Macchi MC.202 Folgore (Lightning)Virtually unknown outside Italy, the C.202 Folgore was the best fighter airplane fielded in significant numbers by the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force or RA) during WW2. It demonstrated that Italy could design and build fighter aircraft to world-class standards. Aeronautica Macchi S.p.A. designed and built the Folgore, which was based on an earlier Macchi design powered by a radial engine, the C.200 Saeta (Thunderbolt). Macchi's chief of designer, Mario Castoldi, adapted the Saeta airframe to the German Daimler-Benz DB 601 liquid-cooled engine, as no indigenous, in-line powerplant of sufficient power was available when the war started. At full speed, the Folgore was almost 97 kph (60 mph) faster than the Saeta's speed of 502 kph (312 mph).
The C.202 first flew in August 1940 and the RA initially deployed this type during the summer of 1941 to the 1° Stormo C.T. for conversion training. By November, this unit had transferred to Libya and engaged British forces shortly before the British blockaded Tobruk. Although it was available too late to affect the outcome in North Africa, the new Macchi C.202 proved clearly superior to both the American Curtiss P-40 and the British Hawker Hurricane. The Italian fighter outperformed all opponents except Supermarine Spitfires and North American P-51 Mustangs.
When supplies of DB 601 engines ran out, Alfa Romeo began building a licensed copy, called the R. A. 1000 R.C.41 Monsonie (Monsoon) but initial production was slow. The need for airplanes was urgent so for a time, Macchi built the outdated C.200 alongside the C.202 but by late 1942, Folgores outnumbered all other fighter airplanes in the Regia Aeronautica. Folgore production totaled about 1,500 airplanes, built from 1941 to 1943. Macchi built fewer than 400 but the Breda and S. A. I. Ambrosini firms manufactured the balance.
Chief designer Castoldi employed a unique method of counteracting the torque generated by the engine. This often caused a swing on take off, sometimes uncontrollable. Castoldi made the left wing 21 cm (8 3/8 in) longer than the right wing. The larger wing created more lift which tended to roll the fighter right, opposing and counteracting the torque.
The Germans operated the C.202 in limited numbers and after 1943 it appeared in the small Allied Co-Belligerent Air Force that operated continuously against the Axis from the Italian Armistice to V-E Day.
This Macchi C.202 in the NASM is one of only two remaining in the world. The early history of this airplane is obscure, but it was among many Axis aircraft brought to this country for evaluation at the Army's Air Technical Service Command at Wright Field, Ohio, and Freeman Field, Indiana. After evaluation, it remained in storage for years.
In 1975 NASM technicians completely restored the fighter to exhibit condition. Positive identification of the C.202 model series is still unknown, but it rests somewhere between the late production block Series VI and IX. For marking purposes, curators selected the arbitrary serial number MM 9476 from Series IX. No record is known of the original markings and but curators chose to copy aircraft 90-4 of the 4º Stormo (Wing), 10º Gruppo (Squadron), and 90º Squadriglia (Flight) that operated in Libya during the summer of 1942. The 4º Stormo is a famous Italian fighter wing that fought during the Axis advance in North Africa and claimed 500 victories from 1940 to the end of the war.
From the nose backwards, technicians applied the following markings to duplicate those found in photographs of aircraft 90-4:
"4º F. Baracca" is applied in fancy white script to both sides of the nose in memory of Italy's greatest ace, Lt-Col. Francesco Baracca, who scored 34 aerial victories during World War I.
The Italian fasces insignia adorns both sides of the fuselage forward of the cockpit. There were three versions of the fasces but all incorporate the same basic symbolic elements: "A bundle of rods bound together about an axe with the blade projecting." Ancient Roman magistrates carried the rods and axe to symbolize their authority. On the C.202, the white axe blade and the brown rods and axe handle appear over a sky blue background.
The numbers "90-4" in black and red appear on both sides of the fuselage inside a wide white stripe to indicate aircraft number 4 of the 90th squadron. The black stallion prancing under a crown (called the Cavallino Rampante or Prancing Horse) is the squadron insignia of 10º Gruppo and it is painted directly above the aircraft and squadron numbers.
The coat-of-arms of the House of Savoy appears inside a large white cross painted on both sides of the vertical tail. The Savoys are the traditional Italian royal family and they are descended from the seventeenth-century Duke of Savoy. King Vittorio Emanuele was the titular ruling Savoy during World War II.
This aircraft was originally equipped with two Safat 12.7 mm machine guns mounted in the top of the engine cowling, and a 7.7 mm machine gun inside each wing. The cowling guns are installed but the correct wing guns could not be located.
This aircraft is on display at the National Air and Space Museumm Washington, DC, where it was photographed in 2006 in the World War II Aviation exhibition.
Picture added on 12 January 2008
