AEROPLANE TO AEROPLANO

      There are aircraft that have a charm of their own, as if their technical and operational life followed a parabola similar to the biographical history of notable people. The S.74, the subject of this translation, was born old. The market had decreed that it was aced-out even before he had shown what it had to offer. But it still had something to show. The above painting of an S.74 is by Danilo Renzulli.     The Savoia Marchetti S.74     The outclassed airplane on a class of its own     By Pietro Mazzardi (translated by L. Pavese)           There are aircraft that have a charm of their own, as if their technical and operational life followed a parabola similar to the biographical history of notable people. Granted, an airplane is just a machine but the S.74, designed and built by Savoia Marchetti, was a very capable aircraft and the only Italian four-engines passenger airplane that had ...

  Another Successful Aermacchi (Even if it never flew!) By the GAVS Turin section When we first got the news about the chance of restoring an Aermacchi of the early post-war period, designed by Dr. Bazzocchi, with a tricycle wheel arrangement and two side-by-side seats, we all thought about the delightful and eternal M.B. 308 aircraft (one of which, registered I-BIOH, is still flying today in Turin). Later, when we got more information, even though the names of the company and the designer matched, it became clear that the object of the restoration was very different from an airplane. It was in fact a Macchitre M.B.1, that is, a sort of tricycle...(excuse me!): it should be properly called a “Three-wheel truck with trailer towing capabilities,” (in Italian: Autocarro a tre route con possibilità di rimorchio ), as Aermacchi’s advertisement pompously described it at the time. A new adventure began for our group. After all, the M.B.1 three-wheel truck was a product of an aeronautica...