[Nick Beale]

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make, really. The Cr. 42 is widely acklnowledged as the best of the biplane fighters and many were sold for export (as was the Gladiator). Biplanes were widely used by many nations during the Second World War (look at the website "Hakan's Aviation Page" which is devoted to this topic).

The Luftwaffe pilots I met and corresponded with who flew the Cr. 42 in combat praised it. The Luftwaffe also used many German-made biplanes in combat itself, in the East and the Balkans: the Hs 123 for a start. It was still using biplanes in the last days of the war - as well as jets. In Britain, the Fairey Swordfsih was being used in 1945 against shipping off the Dutch coast - the obsolete plane that sank three Italian battleships in harbour and crippled the Bismarck.

As for Germany helping Italy before the war, why? They were not formal Allies for much of the time and in fact Mussolini was one of the few people to face Hitler and make him back down (over disputed territory in the South Tyrol).

Italy was weak in the design of modern aero engines, Britain was bad at tanks, Germany was behind with radar - everyone had their problems.