SM.75 | |
---|---|
Role | Civil airliner & military transport |
Manufacturer | Savoia-Marchetti |
Designer | Alessandro Marchetti (1884-1966) |
First flight | 1937 |
Introduction | 1938 |
Retired | 1949 |
Primary users | Italy Hungary |
Number built | 90 |
The Savoia-Marchetti SM.75 was an Italian passenger and military transport aircraft of the 1930s and 1940s. It was a low-wing, trimotor monoplane of mixed metal and wood construction with a retractable tailwheel undercarriage. It was the last of a line of transport aeroplanes that Alessandro Marchetti began building in the early 1930s. The SM.75 was fast, robust, capable of long-range flight and could carry up to 24 passengers for 1,000 miles.
The SM.75 was designed in response to an enquiry from the Italian airline Ala Littoria, which was seeking a modern, middle-to-long-range airliner and cargo aircraft as a replacement for its Savoia-Marchetti S.73 aircraft. In his design of the SM.75, Savoia-Marchetti chief designer Alessandro Marchetti (1884–1966) retained the general configuration of the S.73 but introduced retractable main landing gear to reduce aerodynamic drag. The SM.75's airframe consisted of a steel-tube frame with fabric and plywood covering, and its control surfaces were plywood-covered. The SM.75 had a four-man crew, and its cabin was built to accommodate up to 25 passengers. Its short take-off run of 337 metres (1,105 feet) and shorter landing distance of 280 metres (919 feet) meant that it could operate from short runways on secondary airfields.
The SM.75 was powered by three Alfa Romeo 126 RC.34 radial engines rated at 559 kilowatts (750 horsepower) each at 3,400 meters (11,155 feet). Eleven aircraft fitted with three Alfa Romeo 126 RC.18 14-cylinder engines rated at 641 kilowatts (860 horsepower) at 1,800 metres (5,905 feet) were designated the SM.75bis.