Italy's Weird & Wonderful Twin-Hull Flying Boats | Savoia-Marchetti S.55 [Aircraft Overview #39]
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- Опубликовано: 25 мар 2022
- The twin-hulled flying boats built by Savoia-Marchetti in the 1920s/1930s helped Italy achieve prestige on the world stage of aviation. Originally designed as an amphibious bomber and maritime patrol craft, the S.55 would go on to become a popular civil transport. Together it and the larger S.66 would fly numerous commercial routes around the Mediterranean.
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Producing these videos is a hobby of mine. I have a passion for history, and personally own a large collection of books, journals and other texts, and endeavor to do as much research as possible. However if there are any mistakes, please don't hesitate to reach out and correct anything :)
Sources:
Thompson J.W. (1963). Italian Civil and Military Aircraft 1930-1945.
Ministero Dell'aeronautica (Circa ~1932)
Idrovolante Savoia-Marchetti Tipo S.55, Istruzioni per il montaggio eper la regolazione 
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Apologies if my voice in this video (and the next few) is a bit off, I've been fighting off a nasty cough with a flamethrower.
F.A.Q Section
Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)
Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.
Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos?
A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :)
Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators?
A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.
Feel free to leave you questions below - I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open :)
Can you, please, convert mph in kmph in subtitles at least?
it’s not bad, it’s not noticeable unless you strain yourself to hear…
Probably 'ronavirus.
Take care of yourself & keep up the excellent content.
Hi Rex, top tip, if you’re feeling rough depart to your pit with a bottle of whiskey, or in your case as you are down under, a bottle of Bundaberg. It will do absolutely nothing for the cold but after you’ve polished it off you won’t give a damn anyway. I just love the channel and the effort that you put into it to find these weird and wonderful aircraft.
Just wondering if you could do a video on the flamethrower cough remedy, feel better soon
You really have to love the unusual designs the Italians came up in the 20's and 30's.
There's no denying Italian design flair.
Amen!
Both the French and the Italian aircraft were very unique in their own ways like no one else!!
This one, above all other flying Italians, has captured my imagination the mostest 😂❤
Hello from Italy, love the vids. My greatgrandfather was a radio operator in one of the S.55s during the cruise from Rome to Rio. I-Bais (his plane's code name) actually had to land in the middle of the ocean bcs of engine trouble, all were fine, though they got to Rio via ship ( SS Conte Rosso)
How nice to be able to "land" in the ocean
@@JTA1961
A lesson too often forgotten these days... yet so obvious an advantage on a planet largely covered in water, forests and mountains.
thank you for sharing this tale!
That's a neat bit of history honestly, thanks for sharing! 😊
What happened to the aircraft?
That face when you realize Hayao Miyazaki was not in a fever dream when creating the flying boats for Porco Rosso.
Great movie! It really brought home his love of aviation.
That was based on one of the SM Schneider Trophy racers 😎
but these designs were certainly imaginative and not without their early successes give the short period of time between The events at Kittyhawk
and Santos Dumont s flight in his Bis Canard and these pioneering crossings👍🏼.
@@clivestainlesssteelwomble7665 The Curtiss Seaplane? Aye that was one the Schneider designs, but I meant the S.55-alikes we see in the Regia Marina fleet shots (when they are pursuing the cheeky rascal, Marco).
@@Dr_Robodaz
Its been quite a while.. the one im thinking of is a Porco Rosso one... Its a single motor and boom but the hull hangs underneath. Let me have a look and i will see if i can find a link 🙂
Savoia S 21 porco Rosso
But the Macchi 33 is the inspiration.
All the Sea Pirate planes were designed by Miyazaki, although would have been funny seeing them fly irl
I’m 74, and this video was the first time I’ve ever heard of these airplanes. Clearly there is a lot of history still to be unearthed. Big fun. Please continue. You clearly have a gift for research. And presentation!
A really innovative design...and completely successful! These seem to have been rather unfairly forgotten. Very good job on the video.
Innovative, but not enourmously practical, I suspect. Even the S.66 only had a top speed of 167 mph, at a time when most flying boats could do 200+ mph.
They are still remembered in the
RAF by the term Balboa the name of the officer who led the squadrons world tour...
Its used to describe any rolling tour of aircraft.
They were slow but very stable on take off and landing and they had space for great range on tour.
Makes a nice flying RC scale model ..
@@clivestainlesssteelwomble7665 Balbo, Balboa is Rocky.
