Copyright 2009 by Brandon Cope

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Fiat B.R.20 Cicogna medium bomber

The B.R.20 was an unremarkable Italian medium bomber with a weak defensive armament, but was a sturdy design that soldiered on into early 1943. A twin-engine, twin rudder plane of conventional design, the Cicogna (:Stork") was introduced in 1936. Used in small numbers in the Spanish Civil War and used widely by the Italians in WWII (seeing service over England, Greece and Russia, among other places), some 602 were built, just under half (264) being the B.R.20M. About 165 of the 20 and 20M were available in June, 1940 to Italian forces.

The crew consists of a pilot, copilot, bombardier/navigator (who fired the nose gun), engineer/radio operator/dorsal gunner and /ventral gunner. The B.R.20M uses 67 gallons of aviation fuel per hour at routine usage.

Subassemblies: Medium Fighter-Bomber chassis +4, Heavy Fighter-Bomber Wings with STOL option +4, two Large Weapon engine pods +2, full-rotation Mini Weapon turret +1 [Body:T], three retractable wheels +1.
Powertrain: 2*746-kW aerial HP gasoline engine [Pods:F] with 2*746-kW prop and 596-gallon self-sealing fuel tanks [Wings].
Occupancy: 5 CS  Cargo: 14.5 Body

Armor
All: 2/3
Open mount:  0/+10 F
Pilot/copilot/bombardier/ventral gunner: 0/+20 BU

Armament
Medium Aircraft HMG/12.7mm Breda-SAFAT [Body:F] (350).
Medium Aircraft HMG/12.7mm Breda-SAFAT [Body:R] (350).
Medium Aircraft HMG/12.7mm Breda-SAFAT [OM:F] (350).

Equipment
Body: Large radio receiver and transmitter, bombsight, precision navigation instruments, autopilot, 3,500-lb bomb bay.

Statistics

HT: 7
HP: 210 [body], 300 [each wing], 120 [each pod], 20 [each wheel]

Design Notes
Design speed was 233 mph. The historical speed has been used, as well as the actual wing area (797 square feet). Weight, cost and HPs of the wings were halved.  Loaded weight was reduced 1%.

The bomb bay could handle bombs as large as 1,760 lbs or as small as 30 lbs; a dozen 220-lb bombs were typical. Unlike most Italian bombers, it was not capable of carrying torpedoes.

Variants
The original B.E.20 (1937) mounted a 7.7mm Breda-SAFAT  (Aircraft LMG) with 500 rpg in the nose and ventral positions. Top speeds was 267 mph. The crew positions were not armored. The Japanese Army bought 82 of these and used them in China and Manchuria as the Army Type 1 Model 100 Heavy Bomber; these were given the Allied code name "Ruth" despite no longer being in front line service by 1941.

The fifteen B.R.20Bis (1942) had a powered turret and a 7.7mm Breda-SAFAT in each beam position, The engines were uprated to 932-kW but speed dropped to 270 mph due to added weight.

The Carproni Ca 135 (1937) was very similar in performance, although it was slightly smaller. Some 140 were built,