The Macchi M.5 was an Italian single-seat fighter

flying boat A flying boat is a type of fixed-winged seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in that a flying boat's fuselage is purpose-designed for floatation and contains a hull, while floatplanes rely on fusela ...

designed and built by

Nieuport-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 Ita ...

at Varese. It was extremely manoeuvrable and agile and matched the land-based aircraft it had to fight.Orbis 1985, page 2393

Development

The first

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

of a single-seat

sesquiplane 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 a ...

fighter was the Type M which first flew in 1917. Developed by engineers Buzio and Calzavera it had a single-step hull and an open

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

forward of the wings and was similar to the earlier

Macchi M.3 The Macchi L.3, or later Macchi M.3, was an Italian biplane flying boat developed from the earlier L.2. Development The Macchi company had learned about flying boat design from copying an Austrian flying boat to produce the Macchi L.1 and im ...

. It was followed by another prototype with a revised tail unit designated the Ma and further developed as the M bis and Ma bis. The production aircraft was designated the M.5 and like the prototypes was powered by a single Isotta Fraschini V.4B engine in

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

. Deliveries soon commenced in the summer of 1917 to the ''Aviazione per la Regia Marina'' (Italian Navy Aviation). Late production aircraft had a more powerful

Isotta Fraschini V.6 The Isotta Fraschini V.6 was an Italian six-cylinder, water-cooled, in-line piston aero engine of the late World War I period, the "V" denoted "Volo" or "flight".Gunston 1989, p. 82. Its construction was fairly typical of contemporary aircraft e ...

engine and redesigned wingtip floats, they were designated M.5 mod. Macchi produced 200 aircraft and another 44 were built by ''Società Aeronautica Italiana''.

Operational history

During World War I, the M.5 was operated by five Italian maritime patrol squadrons as a fighter and convoy escort, and some were embarked on the '' Regia Marina'' seaplane carrier ''

Giuseppe Miraglia ''Giuseppe Miraglia'' was an Italian seaplane tender, seaplane carrier. History ''Giuseppe Miraglia'' was laid down in 1921 as the train ferry ''Città di Messina'', intended for use by the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, Italian State Railway Co ...

''. Towards the end of World War I, M.5 aircraft were flown by both United States Navy and United States Marine Corps airmen. For his actions while flying an M.5 over the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Austria-Hungary on 21 August 1918, U.S. Navy Ensign Charles Hammann, an enlisted pilot at the time, received the first Medal of Honor awarded to a United States

naval aviator Naval aviation is the application of military air power by navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. Naval aviation is typically projected to a position nearer the target by way of an aircraft carrier. Carrier-based a ...

. In 1923, when the ''

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 Royal Italian Army from 1923 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was abolis ...

'' was formed, 65 M.5s were still in service, although they all had been scrapped within a few years.

In popular culture

In the 1992 Japanese animated film '' Porco Rosso'', Porco's fighter when he served with the ''Regia Marina''′s aviation branch during World War I was a Macchi M.5.

Operators

; * Regia Marina *'' Corpo Aeronautico Militare'' ; * United States Navy * United States Marine Corps ; * Brazilian Navy 12 brazilian pilots trained in these planes, but the war ended before they can participate it

Specifications (Macchi M.5)

References