@@a.b.6233
👍🏼 I couldnt remember how it was spelt ...and using my phone i find it tends to change words anyway at times i dont always spot it.🤷🏻♂️
@@clivestainlesssteelwomble7665 I'm sure that Rocky is more famous than Balbo so Balboa will pop up first in any search.
Pretty sure the Atlantic crossing by the Santa Maria crew was commemorated in their time as the 'famous Italian aviators' impersonated by the Marx Brothers in, I believe, 'Monkey Business' (1931). It's where Chico, from behind a magnificent false beard, explains how they initially got half-way across the Atlantic, "But then we run out of gas, so we have to go back again."
Another interesting vid, thanks. And more of the Italians, please. Their contributions to advances in aeronautics sometimes feel unjustly overlooked.
I’m really happy to see that the S.55 is starting to get some love abroad. If you want to know more about its technical features, Italo Balbo himself describes well it in both his books about his transatlantic mass cruises, Stormi in Volo sull’Oceano (Flying Wings Above the Ocean) for the S.55A and La Centuria Alata (The Winged Centuria) for the S.55X, which was by the way a purposedly crafted model for that specific cruise (X means 10 in Roman Numbers, for the cruise occurred on the 10th year of the Fascist Regime). Although soaked in fascist propaganda (Italo Balbo was one of the most prominent fascist hierarchs) and probably atrociously difficult (if not straight up impossible) to find in any language other than Italian (it’s not that easy to find them in Italian itself due to political reasons), they are extremely interesting readings which I greatly suggest, not only to know more about this plane, but for a great piece of aeronautic literature too (the only book which tops it IMO is Il Mio Volo Roma-Tokyo (My Roma to Tokyo Flight) by Arturo Ferrarin, which I believe to be absolutely impossible to find in this universe in other languages aside from Italian).
And by the way, if I remember correctly, yes, the engineer could operate directly on the engine during the flight. Balbo describes some of the operations made by his engineers in the books, always emphasizing the risk of ending up losing your head.
P.s.: a team of engineers from Torino Politechnic Institute is trying to make a flying replica of this bad boy 😁😁😁
I discovered this plane several years ago and from that discovered float plane racing of the day as well. Italy made some absolutely beautiful racing float planes, but the SM55 was/is always a favorite.
@@whirving S.55 is so odd it makes all the way around and becomes beautiful 😂😂😂 the racing Macchi floatplanes were elegant like vintage sports cars, I hope Rex makes a video about che M.39 or the M.C.72.
Exciting that someone is making a replica of the S55.
If I were very rich I think this is the first airplane I would try to make.
@@marcinna8553the replica in question is only 1:8 scale of the original and with the use of modern materials and fuels
This is because it's a university project and it's used as an opportunity to teach the students how to design, engineer and build at least a modern small scale drone
A full scale replica is also being built at the Volandia museum using mostly the same techniques and materials of the time by former employees of Savoia Marchetti, but it won't be flyable and will have "cuts" in it to show some cross-section of the internal structure of the wings and hulls to show how it was built
Oh! Oh! This boat was coming for Porco Rosso and Curtis in the end of the film!
I really enjoy your well-enunciated descriptions interspersed with a little black humour! The Drachinifel of the Air!! Thank You.
Flying boats have always been a passion for me. Former USCG AIR RESCUE aircrewman. 👍✌️🖖🇺🇸
USCG rescue crews: the last American units to use flying boats IIRC
One of the better movies with USCG SEA AIR RESCUE aircraft in it was “The High and The Mighty”.
Thanks for a look at a plane I've never heard of before. Always loved the flying boats, the PBY Catalina being my favorite. It would be great to see a new one, considering the new technology and materials available today.
I would love to have a PBY as a flying house boat, such a neat design. I'd love to see a double hull Catalina!
I do like flying boats. They have a strangely romantic vibe from a bygone era.
My father saw the S.55 flying boats when he was a young lad at the time that the Regia Aeronautica aircraft formation landed near Flushing, NY for the World’s Fair. I built a model of the S.55 and had it until I went to college.
Can you imagine being the flight engineer? "Just climb on on the wing between two propellers at 100 mph and fix the engine, hey?"
better than climbing on a wing to fix a six engine plane!
G'day,
Ah, not quite.
The Flight Engineer spent their time watching and worrying about Fuel flow, Coolant and Oil Temperature and Fluid-levels - all manually monitored and controlled.
The Hatch was to go through when Oiling, maintaining, pre-flight inspecting, and Hand-Cranking the Flywheels of the Inertia-driven Starters.
