This is freeware!
*******************************************************************
Note:
Original CFS aircraft of I Soliti Quattro Gatti (IS4G) Group, repainted with BMP textures of 239ª Squadriglia Regia Aeronautica.
The Reggiane Re.2002 Ariete was a best Italian "Assaltatore" (assault plane) developed during World War II. The aircraft was a development of the Re.2000 and was mainly used by the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Air Force) and Aeronautica Cobelligerante (Allied - post armistice - Italian Air Force), but it also saw limited use with the German Luftwaffe.
The Re.2002 project began with the conversion of the Re.2000 to Regia Aeronautica specifications including a redesigned wing and conventional fuel tanks. A contract for a single conversion resulted in the Reggiane company using this as the basis of a new aircraft. The Re.2002 was designed by Roberto Longhi and Antonio Alessio, who took a modified and strengthened Re.2000 fuselage, mated to Re.2001 wings and a more powerful radial engine, the Piaggio P.XIX R.C.45 Turbocharged (1,175 hp). The decision to go back to radial engines was partly made due to the difficulty in obtaining German made Daimler-Benz DB 601 engines and Longhi's preference for radial engines.
The first prototype flew in October 1940, approximately three months after the Re.2001 (DB 601 engined). The evaluation period showed some reliability problems with the Piaggio engine and therefore the aircraft served primarily as an attack aircraft instead, as it could carry a considerable payload, by Italian standards.
In September 1941, the Italian Air Force ordered 200 aircraft, delivery of which began in March 1942. The aircraft equipped the 5° Stormo and 50° Stormo, although the engine problems hadn't been fully solved. The first batch of 100 aircraft were delivered by July 1943, but only part of the second batch was delivered before the armistice with the Allies.
The squadrons equipped with Re.2002s saw a great deal of action with the Allied landings in Sicily although they also suffered many losses. During the first four days, when the Italian Air Force tried to attack allied ships, 14 aircraft were destroyed by British Spitfire Mk Vs. Allied bombing raids and strafing of airfields destroyed many aircraft on the ground. Due to the lack of fuel, the Re.2002s were only used sporadically, often equipped with three 250 kg or 100 kg bombs.
Some of the last skirmishes took place on September 3, 1943, when the British 8th Army landed at Calabria. Fifteen Re.2002s from 5° Stormo attacked the landing force. Three pilots were killed, among them was Giuseppe Cenni, the commander of the unit.
Today, one Re.2002 is currently being restored at the Italian Air Force Museum near Rome.
General characteristics
Crew: 1
Length: 8.16 m (26 ft 9 in)
Wingspan: 11 m (36 ft 1 in)
Height: 3.15 m (10 ft 4 in)
Empty weight: 2,400 kg (5,280 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 3,240 kg (7,128 lb)
Powerplant: 1× Piaggio P.XIX RC 45 Turbine radial engine, 877 kW (1,175 hp)
Performance
Maximum speed: 530 km/h (329 mph, 286 knots)
Range: 1,100 km (680 mi, 590 nm)
Service ceiling: 10,500 m (34,450 ft)
Armament
Guns: Two 12.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns
Two 7.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns
Bombs: 650 kg on three hardpoints
Make a subfolder named Re2002 under your CFS aircraft folder.
Unzip the zip file to a temporary folder, it will create the right subfolders, then move all files to the subfolder named Re2002, in your aircraft folder.
Unzip the gauges.zip file to the CFS gauges folder.
This virtual model is up-scaled (8) to obtain a better view in Combat Flight Simulator.
(for accurate scale in FS98 (7), replace the file Re2002.mdl by Re2002.old.mdl and rename this as Re2002.mdl)
Original design: Bertil Nilsson \ Andrei Kobakhidze (2000)
First IS4G repaint: TJD, November 2000
Also thanks to Christian Maas for his excellent tool Hex-editor XVI32 and Chuck Dome by his MDL file viewer. Without their tools, I might not have been able to assign new textures and colors to the original model.
Special thanks to Corrado Sandri, great CFS missions creator, by the provided information about this plane.
Thank for all them.
Copyright and Distribution
--------------------------
This virtual aircraft is released as Freeware. Copyright (C) Edmundo Abad, 12/2010 Santiago- Chile
As freeware you are permitted to use and distribute this
archive subject to the following conditions:
- The archive must be distributed without modification to the
contents of the archive.
- You have no right to include this files in a commercial pack in any way.
- All author's rights and wishes concerning this archives must be
respected.
