Fiat CR.32

The Fiat CR.32 was an Italian biplane fighter designed by the aeronautical engineer Celestino Rosatelli and built by Fiat. Compact, robust and highly manoeuvrable for its day, it was a sesquiplane with a shorter lower wing, a fixed undercarriage and a liquid-cooled V-12 piston engine. It first flew in 1933 and was built in quantity through 1938. The type earned a reputation as one of the finest fighter biplanes of its time in the Spanish Civil War, flew with the Italian air force in Africa, Albania and the Mediterranean during the Second World War, and served with the air forces of China, Austria, Hungary, Paraguay and Venezuela. It was derived from the earlier CR.30 and led to the CR.42 Falco, and it was considered obsolete once the Second World War began.