A.U.T. 18

1939

Back to the Virtual Aircraft Museum
  FIGHTERVirtual Aircraft Museum / Italy / A.U.T.  

A.U.T. 18

The A.U.T.18 - the designation signifying Aeronautica Umbra S.A., the manufacturer, Ing Felice Trojani, the designer, and the originally-planned wing area of 18m2 - was an all-metal stressed-skin single-seat fighter, one example of which was ordered in 1936 for evaluation by the Regia Aeronautica. Unusual among contemporary Italian single-seat fighters in having its armament of twin 12.7mm guns mounted in the wings, the A.U.T.18 was powered by a Fiat A.80 R.C.41 18-cylinder radial engine rated at 1030hp for take-off, and flew for the first time on 22 April 1939. Initial trials were performed with an NACA-type engine cowling, but this was supplanted from April 1940 by a close-fitting cowling with the rocker arms partly enclosed by fairings. Evaluation of the sole prototype was completed on 5 November 1940, when the aircraft was delivered to the Regia Aeronautica, but the Ministero dell'Aeronautica did not consider that the Trojani fighter offered any advantages over the Macchi C.200 and Fiat G.50, both of which were in production, and further development of the A.U.T.18 was discontinued.

Specification 
 WEIGHTS
  Take-off weight2975 kg6559 lb
  Empty weight2320 kg5115 lb
 DIMENSIONS
  Wingspan11.50 m38 ft 9 in
  Length8.56 m28 ft 1 in
  Height2.88 m9 ft 5 in
  Wing area18.70 m2201.28 sq ft
 PERFORMANCE
  Max. speed480 km/h298 mph
  Range800 km497 miles

Comments
Alberto Rizzi, e-mail, 23.06.2017 11:03

A former version of this aircraft had fixed undercarriage and four machine guns: two in the wings and two in the upper cowling. It wasn't build.

reply

Do you have any comments?

Name    E-mail


All the World's Rotorcraft

All rhe World's Rotorcraft AVIATION TOP 100 - www.avitop.com Avitop.com