I can't find the radiator of Caproni Vizzola MCT in these three side view drawings. Wing root?
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「Caproni MCT – 1942 FIGHTER PROJECT .
LESSER KNOWN AVIATION
By Jacek Wilczynski March 16, 2024
The single-seat low-wing fighter MCT, designed in the summer of 1942 at the Caproni Vizzola technical office, retained some of the design features of its lighter “Sauro” predecessor, such as the characteristic inverted gull wing and rudder. The rest of the MCT (which was probably an abbreviation for “Monoposto Caccia Trigona”) featured several new and radical technical solutions, such as the pilot’s cockpit located far forward in the fuselage, with a large 620-litre fuel tank, just behind which was the powerplant, which in turn drove a three-bladed, 2.90 m diameter, variable-pitch metal propeller via an extended shaft running along the right inboard side of the fuselage. The trapezoidal wing and tail helped to give the machine a superficial resemblance to the German Dornier Do 335 A “Pfeil” when viewed from above. The all-metal MCT structure was studied in three slightly different versions.
– The first of them, with a span of 9.90 m, wings with an area of 18.20 m2 and a fuselage length of 9.00 m, was to be equipped with a 12-cylinder DB 605 RC57 engine in an inverted "V" configuration, liquid-cooled, with a power of 1,400 hp at take-off and 1,250 hp at an altitude of 5,800 m. The armament was to consist of a cannon, firing similarly to the P-39 "Airacobra", caliber 20 mm (probably Mauser MG151 / 20) with 300 rounds, two 12.7 mm machine guns (probably Breda-SAFAT type) with a rate of fire of 600 rpm mounted in the lower part of the fuselage and synchronized to fire through the propeller circle, and two similar guns with a rate of fire of 500 rpm in the wings. This DB 605-powered version of the MCT, presumably intended for interception duties, was to have a top speed of 706 km/h at an altitude of around 7,000 m, a ceiling of 6,000 m in 5 minutes, a range of 1,190 km at a cruising speed of 565 km/h and a service
in the power unit, which was to be an 18-cylinder, liquid-cooled Reggiane L.105 RC100 I engine with 1,500 hp at 5,000 m and 1,310 hp at 10,000 m in the second version, and a 28-cylinder, four-row, liquid-cooled Alfa 1101 engine in the third version, which was also ceiling of 10,000 m; the minimum speed at low altitude was to be a moderate 130 km/h.
– The second and third versions of the MCT had slightly increased overall dimensions. The wing span and area were increased to 10.60 m and 23.00 m2, respectively, and the fuselage length to 9.70 m. They were also provided with similar armament, which differed from the armament of the first version. The 20-millimeter cannon was abandoned and two 12.7-millimeter machine guns were mounted side by side, the right one slightly moved forward compared to the left one. The main difference was characterized by a larger, rounded fuselage cross-section due to the larger engine.
Given the lack of further details on this latter power unit, it is believed that it could be identified with the Alfa 101 RC80 engine that was under development at the time and for which a power output of 1,800 hp at 8,000 m was predicted for the basic version or 2,100 hp at the same altitude for the “maggiorato” version (presumably an improved version of the basic version).
No weight or performance data for the last two versions of the MCT have been preserved, and the figures found in publications should be considered informal, rough speculations obtained by extrapolating the data available for the DB 605-engined version. Although the MCT project never got beyond the drawing board, and it is no longer possible to guess the extent of possible modifications to the basic design before actual construction had been reached, it remains an interesting and captivating example of the ingenuity displayed by one of Italy's wartime aircraft engineers.」
