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Ro.57
Multipurpose Fighter
IMAM
 Ro.57 (Italian IMAM Ro.57) - Italian multi-purpose twin-engine single-seat fighter, dive bomber, monoplane of mixed design with a closed cockpit and retractable landing gear with a tail wheel.
Created at the IMAM (Industrie Meccaniche e Aeronautiche Meridionali) design bureau under the leadership of Giovanni Galasso.
Tested in 1941, serially built at the IMAM plant in Naples since 1942, since 1943 it was in service in Italy.
The design was carried out according to the classic IMAM scheme - a wooden wing (coffered - for the first time in the Italian aircraft industry) and a metal fuselage. The aircraft fuel tanks are located one in the console of each wing and two in the fuselage, in front of and behind the cockpit. Fuselage fuel tanks were protected by armor plates. OOSh retractable in the engine nacelles, the rear wheel is not retractable in the fairing. The headrest fairing only partially allowed for rear visibility.
Unfortunately, the power plant during the modification of the aircraft remained weak (two Fiat A. 74 RC. 38, 840 hp each), which led to a decrease in flight characteristics. The low flight qualities of the aircraft led to its withdrawal from production. A total of 75 aircraft were produced (out of an initial order for 200 aircraft).
It was used in air defense units since 1942, as well as in North Africa and Sicily in 1942-1943.
As a result of hostilities, only four Ro.57s survived until Italy's surrender. Neither the Allies nor the Germans needed this aircraft, and in all likelihood the surviving aircraft were scrapped in the same year.
Discontinued in mid-1943, withdrawn from service in September 1943.
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Aircraft
