Re: Piaggio P.23R
To: Messrs. "prolific1" and "archipeppe"
Perhaps a stunning test of your respective (perhaps-rival!) capabilities would be fittingly unveiled in any 'real-life' color-graphics of this strange machine (both multi-view and isometric). I believe the whole thing was 'fire-engine' red! perhaps the largest aeroplane ever to sport this color? If there was ever (to be) a 'show-stopper' in a (hypothetical) 'all-Italian' airshow, this P.23R would do it.
I told this story to Giorgio Apostolo: suggesting a fast-seller for an Ali d Italia Mini Serie idea. He kindly mailed me some privately-made (merely B & W) photos of this 'firebird' - but that wasn't my point. Can you just imagine the scene: if I strolled into some IPMS-convention - with a (scratchbuilt) 1/72 Piaggio P.23R, and set it on a model-table!
Interestingly, both Piaggio aircraft (P.23R & P.108B) were pictured-together (as small crude penciled half-tone rear 3/4 views: 7 o'clock-positions) in: "FLIGHT" (a prominent British periodical), issue: February 22, 1940, p. 180. Apparently (5-months before the Battle of Britain was to start), the editors expected both aircraft to shortly enter service, concomitantly.
My own feelings about the P.23R? I think Piaggio miserably failed its potential by inadequate engine-development (but that 'shortcoming' was relatively ubiquitous throughout the entire Italian aero-engine community). With turbo-superchargers, the P.23R would have been a strategic-reconnaissance aircraft of the highest order (w/a little-more wingspan, a small-forward ventral-gondola for observation & cameras, and NOT fire-engine red, of course!)
Anyway, do either of you (after reckoning this sizable-aircraft in fire-engine red) accept the challenge?
(Methinks a P23R cover-page would sell the whole-book, at one glance. I'm serious!)
Cheers
