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Z.1007 Alcione
Medium Bomber
CANT
 CANT Z.1007 "Alcione" (kingfisher), prototype Z.1007 with three Isotta Fraschini "Asso" XI engines with a capacity of 825 hp each. from. made its first flight in March 1937. An intermediate serial version was built in the amount of 34 cars. In the same period, work was completed on a version equipped with three Piaggio P.XI R2C 40 radial engines with a capacity of 1000 hp. The first such aircraft, out of 35 produced, took off in 1938, and had the designation Z.1007bis ... Armament included one Breda M or Caproni-Lanciani "Delta" E dorsal turret, with a Scotti or SAFAT machine gun, and the same weapon in the dorsal turret behind the bomb bay plus two SAFAT machine guns at the front of the aircraft.
The next modification was the Z.1007ter - a variant with three Piaggio P.XIX radial engines with a capacity of 1150 hp. from. and the bomb load reduced to 1000 kg, the take-off weight was 10465 kg. Through such modernization, it was possible to increase the maximum speed to 500 km / h and the range to 2250 km.
The latest version of the bomber was the Z.1015 mail plane, powered by Piaggio P.XI RC35 engines. Since this machine was not intended for military operations, small arms and bomb equipment were removed from it, at the same time rearranging the internal fuselage compartments. The weight of the aircraft has decreased, while on tests the aircraft reached a speed of about 560 km / h. Serially, the Z.1015 aircraft was not produced, and remained in a single copy.
A total of 561 Z.1007 aircraft were produced. If the Italian industry were quicker, the Z.1007 in massive quantities could be a formidable force. The SM.79s of the same type went through the entire war and continued to fly after it, but the CANT bombers were not lucky - their crews did not achieve great success.
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Aircraft
