The Macchi M.26 was an Italian
flying boat fighter
Fighter(s) or The Fighter(s) may refer to:
Combat and warfare
* Combatant, an individual legally entitled to engage in hostilities during an international armed conflict
* Fighter aircraft, a warplane designed to destroy or damage enemy warplane ...
prototype of 1924 designed and manufactured by
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 ...
.
Design and development
In 1924, the ''
Regia Marina
The ''Regia Marina'' (; ) was the navy of the Kingdom of Italy (''Regno d'Italia'') from 1861 to 1946. In 1946, with the birth of the Italian Republic (''Repubblica Italiana''), the ''Regia Marina'' changed its name to ''Marina Militare'' (" ...
'' (Italian Royal Navy) issued a requirement for a replacement for its
Macchi M.7''ter'' flying boat fighter. To compete with the
SIAI S.58
The SIAI S.58 or Savoia-Marchetti S.M.58 was an Italian flying boat fighter prototype of the 1920s designed and manufactured by SIAI.
Design and development
S.58
In 1924, the ''Regia Marina'' (Italian Royal Navy) issued a requirement for a ...
for a production order as the replacement, Macchi company designer
Mario Castoldi
Mario Castoldi (February 26, 1888 - May 31, 1968) was an Italian aircraft engineer and designer.
Biography
Born in Zibido San Giacomo ( province of Milan), Castoldi worked for the experimental center of Italian Military Aviation at Montecelio, ...
(1888-1968) developed the M.26. It was a wooden, single-seat, single-bay
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 ...
armed with two fixed, forward-firing 7.7-
millimeter
file:EM Spectrum Properties edit.svg, 330px, Different lengths as in respect to the electromagnetic spectrum, measured by the metre and its derived scales. The microwave is between 1 meter to 1 millimeter.
The millimetre (American and British Eng ...
(0.303-
inch
Measuring tape with inches
The inch (symbol: in or ″) is a unit of length in the British imperial and the United States customary systems of measurement. It is equal to yard or of a foot. Derived from the Roman uncia ("twelft ...
)
Vickers machine gun
The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more men to move and ...
s. It had
plywood and fabric skinning, and its wings were of equal span and unstaggered. The M.26s engine, a 221-
kilowatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after Jame ...
(296-
brake horsepower
Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are th ...
)
Hispano-Suiza
Hispano-Suiza () is a Spanish automotive–engineering company. It was founded in 1904 by Marc Birkigt and Damian Mateu as an automobile manufacturer and eventually had several factories in Spain and France that produced luxury cars, aircraft en ...
HS 42
V8 driving a pusher propeller, was mounted on struts above the hull and below the upper
wing
A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is exp ...
. For an aircraft of its type, its
aerodynamic
Aerodynamics, from grc, ἀήρ ''aero'' (air) + grc, δυναμική (dynamics), is the study of the motion of air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dyn ...
design was very clean.
The M.26 was completed in 1924 and made its first flight that year, demonstrating good performance. Macchi built two prototypes, but the ''Regia Marina'' opted to save money by re-engining the Macchi M.7''ter'' to extend its service life rather than purchase a new aircraft, and Macchi received no production orders for the M.26. However, a few years later Macchi based the design of its
M.41 fighter on that of the M.26.
[Green and Swanborough, p. 358.]
Operators
;
*
Regia Aeronautica
The Italian Royal Air Force (''Regia Aeronautica Italiana'') was the name of the air force of the Kingdom of Italy. It was established as a service independent of the Regio Esercito, Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the mon ...
Specifications
Notes:
*Time to 4,000 m (13,123 ft): 12 min 18 sec
See also
Notes
References
*Green, William, and Gordon Swanborough. ''The Complete Book of Fighters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Every Fighter Aircraft Built and Flown''. New York: SMITHMARK Publishers, 1994. .
{{Macchi aircraft
1920s Italian fighter aircraft
M.26
Biplanes
Single-engined pusher aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1924