Ansaldo A.1 Balilla

A.1 Balilla
General information
TypeFighter
ManufacturerGio. Ansaldo & C.
Designer
StatusRetired
Primary usersItalian Air Force
Number built~250 by Ansaldo, 57 by Lublin under licence
History
Manufactured1917-1924
Introduction date1918
First flightMarch 1917

The Ansaldo A.1, nicknamed "Balilla" after the Genoan folk-hero, was Italy's only domestically-designed fighter aircraft of World War I to be produced in Italy. Arriving too late to see any real action, it was however used by both Poland and the Soviet Union in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1921.