Savoia-Marchetti
4 types · 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
Narrative coming soon.
Aircraft Types
Savoia-Marchetti S.55
The Savoia-Marchetti S.55 was an Italian twin-hull flying boat designed by Alessandro Marchetti and first flown in 1924. Its two hulls carried the passengers and cargo, its crew sat in the thick centre wing, and two engines in tandem above the wing drove tractor and pusher propellers. Built in civil and military versions, it set world records, served the Regia Aeronautica as a maritime bomber and patrol aircraft, and won fame through the mass formation Atlantic crossings of 1930 and 1933 led by Italo Balbo. Only one original survives, in Brazil, joined in 2023 by a full-size replica in Italy.
Savoia-Marchetti S.64
The Savoia-Marchetti S.64 was a large wooden monoplane built in Italy in 1928 for a single purpose: to capture the world's long-distance flight records. Designed by Alessandro Marchetti around one Fiat engine mounted above a wing that was largely fuel tank, it set world records for closed-circuit distance and endurance in the summer of 1928, then flew non-stop from Montecelio to Brazil, a flight the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale recognised as a world straight-line distance record of 7,188 km. The first aircraft was donated to Brazil after that flight. A second, improved aircraft, the S.64bis, retook the closed-circuit records in 1930 and was lost in a fatal crash at sea in 1931.
Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 Pipistrello
The Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 Pipistrello was an Italian three-engined bomber and transport aircraft designed by Alessandro Marchetti as a military derivative of the S.73 airliner, first flown in 1934 and in service from 1935. It fought in Ethiopia and in the Spanish Civil War before the Second World War, then, too slow for daylight bombing, served the Regia Aeronautica chiefly as a night bomber and transport until 1943, with a few aircraft flying on to 1944. Published production accountings range from 530 to more than 570 aircraft and do not reconcile. The last examples were retired by 1950.
Savoia-Marchetti SM.84
The Savoia-Marchetti SM.84 was an Italian three-engined bomber and torpedo bomber of the Second World War, built as a modernised successor to the SM.79 Sparviero: it kept the SM.79's wing and three-engine layout but added a new fuselage, a twin tail and more powerful Piaggio P.XI engines. First flown on 5 June 1940, it entered service in February 1941. Production is unsettled between the accounts: 309 delivered in the Italian accounting, 329 in the English Wikipedia's total. The type disappointed in service, with handling markedly poorer than the SM.79's; its best-known action was the torpedo hit on HMS Nelson in September 1941, bought with heavy losses, and it fought through the Malta convoy battles of 1942 before being phased out in favour of the CANT Z.1007bis and the SM.79 itself. A few flew on as transports after the armistice of September 1943, and the post-war Italian Air Force kept survivors flying until 1949.