Actual In-Flight Maintenance, outside of Zeppelins (and even they stopped the Motor being worked on...) was pretty much the preserve of C.P.T. Ulm refilling Southern Cross's Right Engine Oil Tank in-flight, standing on the Undercarriage Struts..., with Oil taken from the failed Left Engine, at night, during a Storm, over the middle of the Tasman Sea...!
And, he did it 3 times during that one flight, too...
And I'm pretty sure a Wellington Crewmember (Navigator, Wireless Operator ?) got a VC for going out to extinguish an Engine Fire at night, with a portable Extinguisher, getting there by punching and kicking through the Wing's Fabric Covering to use the underlying Geodesic Structure for Hand-&-Toe-holds....(!).
Imagine that one..., 150 knots of Slipstream, minimum, beating holes in the Aeroplane to gain a purchase, to be able to poke the Nozzle in through the back of the Cowling-Flaps to extinguish the Fire. Which he succeeded in doing, too, before climbing back to and through the Fuselage Windows - despite having been badly burned on both hands in the process.
In-flight Engine Majntenance is an Emergency last resort, as far as I know. Anybody who lives through making a go of it is lionised as a Hero forever afterwards, specifically on that account ; as far as I can recall.
Such is life,
Have a good one...
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
Not a bad looking beast.
Makes you wonder why there wasn't more twin hull flying boats made.
Seems to make sense once you see it 👍
I am glad to learn that an example of this distinctive aircraft still exists.
This man is literally the human embodiment of Jane's All The World Aircraft......
And I'm digging it.
Excellent video Rex. I've been interested in flying boats and floatplanes since I was a kid. Reaching sixty five now and still find them fascinating. Thank you for such consistently good videos. Regards from Wales UK.
I love inter-war Italian planes, especially seaplanes! They have incredibly unique designs look beautiful, keep 'em coming!
Italian innovation in every aspect of engineering is woefully underdocumented
Always loved seaplanes, so many weird and wonderful aircraft. Amazing to think the Supermarine Walrus was still in the air when the whacky Saunders-Roe experimental jet fighter first flew....
God I love these old Italian seaplanes.
Very art deco mix with future buck Roger's stuff. @Rex if you ever do a future April Fools video do one of the seaplanes and aircraft of Tail Spin. Lol some of those seaplanes look straight out of interwar Italy or maybe Germany or England.
Or alternatively, do an april fools video about some of the seaplanes and flying boats of Porco Rosso!
@@thomaszinser8714 that would be better because they were based on real planes I do believe. Or at least prototypes.
The plane in this video made a quick appearance in Porco Rosso.
I'm watching it again whilst typing this comment. ^^
@@teaandmedals nice.
Love this one. First came across it as a build by an aviation fan in Second Life. Got me hooked on Italian aircraft of this era.
Seaplanes! More seaplanes! And more Italian novelties.
Hola qué buen video!!!! Muchas gracias. Hermoso avión. Desde Colonia.Uruguay.
Thank you for awesome audio. Perfectly understandable and enunciated.
The Do-X might be the only member of this family of aircraft that one might actually call a flying ship. :P
It certainly flew like one: maximum ceiling 1670 feet.
What a lovely channel i came across, subbed!
excellent history of these designs. I was given a small diecast S66 some years ago and never really looked at the history of these planes. Now thanks to your good self its very interesting to understand how important a aviation step these were. What a lovely design they are and how brave were the pioneers of aviation in the early 1900's? again well done and look forward to watching more.. thanks
This was always a fascinating flying boat, a huge advance in aviation technology!
Another Italian here, greetings. The sixth crewmember was suggested by Regia Aeronautica for long flight only when there were few chances to ger help from friendly basis. That manual is a little treasure ^^
The "raised thrust angle" clearly showed that engineers were aware of the aircraft's "sink-rate" and took measures to counter it at a designated cruising speed. For any thick wing, forward airspeed was a challenge. Later, designers found that downward thrust was not required and all thrust was directed rearward in a horizontal direction, adding speed and gaining more lift from the change. Some argue that the slight downward thrust reduced need to increase the angle of attack for the wing and prevented stalls in underpowered airframes.
Do you perhaps know why DC 9's have their engines thrust angled downward?
@nhytg376tgyuu765gjmg It is because thst is the direction the air is traveling at that location. The engines are behind the wing, and the wing pushes air downward. So as the plane travels, the air is pushed down behind the wing. So the engines are aligned with the flow of the air at that location.
