A.V.I.A. LM.02

The AVIA LM.02 was an assault glider built by the Italian company Azionario Vercellese Industrie Aeronautiche (AVIA) in 1942 and remained in the prototype stage.
==Description==
The LM.02 was an all-wooden-unpowered glider designed to attack the Gibraltar British naval base. A major objective of Western Axis Powers throughout WWII was to seize Gibraltar at the Atlantic Ocean entrance into the Mediterranean. Late in 1941 the Regia Aeronautica Italia (RAI) contracted with AVIA to build an unpowered glider to attack Gibraltar radio intelligence listening stations. AVIA proprietor Carlo Francis Lombardi (1897-1983) entrusting Pieraldo Mortara to design and build two all-wooden prototype LM.02s for RAI evaluation. During the fall of 1942 the first and believed to be the only LM.02 prototype piloted by Nello Raimondo flew for the first time. Flight characteristics were good though soon after the British activated long-range aircraft tracking radar systems on Gibraltar, the RAI discontinued the LM.02 program.
The LM.02 was a single-seat unpowered monoplane glider featuring a uniquely designed elliptical wooden fuselage with watertight compartments allowing water floatation following combat missions. Cantilever wooden wings were fitted with dive brakes and shackles for two 820 kg (1,874 lb) bombs, two main wing landing gear sets were designed one for flight testing and the other to accommodate the weight of the bombs. Towed at night by a Savoia-Marchetti S.79 fitted with extra fuel tanks, LM.02s were to be released 30km from Gibraltar gliding to their targets undetected, then dive bombing the target. The pilot afterwards would take advantage of whatever remaining speed and altitude to reach the Algeciras Spanish coast, belly landing the glider at sea, the pilots subsequently being picked up by waiting submarines.Storm Magazine
==Sources==
Category:Italian
Category:Land Based
Category:Monoplane
Category:Not selected for production
Category:World War 2
Category:Single crew member
Category:Dive Bomber