| abstract | - One variant had a 102mm modified naval cannon mounted in the nose, for attacks against enemy shipping. This was not a unique concept; several nations mounted large cannon in their airplanes for similar purposes (notably the North American B25 Mitchell with its 75mm gun). Things didn’t go quite as planned: the first aerial test shot nearly vaporized King Vittorio Emanuele III, while the gun’s recoil almost tore the plane’s nose off. The project went no further than one test plane. As an airliner, the P.108C had air-conditioning and a pressurized cabin for its 36 passengers. Its long range allowed it to easily handle trans-Atlantic routes. The very similar P.108T transport lacked pressurization and had two 12.7mm machine guns. Both planes had a widened fuselage to increase carrying capacity. The follow-on version, called the P.133, had even more powerful P. XV engines and correspondingly greater range and bomb load. Defensive armament climbed to six 20mm cannon and three 12.7mm machine guns. The plane had not entered testing when the program reached an abrupt end. The bomber’s production came to a halt on 31 August 1943, when a massive Allied bombing raid destroyed the Pontedera plant in Tuscany where it was built. After the war, Piaggio re-tooled the small starter motor used on the big P. XII radials of the P.108 and used it to power the Vespa scooters it now builds in the re-built Pontedera plant.
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