Ansaldo A.1 Balilla (Hunter)

Single-Seat, Single-Engine Biplane Fighter Aircraft

Kingdom of Italy | 1918

"The Ansaldo A.1 Balilla became the first indigenous fighter design to come out of the Kingdom of Italy - this during the fighting of World War 1."

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 06/07/2018 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site; No A.I. was used in the generation of this content.

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Firepower

Performance

Survivability

Versatility

Impact

The Ansaldo A 1 Balilla ("Hunter") was the first aircraft fighter design of Italian origins. In the early part of World War 1 (1914-1918), Italian forces consistently relied upon French-designed combat aircraft, leading the local Italian concern of Ansaldo to design, develop, and produce the "A.1" as a fighting biplane. The resulting aircraft offered exceptional performance (one of the fastest biplanes of the period) for its time in the air but reportedly held suspect handling qualities that did not endear the machine to its pilots. The A.1, named the "Hunter", appeared in the final stages of The Great War which helped to limit its availability and subsequent use - Italy becoming its sole primary operator for lack of anything better. Some of the stock did, however, find their war into American hands where they were converted as air racers and carried Curtiss D-12 engines (American World War 1 Ace Eddie Rickenbacker netted a national airspeed record in 1920 flying such an aircraft).

The Ansaldo A.1 Balilla was arranged as a basic biplane fighter design which relied on an over-under wing mainplane configuration. Struts were parallel installations at each member. The lower section ran into the lower fuselage with the upper section suspended over the aircraft. The engine was installed at the nose in the usual way but its oversized nature meant that views to the front were severely restricted. The engine drove a multi-bladed wooden propeller in typical fashion. The pilot sat in an open-air cockpit ahead of midships and the fuselage tapered towards the rear. The tail unit was made up of a single vertical fin and low-set horizontal planes. The undercarriage consisted of two wheeled main landing gear members under the forward mass of the aircraft and a simple tailskid at the rear.

Power was from an SPA 6A water-cooled inline piston engine outputting 220 horsepower and driving a four-bladed propeller. Flight time for the platform amounted to 1 hour and 30 minutes and reachable speeds neared 140 miles per hour. Its service ceiling was a useful 16,400 feet, the aircraft making about 520 feet-per-minute to get there. Range was listed at 410 miles.

As was typical of fighter aircraft of the period, the Balilla carried the usual armament of 2 x 7.7mm (British) Vickers Machine Guns in fixed, forward-firing mounts over the nose. These were synchronized to fire through the spinning propeller blades.

Beyond the Corp Aeronautico Militare (Italian Air Force), operators icluded Argentina, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Mexico, Poland, the Soviet Union, and Uruguay. Production totaled 307 units with 250 manufactured by Ansaldo and a further 57 by Polish-based Lublin under local license.

The Polish models were a post-World War 1 initiative begun in 1919 but these arrived to late to be used in the Russo-Polish War of 1919-1921. In 1920, the Russians also contracted for the same aircraft but these were not on hand in number until April of 1922 and served only until the middle of 1928.

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Power & Performance
Those special qualities that separate one aircraft design from another. Performance specifications presented assume optimal operating conditions for the Ansaldo A.1 Balilla Single-Seat, Single-Engine Biplane Fighter Aircraft.

1 x SPA 6A water-cooled in-line engine developing 220 horsepower and driving a two-bladed propeller at the nose.
Propulsion

137 mph
220 kph | 119 kts
Max Speed

16,404 ft
5,000 m | 3 miles
Service Ceiling

410 miles
660 km | 356 nm
Operational Range

520 ft/min
158 m/min
Rate-of-Climb

City-to-City Ranges
Operational range when compared to distances between major cities (in KM).

NYC

LON

PAR

BER

MOS

TOK

SYD

LAX

NYC

Structure
The nose-to-tail, wingtip-to-wingtip physical qualities of the Ansaldo A.1 Balilla Single-Seat, Single-Engine Biplane Fighter Aircraft.

1
(MANNED)
Crew

22.5 ft
6.85 m
O/A Length

25.2 ft
(7.68 m)
O/A Width

8.3 ft
(2.53 m)
O/A Height

1,411 lb
(640 kg)
Empty Weight

1,951 lb
(885 kg)
MTOW

Design Balance
The three qualities reflected below are altitude, speed, and range. The more full the box, the more balanced the design.

RANGE

ALT

SPEED

Armament
Available supported armament and special-mission equipment featured in the design of the Ansaldo A.1 Balilla (Hunter) Single-Seat, Single-Engine Biplane Fighter Aircraft .

STANDARD:
2 x .303 caliber Vickers machine guns synchronized to fire through the spinning propeller blades.

Variants
Notable series variants as part of the Ansaldo A.1 Balilla (Hunter) family line.

A.1 "Balilla" - Base Production Model Designation

A.1bis

Balilla Racer - Modified Post-War Variant; fitted with Curtiss D-12 engine for air racing in the United States of America.

Operators
Global customers who have evaluated and/or operated the Ansaldo A.1 Balilla (Hunter). Nations are displayed by flag, each linked to their respective national aircraft listing.

Total Production: 307 Units
Contractor(s): Gio. Ansaldo & Co. - Italy

[ Argentina; Belgium; Kingdom of Italy; Greece; Latvia; Mexico; Poland; Soviet Union; United States; Uruguay ]

Relative Max Speed

Hi: 150mph

Lo: 75mph

Aircraft Max Listed Speed (137mph).

Graph Average of 113 MPH.

Era Crossover

Showcasing Aircraft Era Crossover (if any)

Max Alt Visualization

Production Comparison

307

36183

44000

Entry compared against Ilyushin IL-2 (military) and Cessna 172 (civilian) total production.

MACH Regime (Sonic)

Sub

Trans

Super

Hyper

HiHyper

ReEntry

♦

Aviation Timeline

EarlyYrs

WWI

Interwar

WWII

ColdWar

Postwar

Modern

Future

♦

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Image of the Ansaldo A.1 Balilla (Hunter)

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Mission Roles
Some designs are single-minded in their approach while others offer a more versatile solution to airborne requirements.

AIR-TO-AIR COMBAT

INTERCEPTION

Recognition
Some designs stand the test of time while others are doomed to never advance beyond the drawing board; let history be their judge.

Military lapel ribbon for the World War 1

Going Further...
The Ansaldo A.1 Balilla (Hunter) Single-Seat, Single-Engine Biplane Fighter Aircraft appears in the following collections:

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