Giulio Macchi (; 1866–1935)
was an Italian
aeronautical engineer
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...
, the founder of
''Società Anonima Nieuport-Macchi'' (now
Alenia Aermacchi
Alenia Aermacchi was a company active in the aeronautics sector, with offices and plants in Venegono Superiore, Varese, Turin Airport in San Maurizio Canavese, Province of Turin and Pomigliano d'Arco, Province of Naples. From 1 January 2016, the ...
).
Macchi ran a small
coachbuilder
A coachbuilder manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.
The trade of producing coachwork began with bodies for horse-drawn vehicles. Today it includes custom automobiles, buses, Coach (bus), motor coaches, and passenger car (rai ...
's works, ''Carrozzeria Fratelli Macchi'' (Macchi Brothers Coachworks), together with his brothers, before founding ''Società Anonima Nieuport-Macchi'' in
Varese
Varese ( , ; or ; ; ; archaic ) is a city and ''comune'' in north-western Lombardy, northern Italy, north-west of Milan. The population of Varese in 2018 was 80,559.
It is the capital of the Province of Varese. The hinterland or exurban part ...
on May 1, 1913.
[ The company started building ]Nieuport
Nieuport, later Nieuport-Delage, was a French aeroplane company that primarily built racing aircraft before World War I and fighter aircraft during World War I and between the wars.
History
Beginnings
Originally formed as Nieuport-Duplex in ...
aircraft under license but soon (from 1916) began producing its own designs, including the successful Macchi M.5 flying boat
A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a 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 buoyancy.
Though ...
fighter. In the 1920s the company became fully autonomous and in 1924 it was renamed Aeronautica Macchi
Aermacchi was an Italian aircraft manufacturer. Formerly known as Aeronautica Macchi, the company was founded in 1912 by Giulio Macchi at Varese in north-western Lombardy as Nieuport-Macchi, to build Nieuport monoplanes under licence for the I ...
; Macchi began collaborating with designer Mario Castoldi and together they built the famous family of Italian race seaplanes composed by the M.39, the M.52, the M.67 and the record-breaking M.C.72; the latter last flew in 1934, the year before Macchi's death.[
]
References
Bibliography
*
1866 births
1935 deaths
Aircraft designers
Italian aerospace engineers
{{Aviation-bio-stub