5/01!

"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse) 01/05/2016 at 17:47 • Filed to: CANT, Z.501, Planelopnik

3

12

Today has a 0 in it so it’s time to look at the Peugeot 501! Except there’s little available about it in English so let’s look to the skies instead. Let’s also look to the water while we’re at it by exploring the CANT Z..501.

CANT stood for Cantieri Aeronautici e Navali Triestini or Trieste Aeronautical and Marine Works but it’s appropriate in this case as the 501 couldn’t. Do very much very well that is. It did manage to achieve a distance record in 1934 when a particularly patient crew spent 26 hours flying from Italy to what we now call Eritrea, chosen because it was in the Italian empire of the time.

The 501 was intended for rescue and anti submarine duties but it wasn’t terribly good at either. A bomb load of four 50kg or two 160kg bombs was completely inadequate for the one and the fact that the boat part of its flying boat designation wasn’t up to scratch either (despite being made of wood in traditional marine manner) didn’t help with the other.

Add to that low speed, limited defensive capability and an unfortunate tendency to deposit the overhead engine nacelle onto the cockpit during a heavy landing and we understand why many were shot down or lost through accidents.

The 501 did achieve the distinction of causing the loss of a pursuing fighter which stalled while following it.

The Z501 was powered by a single Isotta Fraschini engine from the motor manufacturer of that name, and the world would be a better place if we still had cars with names like Isotta Fraschini and Hispano-Suiza.

Like the rest of Italy the 501 took part in WW2 on both sides. In 1943 the Italians decided to switch to the winning side and some planes flew with the Allied Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force while other remained with the fascisti . Note the fascisti on the underside of the wing below.

Note the gun position at the back of the engine nacelle, a thing rarely seen. Yes, that’s a guy sitting on the bow.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

HammerheadFistpunch > Cé hé sin 01/05/2016 at 17:52

1

Im so confused as to where you fly this thing from. There are like 3 places off the bat I can see where you could.

Cé hé sin > HammerheadFistpunch 01/05/2016 at 17:56

0

Directly under the engine. The position in the front (bow?) is for a gunner.

ttyymmnn > Cé hé sin 01/05/2016 at 17:57

0

That’s crazy, but I love it. I wouldn’t want to spend the flight in that nacelle-mounted machine gun position. You’d be stone deaf by the time you got back to base.

HammerheadFistpunch > Cé hé sin 01/05/2016 at 17:59

0

so they basically want the pilot to see nothing except what the gunner is shooting at (unless its too high or too low)

Cé hé sin > ttyymmnn 01/05/2016 at 18:25

0

But then again, at least you wouldn’t get cold.

ttyymmnn > Cé hé sin 01/05/2016 at 18:33

0

True.

AfromanGTO > Cé hé sin 01/05/2016 at 18:34

0

It looks like they strapped two planes together into one.

kanadanmajava1 > Cé hé sin 01/05/2016 at 18:34

0

That’s a quite interesting plane. The upper gunner post was probably very lonely but at least well warmed.

Cé hé sin > kanadanmajava1 01/05/2016 at 18:42

0

As originally designed all the gunners were out in the open, like this:

Cé hé sin > AfromanGTO 01/06/2016 at 05:05

0

Follows from the design I suppose. They wanted a single engined flying boat and they couldn’t use a nose mounted engine because both it and the prop would be too near water and spray so the engine had to be high mounted and central. It then had to be high enough above the fuselage to provide clearance for the propeller which gave them the design they ended up with.

They went on to make three engine planes with the same basic layout.

AfromanGTO > Cé hé sin 01/06/2016 at 14:12

0

That’s an interest solution, but I hope they moved the cockpit in later designs for the pilot’s sake.

Cé hé sin > AfromanGTO 01/06/2016 at 14:59

0

Nope!