Under the leadership of Professor Giuseppe Gabrielli, Fiat's Aviation Division studied V/STOL strike fighters for several years with the support of the Italian government, and although an NMBR.3 submission was made in the shape of the rather elegant G.95/6, primary efforts have been directed towards providing a successor to the G.91, and the several design studies would seemed to have crystallized in the G.95/4, a relatively simple and attractive aircraft intended for subsonic missions and based on an Italian Air Force specification which paralleled a Federal German specification.
Presumably capable of speeds in the region of Mach 1.2-1.4, the G.95/4 will weigh, according to Fiat, between 15,500 lb. (7,030 kg) and 17,600 lb. (7,983 kg), and a typical strike mission against a target at a distance of 230 mls (370 km) could be flown at an altitude of 490 ft. (150 m) at Mach 0.6 for half the sortie and Mach 0.92 for the remainder, with five minutes over the target area at Mach 0.92.
As displayed in model form at Le Bourget (1963), the G.95/4 had two propulsion engines which, it is understood, were originally intended to be General Electric J85s, but while Fiat stress the fact that the final choice of engines has still to be made, it is known that the current proposal envisages the use of a single Rolls-Royce RB.153-61 affording 6-7,000 lb.s.t. (2700-3200 kgp) and a battery of four RB.162-3l lift engines each affording more than 5,000 lb.s.t. (2268 kgp). In view of the political climate and the fact that a contract at staff level covering the G.95/4 exists between the Italian and German air arms, the use of the RB.145 is logical, Rolls-Royce having developed this power plant in close collaboration with the MAN Turbomotoren, and no direct lift engine other than the RB.162-31 is capable of fulfilling Fiat's requirements.
Both the Italian and German governments are convinced of the need for a relatively simple VTOL strike aircraft to succeed the current G.91, fulfilling tactical roles not demanding the performance of such sophisticated machines as the P .1154 and Mirage IIIV, and therefore, the chances of the Fiat project being developed as a joint Italo-German programme would appear good. The model of the G.95/4 revealed the fact that, unlike the larger and more powerful G.95/6 also seen in model form, this strike fighter employs a louvred trapdoor arrangement similar to that employed by the Balzac V to increase air flow to the lift engines.
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