Macchi M.C.72: Difference between revisions

From FlightGear wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
mNo edit summary
m (Bot: Automated text replacement (-http://www.flightgear.org/Downloads/aircraft/ +http://www.flightgear.org/Downloads/aircraft-2.0.0/))
Line 37: Line 37:


== External links ==
== External links ==
*http://www.flightgear.org/Downloads/aircraft/
*http://www.flightgear.org/Downloads/aircraft-2.0.0/
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.C.72
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macchi_M.C.72



Revision as of 17:04, 2 December 2010

Macchi Castoldi M.C. 72
Mc72.jpg
Type 1 piston engine seaplane
Author(s) Emmanuel BARANGER (3D), Pierre GEOFFROY (FDM)
FDM YASim
--aircraft= mc72-yasim
Status v20071114
Download Download the Macchi Castoldi M.C. 72 aircraft package for the current stable release (2020.3).

The Macchi M.C. 72 was an experimental seaplane designed and built by the Italian aircraft company Macchi Aeronautica. In 1933 and 1934 it set a world record for speed over water.


The Macchi M.C. 72 was one of a series of seaplanes developed by Macchi Aeronautica. An earlier model, the Macchi M.24 was a twin engine flying boat armed with machine guns and capable of carrying a torpedo. Later in the 1920s, Macchi focused on speed and on winning the Schneider Trophy. In 1922 the company hired aircraft designer Mario Castoldi to design high-speed aircraft.

In 1926, the company won the trophy with the Macchi M.39 which attained a top speed of 246 mph (395.8 km/h). Further planes (the M.52, M.52R, and the M.67) were designed and built but victory in the Schneider races kept eluding the Italians. Castoldi then designed the ultimate racing seaplane, the M.C. 72, a single seater aircraft with two floats.

The design of the Macchi M.C. 72 was unique with a fuselage partly metal to the cockpit and wood monocoque bolted to the front tubular portion by four bolts.[1] The streamlined nose contours enclosed an oil tank with its outside wall exposed to the airstream. The wing was all metal with flat tubular water radiators smoothly faired into the wings. The twin pontoons had three smoothly faired radiators on the outer surfaces, the forward radiator for water and the centre and rear radiators for oil cooling. The float struts also featured water radiators and another radiator was fitted during hot conditions under the fuselage running from cockpit to tail.

It was built in 1931 with the idea of competing for what turned out to be the final Schneider Trophy race but, due to engine problems, the plane was unable to compete. Warrant Officer Francesco Agello, test pilot of the Macchi M.C. 72

Instead of halting development, Macchi continued work on the M.C. 72. Benito Mussolini personally took an interest[2] in seeing development of the M.C. 72 continue and directed state funds to the company.

Aircraft Help

Key Function
d Open/Close Canopy

See also

External links