Italian Forces

Prone pilot dive bomber

Ali e Uomini

The only prototype of the prone pilot dive bomber Savoia-Marchetti SM.93 before a test flight at Vergiate airport, early 1944. The origins of this unique Italian aircraft back to September 1942 when Alessandro Marchetti, chief designer and main stakeholder of the Savoia-Marchetti, planned a plane for reply to Italian Air Force’s requirements for dive bombers. The Marchetti’s idea was a two-seater single-engine with the pilot in prone position and gunner/radio operator in classic position, all wooden structure, powered by a Fiat RA 1050 RC. 58 “Tifone” (Typhoon), 1,250 HP at 5,800 meters (the German Daimler-Benz DB.605 built in Italy under license). Armament: a bomb (820 kg, 480 kg or 420 kg) under the fuselage or four 100 kg bombs under wing, one Mauser 20 mm cannon in the nose firing through the propeller hub, two 12.7 mm machine guns in the wings and another 12.7 machine gun traversed by the gunner for rear sector’s defence. The Air Ministry requested two prototypes, price 2,800,000 lire each, but none was completed before the Italy’s armistice (8 September 1943) when only the first were in advanced assembly. The German control authorities authorized of this prototype’s construction which was completed on January 1944. On 30 January the test pilot Fernando Rosei began taxi tests at Vergiate of the plane, already with German markings (as all the other Italian aircraft built in this time), for familiarization with the unusual position of the pilot, stretched over a sort of crib, and of the controls. On 31 January 1944 Rosei flew the SM.93 for first time observing the general good airplane’s behavior, impression validated also by the further flights (some with the manufacturer’s air mechanic Giuseppe Ceratti on the back, conventional seat). Also the dive’s test given good results, during a test was reached a speed near 900 km/h. The cockpit was modified for a better pilot’s position: panning over the crib, anchor bolts for the legs to avoid the onwards displacement of the pilot during the dives and brace for the chin so as to keep erect the pilot’s head without the continuous traction of the neck’s muscles. However the unnatural position proved oneself very hard for the pilot. On 29 March 1944 the total activity of the SM.93 was: 16 missions for a total of 6 hours and 40 minutes of flight. The same day the German commission commanded the halt of the tests because the Luftwaffe’s interest for the SM.93. Allegedly after this date the plane was phased out and scrapped. Victor Sierra