Savoia Marchetti SM-94

[Skybolt]

Ok, this is another never-seen-before from "Il Bel Paese".
If you ever asked yourself if there was something between the SM-93 and the SM-95, here's the answer. Actually very lttle is known regarding this design. The views I post (sorry for low rez and small size, but, you know... PM me if REALLY interested...) are very late in the war, July 17th 1943, just a week before the overthrow of Benito. First the few facts then my interpretation. It is a twin-engines (I.F. Deltas) twin crew, rather heavily armed for Italian standards (four 20 mm guns plus a 12,7 mm machine gun manned by the second man of the crew, facing rear) attack aircraft (NOT a dive bomber, though). Five hard points, four under the wings, one under the fuselage. Carries bombs or a torpedo (I'm working from other drawings I'm not posting). Structure: probably traditional trellis (steel tubes) in the rear of the fuselage, no data on the rest.
Interpretation: differently from what I posted in another topic, I now think it is NOT linked to the "zanzara" program which gave birth to the Ca-381 Corsaro (earlier program than this one). Delta engines point to some hush-hush (probably work started in April-May 1943) and low-cost need and wouldn't have provided very high performance (less than 2000 total HP installed). Maybe intended as a smaller alternative to the S-79 as a torpedo bomber. Anyway, it wasn't pursued further.

 

[Apophenia]

Thanks Skybolt! As you say, probably not a great performer but bellissima nonetheless.

 

[red admiral]

Thanks for another rare aircraft. Looks very nice. Very similar to Stelio Frati's 1943 design for a torpedo bomber.

How do you think the rear machine gun was arranged? The rear glazed section moves upwards and reveals the weapon on a flexible mounting?

 

[Skybolt]

Yep, but Stelio's design was larger.
Gun mounting, the drawings I have leave the question unanswered, but I think the rear unglazed section of the canopy slided rearward (telesc0pe-like). I attach two magnification of the drawings I have.

 

[Skybolt]

Additional info (just found): the first (actually the second, the first instance was briefly in 1937) use on the SM-94 designation is from August 1942, when a "model" is cited as in construction. Nevrtheless, there is no hint that this early SM-94 is the same of the drawing form July 1943. It was customary for Savoia-Marchetti to assign internal provisional designations to projects. Sometimes they were officially accepted, sometimes they were changed to become official. For example, the SM-91 that was actually built was SM-88 until December 1942.

 

[lark]

This is not only a 'never seen before' but also a
'never spoken about before' I think.
I never found a source about this design..
Thanks Sky !

 

[Skybolt]

Since I am reordering my archive for the notorious reasons, I have come to fully understand the amount of documents that has been lost regarding Italian aviation history. Just to give an example: without a certain fortuitous discovery a couple of years ago, one couldn't reconstruct the history of an apparently well-known aircraft as the SM-91. I have a sense that the surviving archival material for the period 1940-1943 regarding industrial and technical matters (the operational docs survived for two main reasons: interest by the Allies in compiling their historical records, and need to set the operational records of personnel in order to set pensions and career matters post-war) is no more that 30 per cent of the total on average, with areas of complete darkness (e.g. Aeritalia from mid 1941 to late 1943, Alfa Romeo-Pomigliano for the two last years of the war, und so weiter). Then there is the ANR techical history that's another issue.
And wait to see the three SM-96....

 

[Retrofit]

Additional info (just found): the first (actually the second, the first instance was briefly in 1937) use on the SM-94 designation is from August 1942

I read somehere that, in the middle of the 30s, the designer Flaminio Piana-Canova was in contact with Alexandro Marchetti, from Savoia-Marchetti company, and together they briefly projected, under the designation SM-94, a tri-engine bomber equipped with a rhomboïdal wing.

But I have not found any other information confirming this project and its related designation.

 

[alfiero]

Dear Skybolt I'd like to talk with you about SIAI projects... how can I contact you? alfiero@orangotown.com