Reggiane Re.2000 Falco
The Reggiane Re.2000 Falco I was an Italian single-seat fighter of the Second World War and the first of Reggiane's wartime fighter series. First flown in May 1939, it performed strongly in trials, but the Regia Aeronautica rejected it because its fuel was carried in unprotected integral wing tanks, and an order for 188 aircraft was cancelled. Reggiane built the type mainly for export instead: seventy went to Hungary, which also produced a modified licence-built version, the MÁVAG Héja II, and sixty went to Sweden, whose J 20s guarded Swedish neutrality until 1945. Italian use was limited to a small Sicilian squadron and a few catapult fighters flown from battleships. Production totals differ by source and scope: History of War counts the export batches plus another forty aircraft completed, while Wikipedia's accounting gives 186 built in Italy.
Why It Mattered
The Re.2000 was the first of Reggiane's wartime fighter line, the series that ran on through the Re.2001 Falco II. In the Regia Aeronautica's trials, Cattaneo records, the prototype outfought the Macchi C.200 and even the German Bf 109E. Italy still turned it down: its fuel sat in tanks built into the wing structure, which the Air Ministry's technical staff judged vulnerable and leak-prone, and the production order was cancelled. Reggiane therefore built the fighter chiefly for export, and History of War judges it a fundamentally sound design whose promise was borne out by the improved Re.2001 developed from it.
Design Notes
Roberto Longhi and Antonio Alessio led the design team, which based the new fighter heavily on the American Seversky P-35 and kept that aircraft's fuselage and wing arrangement. It was Reggiane's first design in aluminium stressed-skin construction, and its wing carried the fuel in integral tanks within the centre section. The Piaggio P.XI RC.40 radial gave 986 hp, but the engine proved a weak point in service. Armament was a pair of 12.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine guns in the upper fuselage. The wing tanks gave the fighter its reach, yet they were unprotected: they leaked in ordinary use and sat where enemy fire could easily reach them.
Operational History
The prototype flew for the first time on 24 May 1939 at Reggio Emilia, with Mario De Bernardi at the controls. After the technical report went against the type, the Air Ministry cancelled its order for 188 production aircraft, and the Italian government authorised Reggiane to sell the fighter abroad. Britain ordered 300, but none had been delivered when Italy entered the war in June 1940. Hungary took seventy aircraft, calling them the Héja, and flew them on the Eastern Front from August 1941 until the last were overrun in January 1943. Hungary also built a heavily modified version under licence, the MÁVAG Héja II; Wikipedia counts 204 built, while noting that other sources give between 170 and 203. Sweden bought sixty Serie I aircraft as the J 20, delivered during 1941–43 and flown from the F 10 wing at Bulltofta to intercept aircraft straying into Swedish airspace; one was lost in April 1945, shot down while intercepting a German Dornier Do 24 near Sölvesborg. Italian use was far smaller: the 377th Squadriglia flew thirteen Re.2000s from Sicily and North Africa until September 1942, dropping light bombs on Malta, and reported a single victory, against a Bristol Blenheim. The Regia Marina also strengthened a small batch of the fighters for catapult launching from its battleships.
Afterlife
Sweden retired the J 20 in July 1945: the 37 aircraft still in service were worn out, so they were decommissioned and scrapped, and a single aircraft was retained for display. That aircraft is the Re.2000 now shown by the Swedish Air Force Museum in Linköping. Wikipedia reports one further Italian survivor, the catapult fighter MM.8287, as still extant in Italy. Another Italian aircraft came back from the sea: a catapult Re.2000 that had sunk off Portovenere in 1943 was found in April 2012 and recovered late the following year for the Italian Air Force. The wreck is now at the air force's museum at Vigna di Valle, which also displays an Re.2000 among Italy's main wartime fighters.