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The projects drawn by Filippo Zappata, famous Italian designer known for the CANT Z 10XX and 5XX series, while working at Breda (circa 1942-1950) are one of the major problems of Italian aviation history.
Breda archives were utterly destroyed when the aviation branch of the company went bankrupt in 1950 (to the point that the photographic plates in the archive were scratched to remove the milligrams of silver still there). Working from a variety of sources, one can reconstruct what follows:
Zappata came to Breda with a couple of concept in mind, one more and the other less evolved. First was the CANT Z-1018 twin-engine bomber; second was a terrestrial version of the transatlantic floatplane CANT Z-511. Actually, the tranfer of Zappata from Cantieri Aeronautici to Breda was arranged just to start in earnest the production of the all-metal construction of the Leone. Zappata derived from the Leone four different aircrafts, with the same general layout, but targeted to different uses: they were the BZ-301 to 304. The story of these (only the 301 and 303 was accepted for production) is rather well known, even if no 302 and 304 drawings survived (perhaps 8) ).
Less known is the evolution of the Z-511. Zappata in late 42 derived four different aircrafts, starting from the Z-511 base and enlarging it: BZ-305, 306, 308 and 408. Apart from the 308, no drawings has survived, but a table with dimensions and characteristics can be found in an old issue of magazine "L'Ala" (1948). The table has been copied from an official Breda document, then still exstant, and later destroyed. I'll post the scan in my next post... ;D
Breda archives were utterly destroyed when the aviation branch of the company went bankrupt in 1950 (to the point that the photographic plates in the archive were scratched to remove the milligrams of silver still there). Working from a variety of sources, one can reconstruct what follows:
Zappata came to Breda with a couple of concept in mind, one more and the other less evolved. First was the CANT Z-1018 twin-engine bomber; second was a terrestrial version of the transatlantic floatplane CANT Z-511. Actually, the tranfer of Zappata from Cantieri Aeronautici to Breda was arranged just to start in earnest the production of the all-metal construction of the Leone. Zappata derived from the Leone four different aircrafts, with the same general layout, but targeted to different uses: they were the BZ-301 to 304. The story of these (only the 301 and 303 was accepted for production) is rather well known, even if no 302 and 304 drawings survived (perhaps 8) ).
Less known is the evolution of the Z-511. Zappata in late 42 derived four different aircrafts, starting from the Z-511 base and enlarging it: BZ-305, 306, 308 and 408. Apart from the 308, no drawings has survived, but a table with dimensions and characteristics can be found in an old issue of magazine "L'Ala" (1948). The table has been copied from an official Breda document, then still exstant, and later destroyed. I'll post the scan in my next post... ;D
