Ansaldo SVA 5
Model Airplane News Cover Art for November, 1960
by Jo Kotula
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The Ansaldo SVA (named for Savoia-Verduzio-Ansaldo) was a family of Italian reconnaissance biplane aircraft of World War I and the decade after. Originally conceived as a fighter, the SVA was found inadequate for that role. Nevertheless, its impressive speed, range and operational ceiling, with its top speed making it one of the fastest (if not the fastest) of all Allied combat aircraft in World War I, gave it the right properties to be an excellent reconnaissance aircraft and light bomber. Production of the aircraft continued well after the war, with the final examples delivered in 1928. Two minor variants were produced, one with reconnaissance cameras, the other without cameras but extra fuel tanks.

  

Ansaldo SVA 5
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The SVA was a conventionally-laid out unequal-span biplane, featuring Warren Truss-style struts, and therefore having no transverse (spanwise) bracing wires. The plywood-skinned fuselage had atriangular rear cross-section behind the cockpit, transitioning to a rectangular cross section going forwards through the rear cockpit area, with a full rectangular cross section forward of the cockpit.

Here is a video of the Ansaldo SVA 5 in action:

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