ANSALDO A.1 BALILLA

History

The only Italian designed fighter aircraft of the First World War, the Ansaldo A.1 was nicknamed "Balilla" after the figure of Genoan folklore. It flew first in March 1917, and arrived to late to see service in the Great War.

In 1921, an Italian freighter bound for Turkey was stopped and searched by a Greek cruiser after encroaching on domestic waters. 9 A.1s were discovered, stored away on board, and were quickly commandeered by the Greek vessel and sent back to the mainland for testing.

After evaluation, and lacking appropriate manuals or spare parts, the aircraft never achieved full operational readiness, and instead were used as trainer aircraft out of Tatoi airfield until 1923, when a lack of spare parts grounded the fighters permanently.

The aircraft were given the appropriate roundels and fin flash, with the upper engine cowling bare metal and the rest left unpainted.

Design

The aircraft was of majority wooden construction, with a metal upper engine cowling and strut-braced wings. The A.1 reportedly had good speed, at the expense of manoeuvrability, and so pilot opinion on the type was mixed.

Sporting an SPA 6A 6-cylinder water-cooled engine, the aircrafts main performance metric was it's speed, though in Greek service due to the lack of afore mentioned manuals or work material the aircraft were limited to a lower throttle setting.