Ansaldo A.300

__NOTOC__ Infobox Aircraft
name=A.300


caption=
type=Reconnaissance aircraft
manufacturer=Gio. Ansaldo & C.
designer=
first flight=1919
introduced=
retired=
status=
primary user=
more users=
produced=
number built=~850
variants with their own articles=

The Ansaldo A.300 was an Italian general-purpose biplane aircraft built by the Ansaldo company (now part of FIAT) of Turin from 1920 to 1929. It also served as a light bomber, transport, fighter and reconnaissance aircraft, and finally as an advanced trainer, with examples in service as late as 1940. 50 examples were also license-built in Poland at ZM E. Plage & T. Laśkiewicz, but were not a success due to bad quality.

Based on Ansaldo's highly successful WWI Balilla and S.V.A scouts, the A.300 was a conventional single-engined two-bay open cockpit biplane of mixed metal and wood-and-fabric construction, powered usually by a water-cooled Fiat A.12bis V12 engine. Most variants had two fixed Vickers guns and one mobile gun mounted in the rear cockpit. It first flew in 1919.

Early examples were two seaters, but the A.300/3 was a three-seater intended for reconnaissance use, of which around 90 were delivered. The most significant variant was the A.300/4, again mostly three-seaters, which started full production in 1923, just as Ansaldo was absorbed into FIAT. This became the standard multi-role aircraft in the newly-formed Regia Aeronautica and served in Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Corfu, Libya and Eritrea.

The A.300 was one of the most numerous aircraft of its time, with the production run of the A.300/4 alone, at 700 units, exceeding the total production of any other type of the 1920s except the Breguet XIX and Potez 25. Despite this, and possibly because it was Italian rather than French or British, it remains one of the least documented contemporary types, certainly the most obscure produced in anything like these numbers.

Variants

* A.300/2 - initial production version
* A.300/3 - three-seat version, also exported to Spain, Belgium, and Poland
* A.300/4 - definitive production version with improved coling
* A.300/5
* A.300/6
* A.300C - prototype airliner
* A.300T
* A.400

pecifications (A.300/4)

aerospecs
met or eng?= met

crew=two, pilot and observer
capacity=
length m=8.75
length ft=28
length in=9
span m=11.24
span ft=36
span in=11
dia m=
dia ft=
dia in=
height m=2.97
height ft=9
height in=9
wing area sqm=39.5
wing area sqft=425
rot area sqm=
rot area sqft=
aspect ratio=
empty weight kg=1,200
empty weight lb=2,650
gross weight kg=1,700
gross weight lb=3,750

eng1 number=1
eng1 type=Fiat A.12bis piston engine
eng1 kw= 170
eng1 hp= 230
eng1 kn=
eng1 lbf=
eng1 kn-ab=
eng1 lbf-ab=
eng2 number=
eng2 type=
eng2 kw=
eng2 hp=
eng2 kn=
eng2 lbf=
eng2 kn-ab=
eng2 lbf-ab=

max speed kmh=200
max speed mph=120
max speed mach=
cruise speed kmh=
cruise speed mph=
range km=
range miles=
endurance h= 3
endurance min= 30
ceiling m=5,500
ceiling ft=18,000
glide ratio=
climb rate ms=2.5
climb rate ftmin=490
sink rate ms=
sink rate ftmin=

armament1=2 × fixed, forward-firing .303 Vickers machine guns
armament2=1 × flexible .303 Vickers machine gun for observer
armament3=
armament4=
armament5=
armament6=

References

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ee also

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