Your stories and DR. Mark Fenton are the best on RUclips - very interesting . from an antique experienced pilot!
Thank you for another excellent video. Good to see that the Jahu plane still being preserved. I saw it 35 years ago and waa the plane that impressed me the most in the old museum at Ibirapuera park.
My mother was at the Chicago World's Fair when Balbo landed his squadron of S-55's. She said it was a very exciting and proud day for Americans of Italian descent.
I’m a plane fanatic, this plane caught me off guard. Fascinating !
It's a cool plane.
There’s an English pusher sea plane called a walrus, saved many downed air crews in ww 11.
I remember reading about the tans atlantic crossing when I was a kid I thought it was amazing high adventure, great story.
A catamaran hull is ideal for many circumstances. I'm imagining something like this on the Cornwall/Scillonia route
Excellent presentation, especially in light of the small amount of available sources. Bravo!
Why did no others ever think of the two hull design. It does look good. And I do think it makes it more stable on the water.
One of my favorite flying boats. Great presentation about a little known plane.
always something cool and interesting because lets face it the era you usually cover had so many different untried designs that needed to be tried to see what worked and what didnt
Always loved the S-55 design.
8:15
The Brazilian government purchased eleven of these planes with coffe beans (it's seems the fate of the 12th aircraft is unknown to me).
They were numbered 1 to 11, and incorporated into the Naval Aviation. (In January 1931)
The first seven aircraft were sent on a trip to Buenos Aires to take part in the celebrations of Argentina's independence anniversary
3 were lost due to accidents yet on 1931
And in April 1932, other two were lost
With the eclosion of the 1932 Civil War, the six remaining aircraft were used to bomb rebel positions, with two notable air raids: One at the Cubatão Power Plant and one at the Itaipu Fortress.
At the end of the war, five were still remaining
They were renumbered P1S-16 to P1S-20
P1S-16 was retired in 1933, the others were canibalized for spare parts until the last two were retired in 1936
I always had a fable for fying boats and katamarans....This just made my day! Thank you!
" Make Health and Safety officials apply for emotional Counselling " Lmo..the Cockpit looked pretty Cool , but that' Italians for you..great vid Rex at his best.
You can walk around the old seaplane base at Orbetello in Tuscany where they were based. It's not in good condition these days but still extremely interesting and worth a visit. There's a monument to Balbo just across the road from the base too.
Jackal?? 😄
The plane that started it for me! Fantastic!
Thank you so much for documenting my favorite aircraft, I've loved it since I saw it in porco Rosso and I printed blue prints for a stick and tissue model just 3 days ago building it rn lol
The quintessential sci-fi art deco flying machine! 💜
Love your videos; the Italians seem 2B nearly as bad as the French in keeping records of their acheivents. They do seem 2 emphasize individual human acheivment.
Is it really so hard to type out "to"?
Ah fantastic video. Thank you! BTW there is a great book from Italo Balbo about the transatlantic adventures, you may found some chapter interesting
Fascinating and informative as always. Tightly edited, nicely narrated, and - bless you! - no unnecessary, irrelevant music track. Bravo!
Love this--another interesting airplane I've never heard of
Dora Wings make a 1/72nd scale model of this aircraft that i've been meaning to buy for a while. It is, as you say, weirdly beautiful. :) Thank you for making such excellent videos. I think they are the best on youtube. Kind Regards from Scotland.
Damn. I want one of those S55s.
Another excellent video about a fascination airplane (although I was unaware of the larger S.66) but one wonders how that suggested flight engineer was going to climb up to those engines to work on them in flight. Access to engines seems to have been a big concern in the interwar period, with the Junkers G.38 and others types featuring it. I look foward to the DO-X video and seeing how all those throttles would be managed!
These Italian flying boats are wild. I would be very interested in learning more about the single seat fighter variants that were used against the Austrians during WW 1.
Been really enjoying your videos, especially the oddballs like this one!
Brilliantly researched and presented. Thanks for your hard work, you've earned another sub.
I'm so grateful and enthused that you portray lesser-known planes! Especially Flying Boats. Thanks!
I’m a huge fan of flying boats and had never even heard of this one. What a great plane. Thank you for bringing it out of the shadows.
I enjoy your coverage of the early flying machines. The Bellanca Airbus would be worth your time.
I have a question regarding the twin-hulled design. There are some high-performance boats, and some machines that can be considered a cross between a boat and a plane (the Ekranoplan, for instance) that use either a specially shaped wing/airfoil, or a twin-hulled design to catch air underneath the machine in order to exploit the ground effect to lift the machine up out of the water and attain higher speed by minimizing contact with the hull on the water itself to reduce friction.
