Why Italy’s “Best” WWII Bomber Was A Failure | CANT Z.100

The CANT Z.1007 Alcione is often hailed as Italy’s best bomber of World War II, admired for its sleek design, maneuverability, and relatively advanced performance compared to other Italian aircraft of the time.

However, its combat record tells a different story. Mechanical unreliability, limited bomb load, and the increasing dominance of Allied fighters meant that the Alcione rarely achieved decisive results. While it stood out among Italian bombers, in practice, it struggled to live up to the reputation that history has sometimes given it.

The CANT Z.1007 Alcione’s story started with Italian aircraft designer Filippo Zapata. During the interwar years, he built a reputation for designing record-breaking and forward-thinking structures, especially multi-engine seaplanes.

In 1933, he was called back to Italy and joined the Cantieri Aeronautici e Navali Triestini (CANT,) where he spearheaded the development of what’s to become the Z.1007.

First introduced in the late 1930s, the three-engined bomber featured a retractable tailwheel undercarriage and earned a reputation for its excellent handling and stability in flight. Production was carried out by IMAM (Meridionali) and Piaggio, with later contributions from CRDA. It is often considered the finest bomber produced by Italy during the Second World War.

The CANT Z.1007 Alcione carried a crew of five: two pilots, a flight engineer, a radio operator, and a bombardier/navigator. It could deliver up to 800 kg (1,760 lbs) of bombs and was protected by a defensive armament of one 12.7 mm (.50 cal) Breda-SAFAT machine gun in an open dorsal turret, a 7.7 mm gun in the ventral position, and another 7.7 mm gun on each side of the fuselage.

The improved Z.1007bis variant was adapted to carry two 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedoes beneath the fuselage, expanding its role to maritime strike missions. This version was also employed for long-range reconnaissance.

The CANT Z.1007 saw most of its wartime action in the Mediterranean and North African campaigns, though some were also deployed to the Eastern Front. Its first major combat use came during Italy’s invasion of Greece in October 1940, with a handful also taking part in the later stages of the Battle of Britain.

Despite its wooden construction, the aircraft’s fuselage proved surprisingly resilient in harsh climates, even during the brutal Russian winters. Power came from three Piaggio P.XI R.C.40 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engines, each delivering 745 kW (999 hp), giving the Alcione a top speed of 285 mph and a range of 1,115 miles. Between 1938 and 1943, a total of 660 of these medium bombers were built.

The radio equipment was installed in the center section of the fuselage, between the dorsal turret and the waist position. Like most Italian tri-motor bombers of the era, the Z.1007 was under-armed defensively. However, it was still comparable to many contemporary designs, several of which lacked rotating dorsal turrets, waist guns, or ventral armament altogether.

The aircraft also suffered from mechanical shortcomings. Its engines were unreliable, and the overall power-to-weight ratio was poor. The three 1,000 hp (750 kW) engines of the Z.1007bis only matched the output of a twin-engine bomber with 1,500 hp (1,100 kW) engines, but with the added disadvantage of carrying the extra weight of a third engine. Early versions also had stability issues, which were only partly solved by later adopting a twin-tail configuration.

The Z.1007’s wooden structure proved another liability. In the harsh climates of North Africa and Russia, it developed cracks, separations, and surface delamination, problems that increased drag and reduced performance. On the other hand, the wooden airframe gave the aircraft the unusual advantage of being able to float if forced to ditch at sea. In total, 660 Alcione bombers were built. No complete examples of the CANT Z.1007 Alcione are known to have survived to the present day.