CANT Z.1014

[cheddar cheese]

Anyone have any information or pictures (ESPECIALLY PICUTRES) on the CANT Z.1014, the 4 engined heavy that competed for production with the P.108 but lost because it was too costly? Anything would be great. Thanks!

[the lancaster kicks ass]

oh dear gods there was more than one italiant heavy bomber

[cheddar cheese]

Yeah, I think there was 3 The CANT was the best but wasnt accepted because it cost too much and they went with the P.108.

[SM79Sparviero]

Cant Z1014:

Projected in 1938 for the public competition BGR ( Bombardiere a Grande Raggio=long range bomber)

Engine: Alfa Romeo 135 RC 18 cylinders 1400 HP ( a double Alfa Romeo 126, an italian variant of Bristol Pegasus).

Wing lenght : 36 mt
wing surface:135 sq. mts
dry weight , unloaded: 14.150 kg
maximum speed ( projected): 516 km/ h at 4100 mts ceiling.
Bomb load:from 1000 kg ( maximum range) to 3500 kg
maximum range : 4000 Km
armament: 6 12.7 mm Breda-safat machine guns ( data from Le Officine Aeronautiche CANT -Giancarlo Garello-Decio Zorini -Ufficio Storico Aeronautica Militare) or 6 20 mm Mg-151 guns ( data from Dimensione Cielo , ediz. Bizzarri, vol n. 6).

CZ 1014 was the winner of the public competition but it was rejected when Piaggio P.108 was offered with a 50 % discount.
In any place, in any time, in any gouvernment or ideology "pecunia non olet"="money doesn't stink".
P108 was not much worse , CZ 1014 would have sufered its same troubles linked to the same Piaggio or Alfa-Romeo 135 unreliable engines.

[cheddar cheese]

Thankyou very very much!

[mosquitoman]

Looks even uglier than that Piaggio monster that you love so much

[Gnomey]

Originally Posted by mosquitoman

Looks even uglier than that Piaggio monster that you love so much

I agree it is a very unattractive plane.

[cheddar cheese]

In side profile its pretty ugly I agree, and from the top theres a resemblance to the Lancaster. The Piaggio is a beautiful plane however, Especially the A, C and T which have beautiful, smooth curves.

[SM79Sparviero]

mosquitoman wrote:
Looks even uglier than that Piaggio monster that you love so much
I agree it is a very unattractive plane.
_________________

"de gustibus non disputandum est"

I like ,more than the appearance not ugly ( but it is only a subjective opinion), the innovative ideas in this project:

-The streamlined fuselage , a design that will be repeated by engineer Zappata in 1940 for CANT Z-1018 medium bomber.
You can see that the transverse section of the fuselage is comparable to the section of the wing
A bomber with such a narrow fuselage didn't exist in 1938 yet,in 1945 an heavy bomber woould have been built by Junkers (Ju-28, in 1939 the twin-engined Lioret et Olivier LEO 451 with a comparable fuselage flew and showed excellent speed ( 500 km/h with 1075 HP radial engines) and handling performances, .With a better streamlined design of the engine nacelles (ex NACA-style) Italy could have in 1940 a heavy bomber which flew at 550 Km/h

-As a direct consequence of such a narrow fuselage the bomb bay could not be huge, so the smart idea of two small bomb bays in the outer engine nacelle , each for two 250 kg or 3- 160 kg weapons.

-The defence weapon system was the most powerful than any bomber , the serial aircrafts had to be armed by 6 Mg-151 or, more probably for economical motivations, with a mix of 12.7 and 20 mm guns.Each weapon can aim and shoot with a large free field.A weak undefended point exists;it is the bow as in most of WW2 bombers , but this problem could be quite easily resolved by a Breda-Z turret or by a light and small Caproni-Lanciani secon turret behind the pilot cockpit.....

It would not be an easy prey for Hurricane and Spitfires mk V, if its Alfa-Romeo engines just work decently for some hours.......

[cheddar cheese]

Pretty remarkable! Its a shame that Italian engines werent the most powerful or must reliable, which seems odd considering the pre-war history of Italian aviation with planes such as the MC.72...