Alessandro Marchetti (16 June 1884 – 5 December 1966) was an Italian

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and airplane designer. Marchetti was born in Cori, Italy, and died in

Busto Arsizio Busto Arsizio (; ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the south-easternmost part of the province of Varese, in the Italy, Italian region of Lombardy, north of Milan. The economy of Busto Arsizio is mainly based on industry and commerce. It is the ...

. He is best known for having created the Savoia-Marchetti SM.79

medium bomber A medium bomber is a military bomber Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft designed to operate with medium-sized Aerial bomb, bombloads over medium Range (aeronautics), range distances; the name serves to distinguish this type from larger heavy bombe ...

Biography

Born in 1884, Marchetti graduated in engineering from the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

in 1908. In 1910 he built his first aircraft, the sport biplane Chimera, and made his first flight. He started working for the

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

subsidiary at

Terni Terni ( ; ; ) is a city in the southern portion of the region of Umbria, in Central Italy. It is near the border with Lazio. The city is the capital of the province of Terni, located in the plain of the Nera (Tiber), River Nera. It is northeast ...

in 1917. For the Vikers he designed a very fast small

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

known as the Marchetti MVT (Marchetti-Vickers-Terni). In 1922, he joined the SIAI ( Società Idrovolanti Alta Italia) as

technical director A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. They are responsible for overseeing and coordinating all of the technical aspect ...

and in the period between the world wars designed a series of

seaplanes A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characterist ...

of technical originality and commercial success. One of the first was the S.55, conceived as a torpedo seaplane, and then produced in various versions, both civil and military. Unlike previous

flying boats A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a hull (watercraft), hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in having a fuselage that is purpose-designed for flotation, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for b ...

with a central hull like the Dorniers or with two floats, he designed a craft with twin hulls set beneath a single large wing of considerable thickness, making it possible to eliminate the bracing. Marchetti went on to produce the planes that

Francesco de Pinedo Francesco de Pinedo (February 16, 1890 – September 2, 1933) was an Italian aviator. A '' Regia Marina'' (Italy's Royal Navy) officer who transferred to the '' Regia Aeronautica'' (Italy's Royal Air Force), he was an advocate of the seaplan ...

flew around the world, and Arturo Ferrarin made a non-stop flight from Italy to Brazil. Marchetti is best known for having created the Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 and the Savoia-Marchetti SM.81, two

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

bomber aircraft A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strategic bombing is d ...

. His last projects were the four-engine transport aircraft SM.95 (1943) and the light transport cabin monoplane SM.102 (1949).

Notes

References

* * 1884 births 1966 deaths Italian aerospace engineers SIAI-Marchetti Sapienza University of Rome alumni {{Italy-engineer-stub

Biography

See also

Notes

References