Fiat G.212

The Fiat G.212 was an Italian three-engine passenger and transport aeroplane of the late 1940s, an enlarged development of Fiat's earlier G.12. The prototype, a military transport designated G.212CA, first flew on 19 January 1947. It was a low-wing all-metal cantilever monoplane with a retractable tailwheel undercarriage, longer than the G.12 and with a larger wing and a wider fuselage, powered at first by three Alfa Romeo 128 radial engines. Civil production followed as the G.212CP airliner, with seats for 34 passengers, and the G.212TP freighter, both using the more powerful Pratt and Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engines. Avio Linee Italiane ordered six G.212CP airliners for services within Europe, and the Egyptian airline SAIDE and the French airline Compagnie Air Transport also bought new aircraft. The Italian Air Force acquired the prototype and six G.212CPs, two of them converted into flying classrooms, and one aircraft is preserved at the Italian Air Force Museum at Vigna di Valle. The type is also remembered for the Superga accident of 4 May 1949, when a chartered Avio Linee Italiane G.212 carrying the Torino football team crashed into a hill and killed all 31 aboard.