Aeronautica Macchi
3 types ยท 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
Narrative coming soon.
Aircraft Types
Macchi M.33
A single-seat racing flying boat designed by Mario Castoldi and built by Aeronautica Macchi for Italy's 1925 Schneider Trophy challenge at Baltimore. Its cantilever monoplane layout was advanced for a flying boat, but its engines were worn second-hand Curtiss D-12s; Giovanni de Briganti finished third, and his M.33 was the last flying boat to compete for the Schneider Trophy.
Macchi M.52
Racing floatplane designed by Mario Castoldi and built by Aeronautica Macchi for the 1927 Schneider Trophy at Venice, developing the formula of the winning M.39 around Fiat's more powerful AS.3 engine. All three M.52s retired with engine trouble in the race, but Mario de Bernardi then set world seaplane speed records in the type: 479.3 km/h in November 1927 and, in the single refined M.52bis, 512.776 km/h in March 1928, the first flight past 500 km/h. The M.52bis returned in 1929 to finish second in the Schneider Trophy at Calshot. No example survives.
Macchi M.C.72
A single-seat racing floatplane designed by Mario Castoldi and built by Aeronautica Macchi for Italy's Schneider Trophy effort. Its Fiat AS.6 engine, two V-12s driving counter-rotating propellers, carried Francesco Agello to 709 km/h over Lake Garda in October 1934, a speed no piston-engined seaplane has matched since.