco

Description

WOW220; The Fiat CR.42 Falco was a single-seat sesquiplane fighter developed and produced by Italian aircraft manufacturer Fiat Aviazione. It served primarily in Italy’s Regia Aeronautica both before and during the Second World War.

The CR.42 was an evolutionary design of Fiat’s earlier CR.32 fighter, featuring a more powerful supercharged Fiat A.74R1C.38 air-cooled radial engine and aerodynamic improvements to its relatively clean exterior surfaces. The aircraft proved to be relatively agile in flight, a factor that had been attributed to its very low wing loading and a sometimes decisive tactical advantage. RAF Intelligence praised its exceptional maneuverability, further noting that “the plane was immensely strong”, though it was technically outclassed by faster, more heavily armed monoplanes. While primarily used as a fighter, various other roles were adopted for some variants of the type, such as the CR.42N dedicated night fighter model, the CR.42AS ground attack aircraft, and the CR.42B Biposto twin-seat trainer aircraft.
The Fiat Falco was an extremely manoeuvrable biplane that could quite easily evade a faster mono wing aircraft depending on the pilots skill. However it was hampered by a lack of heavy armament and no radio.
Fiat Falco’s served in the Mediterranean, East Africa, Malta and also against the UK during the Battle of Britain. Our Falco CR.42 is one from 18° Gruppo, 56° Stormo that crash landed near Lowestoft, Suffolk on 11 November 1940. The pilot successfully evaded three British aircraft, but was forced down by a malfunction of the aircraft engine.
We have a limited edition of five 1/30 scale models available at $499 plus $100 postage for customers in America and Australia. For UK and Europe please contact us for a more bespoke postage quote.