Savoia-Marchetti SM-105 twin-boom Pack Plane project......

[Caravellarella]

Dear Boys & Girls, here is another "Secret Project" for you, the Savoia-Marchetti SM105; an Italian variation on the "Pack Plane" theme......

Actually, it isn't "Secret", but it is a "Project"......

The cutting is from the 21st August 1948 issue of Les Ailes......

Terry (Caravellarella)......

 

[Skybolt]

Re: Savoia-Marchetti SM-105......

Sure, this is the four-engine version. There was a two-engines one, too. The story of the SM-105 is a curious one. It started as an improved version of the SM-104 (submission to the Concorso of 1946), a conventional construction.he rginal brochure is date early August 1947. Then in Late-August and September 1947 two things happened. Flight published a provisional art impression of the XC-120 (here http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,4159.msg32769.html#msg32769) and Miles exhibited a detachable fuselage proto (M-68) at Farnborough. Marchetti redesigned the SM-105 as a detachable fuselage cargo and in October 1947 a new brochure was ready. The derivation of the design from the Flight impression is evident in the configuration of the cockpit, that is different from the actual XC-120 one. BTW, the SM-105 cockpit arrangement would have been impractical (even dangerous) in landing.... Marchetti copied it without giving too much mind to the visibility problems, assuming the Americans would have known better...