Reggiane Re 2007

The following information was written by Max Cappone, who has researched Italian aircraft extensively and been kind enough to share information relevant to Reggiane aircraft. Other than converting it to HTML, no changes have been made.

RE 2007

For someone that like me loves Reggiane and Reggiane Aircrafts it’s hard to say that the only italian designed Jet of WWII never existed. There are no evidences in favour of the existence of such a project while there are a lot of them against. It’s a story that could be a spy story and could be the base for an historical romance or fiction. On the other side it’s quite sure that Ing. Longhi was thinking about a jet fighter in the period autumn-winter 43 / spring 44. In a letter sent to the JP4 magazine and published on n. 11 of 1976, Ing. Longhi says:
".....I received the first informations about german jet engines by my friend Ing. Roberto Amadi Technical Services Director for DB 601, built in Milan by Alfa Romeo. Amadi told me that in January 1942 he entered by mistake into an hangar while he was in an airfield near Berlin where a jet aircraft was having pre flight tests and as german officers noticed him, non only they compelled him to leave in a hurry, but they brought him to the airport headquarter where he was informed of being linked by military secret....."
In his long letter, that I’ll try to resume, Ing. Longhi explains how the above mentionned information had been confirmed during the talks with Ing. Haug, Manager of Daimler Benz Services in Italy, and how he kept in touch with german officers, including Cap. Bohm the survey officer assigned by Luftwaffe to Reggiane. Of course it was not easy at all to get a jet engine from Germany, even if just a mock up, due to the fact that all the matter was classified.

Ing. Longhi says that he sent a letter to Count Caproni asking him to try to obtain the engin via his political connections in Rome; according to Ing. Longhi’s letter a copy of this request should still be in Caproni Archive. As time goes by the war ended before having found the way to approach the problem with german authorities. The searches and the attemps of Ing. Longhi would not have been secret enough if, immetiately after the german surrender in Italy (April - May 45), a R.A. sergeant major (maresciallo) and a german petty officer (this one perhaps a deserter) went to Ing. Longhi offering him two jet engines JUMO 004 that where abandoned in Udine airport (requested amount of 2.000.000 of liras) but before he could decide about the operation, I think that was not easy to find such a money, the two misterious engines disappeared, perhaps sold to Ing. Ambrosini of S.A.I. Ambrosini company.

The evidences

The JUMO 004 owned by Vigna di Valle Air Force Museum. Its surely an engine fitted on one of the Arado jet bomber operating in Italy. He was recovered by Ing. Ambrosini and it remained at S.A.I. factory of Passignano sul Trasimeno till year 1974 when it was given as gift to the above mentionned museum. That means that the engine had not been sold by german; on the other side try to think about the economical situation of Italy in 1945. Nobody but, may be, FIAT could imagine to spent 2.000.000 of liras in order to by jet engines while the future for aircraft industry was hopeless.

The drawings and technical description were done after the war. The technical description, dated January 7th 1944, is written on Reggiane official paper but it’s the type of paper used by Reggiane in the post war years. The drawings were done by Mr. Cometti and, as stated by Mr. Cometti himself, they have done immediately after the end of the war in Europe (May 45).

Final considerations
1st. If built the RE 2007 could be considered the best jet fighter not only of WWII but also of the late 40s and good enough in the early 50s.
2nd. Having a quick look to the know cross section it’s easy to understand that it was impossible to use a RE 2006 frame in order to build the RE 2007. The wing is different, due to the arrowed and sweeped profile, and the fuselage is designed to fit a turbojet engine, quite different from a piston engine. So the opinion that the 2006 second prototype frame was used for the 2007 prototype is a fable written by someone for sure not expert of aeronautical things.
3rd. Com. De Prato says a quite interesting thing about the non existence of RE 2007. In the relatively little Reggiane environment it would been have impossible to hide such an important project and no designer or technician or test pilot remember anything about that. For sure we can exclude that such an operation could be done just by Ing. Longhi all alone.
Why Ing. Longhi acted in such a way? Nobody knows. What I believe is that at the end of the war at Reggiane they begun thinking of the after war period. Imagine the industrial italian situation: the war was lost, the economy was a disaster and that moment was the best one for eliminating competitors. Being a very dangerous competitor Caproni Group was a perfect target for the other industrial groups. They used all kind of "weapons", including political relationships, in order to eliminate Count Caproni fron the industrial theatre. Perhaps Ing. Longhi knowing all that tryed as a desesperate action to keep the attention of Italian Air Force and Italian Gouvernment on the potentiality of Reggiane hoping to save the Group. Returned in the States, Ing. Longhi developped from the RE 2007 sketches the RE 2008 (1947-1948) which models were tested at Cornell Variable Density Wind Tunnell (1949), that’s true, but the definitive collapse of Caproni Group stopped all evolutions.

Conclusions
According to my personal opinion, Ing. Longhi could have known something or even more about german jet fighter. On the other side I think that, in 1944, american pilots knew quite good not only the existence but also the performances of that new generation fighters. That means that Ing. Longhi could have seriously begun to think about a Reggiane jet fighter. I do not believe, for above mentionned reasons, that he started the "design activity" before the end of war. We must remember that a serious project needs thousands of drawings and thousands of technical calculations and documents; in our case we have very few traces of the misterious RE 2007 and let me say that is suspicious.

About the fable of RE 2007 "created using a rib" of RE 2006 second prototype I think to have found were the legend begun. Have a look to the article signed by Ing. Longhi and published on Air Entusiast Quarterly n. 2 1976:
"... and it was decided that, instead of completing the second Re 2006 prototype, we would, instead, build the prototype Re 2007. The Re 2007 was designed around a single Jumo 004B turbojet which we anticipated obtaining from Germany and the wing had the same curves as those of the Re 2006, but with a different interpolation owing to the adoption of a 20 deg sweep angle on the quarter chord line."
A non attentive reader or a bad transaltion could be at the origin of the Re 2006 mutating into RE 2007.

Just as a curiosity you’ll find the technical datas as "officially" known

Technical datas	(Theoretical)
Wing span:	m. 9.50
Length:	m. 9.00
Height:	m. 2.93
Wing surface:	m2 17.00
Load (empty):	Kg 2500
Load (loaded):	Kg 3540
Speed (maximum):	Mach 0.85
Climb at m. 8000:	4’0"
Ceiling (service):	over m. 15.000
Range:	Km. 1500
Weapon:	4 30 mm MG

Sources
Sergio Govi, I REGGIANE dall’A alla Z - Descrizione tecnica degli aerei Reggiane Gruppo Caproni, Giorgio Apostolo Editore, Milano, 1985
Tullio De Prato, Un pilota contadino, Mucchi Editore, Modena, 1985
Air Entusiast Quarterly n. 2 1976

• Max C.A. Cappone
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