Could the S.55 and S.66 use their twin-hulled designs to also exploit the ground effect by catching a cushion of air between the hulls and under the wing to decrease takeoff distances and also thus reduce fuel consumed on takeoff, and also possibly gentler, slower landings?
The users and pilots of the plane praised its handling, but perhaps the science didn't yet fully understood why they were so nice to fly and land.
It's said that during WWII many British night bomber crews were saved by the ground effect when a badly damaged bomber with most of engine power gone slowly closing the surface of the Northern Sea didn't finally hit the sea, but continued flying when the bolster of air pressure between the wings of the bomber and the sea surface kept the plane unexpectedly still airborne.
What a wonderful plane! Very enjoyable video. I am looking forward to more seaplane/flying hotel videos. Thank you for your efforts.
I really love the subjects you choose. It must also take a lot of time and trouble to research these Les well known aircraft so thank you. The videos are very enjoyable
Great video. :D
I'd like to hear more about the Dornier 24.
Maybe they rescued about 10000 from the channel, axis and allied pilots.
Can't wait for the Dornier vid. Thanks a million for all these. Fascinating.
This is a pretty cool airplane actually. There was a similar airplane built in France that was a passenger plane and land-based. It had a single massive engine in the nose and the pilot and crew set up on the fuselage while the passengers road in the spats around the main landing gear. I forget the name of it.
Passenger flying boats where so aesthetic and romantic.
At the 5:00 minute mark, it looks like they have a 4 bladed prop on the pusher engine, and a 2 bladed one on the front engine. Any mention on this in your research?
Great videos, Rex. Thanks.
I noticed that too... and what about the offset engine axis? Intriguing!
That is actually a common thing with push-pull paired engines. Since the rear propeller is running in the propwash of the front one, it tends to lose efficiency, hence a four blade propeller with larger area is used to improve said efficiency. For the same reason the rear propeller is usually mounted on a different axis to reduce interference between them.
My favorite Italian plane of all time!
Flying boats are the coolest form of transport it get around
Nice video. The flight to the Chicago World's Fair was one of the great feats of the Golden Age of Aviation.
Great work Sir
Awesome content, didn't know they made "catamaran" type hulls for flying boats...very smart design and must have got out of the water faster and with less power than monohull designs.
Thanks a bunch. I love these funky flying boats, would love to recreate this one for my radio control collection.
At one point in its travels, either the Santa Maria or the Santa Maria II landed on the Indian River net to Merritt Island in east-central Florida. I have a 1930s-vintage b&w negative image of that landing shot by my great grandfather, who retired there from his career in Pittsburgh, PA.
Great video as usual Rex. Keep them coming.
Another excellent video, Rex. Thanks
Very nice video! Excellent work and interesting topic!
A most interesting video. Prior to viewing this video, I had no idea this plane ever existed!
Wonderful videos. As a child I remember my father talking about the Dornier Wal, nicknamed in Spain as "pava" (female turkey bird), based in the Spanish hydro mooring of Atalayon, in former Spanish Morocco, near the present day city of Nador. I think these Dorniers were active inn the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
Very nice video, thank you for covering this subject!
We need more Italian interwar flying boats!
Thanks for the giggle, in regards to health and safety!!
Great on on research!
Excellent coverage.
1st class Ed.....remember a lovely article on them in the "Look and Learn" Magazine abt 1969.
Thanks for sharing
The Italians made some very sexy looking float planes.
Another excellent, well presented video. Lot's of interesting stuff, thankyou.
The Santa Maria landed in Elephant Butte, NM, before its fateful stop in Arizona. One of the salvaged propellers is on display in the Albuquerque airport passenger terminal.
sea planes fascinates me always, thank you
Well presented, thankyou. Balbo's name being used to describe any mass flight of aircraft following his extravagant formations also his somewhat exuberant personality.
A wonderful series of concise video presentations. Huzzah!
Enjoyed a lot. Keep up the good work.
Just subscribed. Fascinating video and very well narrated thanks.
Flying boats are just neat.
Thanks again for another great video!! Love the S-66 more than the S-55, but the both look the part!
Got your power back I see 😅, Another good one. I knew they flew to Chicago and New York but I didn't realize how many went. Wow. I also like the DO X and look 4ward to that one too.
Thanks 🙏 again
You are my hero, its one of the best aircraft ever, thx