Savoia-Marchetti S.55

Maximum speed: 279 km/h (173 mph)
Range: 3,500 km (2,175 miles)
Service ceiling: 5,000 m (16,405 ft)
Rate of climb: m/min ( ft/min)
Wing loading: kg/m² ( lb/ft²)
Power/Mass: kW/kg ( hp/lb)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Savoia-Marchetti S.55 was a double-hulled flying boat produced in Italy beginning in 1924. Shortly after its introduction it began setting records for speed, payload, altitude and range. It was one of the first airplanes to cross the Atlantic Ocean when the Santa Maria under Francesco de Pinedo made the crossing between Dakar, Senegal and Pernambuco, Brazil in February of 1927; 4 months before Charles Lindbergh's first solo crossing. The Italian Air Marshall of the time, Italo Balbo soon became famous for organizing fleets of S.55s for Atlantic crossings, culminating in his 1933 flight with 24 aircraft to Chicago's Century of Progress International Exposition. These large fleets of aircraft became so well known that even today a large formation is sometimes called a "Balbo". The aircraft went on to serve the Italian Air Force and the Luftwaffe in World War II as a long range bomber and patrol aircraft.

An S.55 taking off

The S.55 featured many innovative design features. All the passengers or cargo were placed in the twin hulls, but the pilot and crew captained the plane from a cockpit in the thicker section of the wing between the two hulls. As well, the S.55 had two inline counter-rotating propellors, achieved by mounting the twin engines back to back.