One of the interesting point about the SVAs is the mess that has been created by the un-coordonated initiatives of various Italian museum and groups of enthusiasts to rebuild some of these machines, without taking care to gather the adequate background information - while this information is readily available through the historical department of the Italian Army (including the units reports about preparing the planes for the raid on Vienna and the raid on Innsbruck, that gave a lot of precious information) and through the Caproni archives (Caproni became in the 1930s the "heir" of Ansaldo). It's quite notable that only the SVA machines rebuilt partiall or completely by the Caproni Fundation have respected the original disposition of the instruments panels, without trying to "complete" or improvise.
Why is this important? because in fact we are speaking of a family of planes that included various versions used simultaneously inside the same units, the specific version selected by the pilots in function of the kind of mission planned. They all looked externally similar, at the exception of some details, but their instruments panel was drastically different:
The versions used operationally by the units were:
SVA3 ('SVA Ridotto'): Interceptor version. Powered by a SPA 6A engine. Featured one upper-wing mounted Fiat machine-gun. Smaller wing chord than the reconnaissance version (meaning narrower wings but as we speak of less than overall square meters of wing surface, its' of now matter in the sim as it represents only a few centimeters less width for each wings)
SVA4: Reconnaissance version. Featuring one Vickers Machine gun on the left side and two photo-cameras.
Here the panel include only one vertical narrow slit hole on its left half for the handle used to unjam the gun. (see Sarti's plane's cockpit at the bottom of this post)
SVA.5: Reco-Bombing version. Two side mounted frontal Vickers Machine guns and equipped with bomb racks under the fuselage. Some versions were tested with early radio equipment.
Here the panel includes two symetric vertical narrow slit holes one, on left one on right, for the handles used to unjam the guns (look at the photo of the cockpit of Arrigoni's SVA at the bottom of this post).
Some pilots added sometimes a Fiat machine gun over the wing.
4 x162mm bombs could be either carried in an inner compartment behind the wider pattern of fuel reservoir positioned behind the engine, held in place by an arrangements of logs. Or they could be carried on inner compartment on each side of the narrow version of the fuel reservoir (replacing then the wider pattern reservoir).
Some machine used instead three 162 mm bomb racks on each side, an installation typical in fact of the SVA7.
SVA.6: Purely reconnaissance version of the SVA.5. One wing-mounted Fiat machine gun. Equipped with two cameras.
On the center of the instrument panel there is a square 'hole" for 2 supplementary ammo boxes for reloading this gun. They are retained by a vertical fabric strap that 'closes the hole". No "unjamming handle" of course here.
SVA.7: Recon/bomber of the SVA.6. Racks for 6 bombs on the fuselage. - remember only one wing mounted Fiat gun here.
SVA.9: Two-Seat trainer of the SVA.5. One of them was modified in order to perform the flight over Vienna with the cockpit of the pilot and the observer reverted.
SVA.10: Two-seat Armed Reconnaissance version.
SVA-4 Sarti as a pilot - not that the handle shape is different from then one on the SVA6 and 7 and the center emplacement for supplementary ammo boxes is absent
SVA-5 Arrigoni as pilot:
SVA-6/7 cockpit
SVA-9 (the first one is the shiftmake SVA-9 used by d'Annunzio, in fact a hastly modified SVA-5 that served as an inspiration for the SVA-9 series)
SVA-10
And here the original drawing of the bombs installation of the SVA-5 - straight from the frontline
However these distinctions were not clear always cut - the proof is the presence of absence of the Chretien tubesight depending of the wish of the pilot, even on non official "fighter" versions.. "in case off". As a matter of fact, official decision of the Italian authorities fell quite soon not to use the SVAs as fighters.
Now concerning instruments on the pilot panel: Tachymeter (the upper large center gauge), quite often an Altimeter (the smaller, lower center one), Fuel gauge, Oil gauge (each side of the panel - these are in fact manometers indicating by measuring the pressure the quantity of fuel/oil remaining, similar to those used on Italian trucks of the period) As usual with Italian ww1 aircraft (and even after that...), in general no speed indicator (a Pensuti pressure-plaque relative speed indicator was mounted on one on the cabin mast, similarly to the French Eteve and based upon the same principle). Compass - not very frequent, Italian pilots loving to navigate by the map, looking at the ground under them, although their authorities tried very hard to convince them of the utility of the compass, thence a map roller was frequent (see the one in front of Natale Palli, the pilot of d'Annunzio's plane) . Magneto switch and crank (generally Bosch type). A panel mounted clock is possible on the SVA10 panel.
An example of the mess in Italian museum, I was referring to at the beginning of this post: A SVA-9 painted with the lettering "SVA-10 and a SVA-10 painted with the lettering "SVA-9"
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Topic: Ansaldo S.V.A -5 / -10 (Read 20259 times)
