Piaggio P.16

The Piaggio P.16 was an Italian heavy bomber designed and built by Piaggio for the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force).

Design and development

The P.16 was a three-engine shoulder-wing monoplane of mostly metal construction, with inverted gull wings. Its wing was thick and semi-elliptical, and its tail was mounted high on the fuselage. It had retractable main landing gear and a spatted, non-retractable tailwheel. In addition to bombs, its armament consisted of four 7.62-millimeter (0.3-inch) machine guns, of which two were mounted in the leading edge of the wing, one in a retractable dorsal turret, and one in the rear of the fuselage beneath the tail. The bombardier (bomb-aimer) manned a compartment set behind the nose engine on the underside of the fuselage.

Operational history

The P.16 first flew in 1934.

Operators

 Italy

• Regia Aeronautica

Specifications

Data from Italian Civil and Military aircraft 1930-1945^[1]

General characteristics

• Crew: 4
• Length: 13.348 m (43 ft 9.5 in)
• Wingspan: 22.00 m (72 ft 2 in)
• Height: 3.4989 m (11 ft 5.75 in)
• Wing area: 69.97 m² (753.2 sq ft)
• Gross weight: 8,432 kg (18,590 lb)
• Powerplant: 3 × Piaggio Stella P.IX R.C.40 9-cyl. air-cooled radial piston engine, 520 kW (700 hp) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 399 km/h; 216 kn (248 mph) at 3,170 m (10,400 ft)
• Stall speed: 105 km/h; 56 kn (65 mph)
• Range: 1,999 km; 1,079 nmi (1,242 mi) with 1,000 kg (2,205 lb) of bombs , or 1,500 km (932 mi) with 500 kg (1,102 lb) of bombs
• Time to altitude: 6,000 m (19,685 ft) in 17 minutes

• Guns:
  
• 2 x fixed 7.62 mm (0.300 in) Breda-SAFAT machine guns in wing leading edge
• 1 x flexible7.62 mm (0.300 in) machine gun in dorsal turret
• 1 x flexible 7.62 mm (0.300 in) machine gun in rear underside of fuselage
• Bombs: 1,000 kg (2,205 lb)

Notes

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Piaggio P.16.

• http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1936/1936%20-%200073.html