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.
Why It Mattered
The Macchi M.52 was built for a single contest: the 1927 Schneider Trophy at Venice, where Italy set out to repeat the victory Mario de Bernardi had won in the M.39 the year before. Smithsonian Magazine's history of the contest calls the M.52 fast and good-looking but "extremely temperamental," and the race bore that out, as engine trouble stopped all three M.52s before the finish. The type's lasting mark came in record flying instead: in November 1927 de Bernardi raised the world seaplane speed record in an M.52, and the following March he took the refined M.52bis past 500 km/h, a barrier no pilot had crossed before.
Design Notes
Mario Castoldi designed the M.52 by following the formula of his successful M.39: a single-engined, low-wing monoplane on twin floats, built around Fiat's much more powerful AS.3 V-12 of 1,000 hp. It was slightly smaller than the M.39, with a shorter-span wing of greater sweep and shorter floats, and it weighed 60 kg less at takeoff despite the extra power. Macchi built three M.52s. A single restyled development followed, known as both the M.52bis and the M.52R, with its wingspan cut to 7.85 metres, its takeoff weight reduced further and its floats given a smaller frontal area. Smithsonian Magazine's verdict on the type was that it was fast and good-looking but extremely temperamental.
Operational History
Italy sent all three M.52s to Venice for the 1927 Schneider Trophy race, held on 26 September 1927. The campaign had already cost a life in practice, when team pilot Lieutenant Salvatore Borra crashed into Lake Varese and died. In the race, engine trouble stopped all three aircraft: Captain Federico Guazetti lasted longest, reaching the final lap, de Bernardi was classified tenth after dropping out, and Britain's Supermarine S.5s finished first and second. On 4 November 1927, at Venice, de Bernardi used one of the M.52s to set a new world speed record of 479.3 km/h over a 3-kilometre course. On 30 March 1928, again at Venice, he flew the lone M.52bis to 512.776 km/h, becoming the first person to exceed 500 km/h. When one of Italy's three new M.67 racers crashed during training before the 1929 race, the M.52R was entered alongside the two surviving M.67s at Calshot on 7 September 1929. Flown by Tommaso Dal Molin, it was the only Italian aircraft to finish, taking second place at 457.380 km/h behind Richard Waghorn's Supermarine S.6.
Afterlife
No M.52 survives today. One piece of the type remains: a left wing panel, kept for many years by the Politecnico di Torino and recently restored by the Gruppo Amici Velivoli Storici, the Italian historic-aircraft group. An M.52 also appears in the animated film Porco Rosso. What the type is remembered for is its brief record line: the world seaplane speed records of November 1927 and March 1928, the second of them the first flight past 500 km/h by any aircraft.