The Reggiane Re.2000 was an Italian fighter which fought in the first part of the second world war. It was a light design which made it highly maneouvrable either as a interceptor or as a fighter. The design was greatly influenced by the American Seversky P-35 and made its maiden flight in 1939. It proved to be technically advanced and very aerodynamic, but, however had its faults.
The downsides of this airplane were that it suffered from an insufficient armour leaving its fuel tank highly unprotected, its engine and propellers were not relliable enough and it was weakly armed.
Those faults made the Italian authorities to reject the design and therefore the manufacturer built mainly for export, mostly to Hungary and Sweden. However as war went on, some Italian squadrons used it.
Various versions were built:
- Re. 2000 Prototype: The protoype
Re. 2000 Serie I: First production version. AKA J.20 (in Sweden) and Héja I (the Hungarian built version)
Re. 2000 Serie II "Cattapultabile": Version intended to be used on board warships. It lacked floats because of the policy of the Reggia Marina which thought that in the Mediterranean there was always a land airfield in range and therefore there was no need to land in the water
Re. 2000 Serie III GA: GA stands for "Grande Autonomia" (Long range) and it's the long range version of this airplane. Used only in small numbers
MAVAG Héja II: An improved serie I built by the Hungary manufacturer MAVAG, it featured a 986 hp WMK 14 engine and two Hungarian 12.7 mm Gebauer machine guns
Many thanks to Eswube for his help on this project.
Reggiane Re.2000, Italy, Hungary and Sweden:
Also, don't miss the AU versions of this airplane that i've posted here:
http://www.shipbucket.com/forums/viewto ... 91#p130991