Piaggio P.111

The Piaggio P.111 was an Italian high-altitude research aircraft designed and built by Piaggio for the Regia Aeronautica. It began in 1938 as a contract for the prototype of a three-seat, twin-engine, high-speed, high-altitude bomber with a pressurized cabin. Piaggio built a new 18-cylinder double-row air-cooled radial engine for it, the P.XII R.C.100/2v, fitted with a two-stage supercharger. While the prototype was under construction, the Regia Aeronautica decided to use it as a research aircraft instead. It first flew on 9 April 1941 and made 110 test and research flights, studying cabin pressurization for the Piaggio P.108 heavy bomber, before being retired and scrapped early in 1943.