Mantelli – Brown – Kittel – Graf 
Macchi M.C. 202 ‘Folgore’ [EPUB ebook] 

The Macchi M.C. 202 Folgore was the best Italian fighter aircraft fielded by the Regia Aeronautica in a significant number of units during the Second World War. 
The aircraft demonstrated that Italy was certainly capable of designing and building high-class aircraft.
The Macchi M.C.202 Folgore was a single-engine, single-seater, low-wing aircraft designed by the Italian Aeronautica Macchi and also produced by Breda of Sesto S. Giovanni and S.A.I. Ambrosini of Passignano in 1941-1943.
Used in the Second World War by the Regia Aeronautica, it retained from its predecessor, the M.C. 200 Saetta, the wings and the tail but the fuselage, very elegant and aerodynamic, was completely new and, above all, it was equipped with the most powerful German Daimler-Benz DB601A engine, used for the Messerschmitt Bf 109E and F, later built under license by Alfa Romeo as RA 1000 RC41-1 at the new factory in Pomigliano d’Arco, at the time being completed.
Between May 1941 and September 1943, the date of the Italian surrender, approximately 1, 150 examples of this aircraft were manufactured, divided into fifteen series, each of which introduced changes and improvements compared to the previous series.
The Macchi M.C. was directly derived from the ‘Folgore’ 205 “Veltro”, which differed from the 202 only in adopting the more powerful 1, 475 hp Daimler-Benz DB 605 engine, a larger diameter propeller and two tubular oil radiators under the nose.