Contest: what project is this ? (Ermanno Bazzocchi's wartime EB-9)

Skybolt

Skybolt

ACCESS: Top Secret
Senior Member
Joined
14 June 2006
Messages
2,297
Reaction score
480
Haven't proposed one of my contests with no prize for a while... This is difficult (not REALLY difficult) but feasible. I can say it is WW2-era.
Now the ball is in your court, gentlemen...
 

Attachments

  • Mystery.gif
    Mystery.gif
    51 KB · Views: 920
Hi!

Two very obvious alternatives - Burnelli and Cunliff-Owen.
Am I right?
:cool:
 
Douglas XCG-19, perhaps? Or any of the unbuilt CG- cargo gliders?
 
The drawing style says Savoia Marchetti to me. Picking a type number is more challenging; SM-99?
 
I agree with you red admiral, but S.M.99? I believe a forrunner or a later version of the S.M.104... ??? (or S.M.105/106)
 
I dont know directly why , but the concept made me think about Bartini...
 
Maveric said:
I agree with you red admiral, but S.M.99? I believe a forrunner or a later version of the S.M.104... ??? (or S.M.105/106)
Click to expand...

Hi Maveric;

It is not SM.104 or SM.105,and SM.106 and SM.107 were not a twin boom aircraft,
I agree with my dear Lark or it is from Germany,I displayed a concept looks like it
from many months,but I don't remember the name of the designer now.
 
Hesham, you´re right S.M.106 is not a twin boom transport, but why not S.M.104 or 105?

Maybe a project by Alcor...
...the design of the props...
 
Maveric said:
Hesham, you´re right S.M.106 is not a twin boom transport, but why not S.M.104 or 105?

Maybe a project by Alcor...
...the design of the props...
Click to expand...

Maveric;

I have the drawing for SM.104,it is not for it,and the SM.105 was here;
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,5390.0/highlight,sm+105.html

and for SM.106,SM.107 and even SM.109 were a normal transport aircraft
projects and they haven't a twin boom configuration.
 
I still go for "American", personally. Perhaps not a CG- project, but something from the same era, i.e. circa 1942.
 
- have to remember all that SM-10X designations are all post-war. Anyway, it's nor American. And it is not M.archetti's. And, Paul, it isn't Bartini's. _h, and it's not English nor German..
 
I'd say it’s a Saab design. They worked on buried engines and twin boom designs in the early 1940s so it has design context. Also Sweden would have had a strong requirement for a load carrying transport aircraft in 1942 to sustain external trade without the risk of the warzone North Sea.
 
Continental Europe.. a 2e guess...
Something found during your research for the Italian Secret Projects book...?
 
Yes, Paul, it's Italian... but it wasn't found by me (that would have been a REALLY difficult contest.. ;) ).
So, gentlemen, it's Italian, it's 1942, it isn't Savoia Marchetti's, and.... engines were Alfa Romeo 135... this should say you something...
 
I wish its a uknown Caproni... ;)

I believe only the big italian manufacturers projected such a big airplane (Breda, Caproni, Piaggio or FIAT).
 
..er, Caproni wouldn't have used an Alfa Romeo engine in a design without being forced.... Ditto Piaggio and FIAT. And there were other manufacturers that designed big airplanes besides those four. I mean primary ones. I can think at least of two of them, and one of those is the right one.
 
Piaggio?

The manufacturer of several really heavy bombers, including P-108?
 
No, it isn't Ambrosini (I don't consider them a "major manufacturer", BTW). Piaggio wouldn't have used an Alfa engine without constriction... No, Hesham, nice try but it isn't IMAM... Now, we have listed everyone, but two builders. One of the two is the right one. They are both Northern Italy based, one still exists today.
 
I count three companies: Macchi, Breda and CANT - all from Northern Italy - still not a clue ???
 
Hi!

Arjen said:
I count three companies: Macchi, Breda and CANT - all from Northern Italy - still not a clue ???
Click to expand...

I think only Macchi (now part of Finmeccanica) is the only survivor from this list.
Is this twin-boomer a Macchi's one?
 
Congrats, you got it !
To be precise, it is the EB.9, by Ermanno Bazzocchi (of MB.326 fame). If built it would have been called Macchi EB.9 (like is was done for Castoldi Macchi C.202 for example). Bazzocchi entered Macchi in 1941 as principal associate designer, hired by the company to substitute Castoldi in a few years (this happened in mid-45). The EB.9 was intended as an assault transport, designed to what looks like some sort of informal specification circulated by early 1942 that produced the SM.96 I (you know only the SM.96 II, that was a totally different beast) and later the SM.96 III. The design evolved for circa two years and it's final configuration was of more conventional shape, targeted to post-war medium capacity air transport for passenger/cargo. In this later incarnation, the EB.9 was benchmarked by Bazzocchi against two competing design, the Ca.179 and... the SM.99. Problem is that, while we have info on the Ca.179, there is absolutely nothing on the SM.99. My guess is that is was a wartime early designation of what later became the SM.104 (or the SM.105 twin first version, not the later detachable-pod configuration that is much better known). There is a no-designation SM October 1943 design for a tricycle-wheeled passenger transport, but is was considerably larger (4 Alfa 135). The EB.9 in this later version was still powerd by two Alfa 135s.
I'll post all the drawings of the EB.9 that are available, plus some specs. And then I'll reveal where you can find them and many more... for a modicum amount of money (no, it isn't ISP).
 
Thanks for your infos, Skybolt. I like italian aircraft projects... :eek:
 
Part of the problem might have been when a particular engine was suggested...a radial...and that picture didn't look like an airplane with radial engines.
 
Hi,

this is meaning Mr. Ermanno Bazzocchi had anther 8 designs,EB.1 to EB.8,
are all of them aircraft or what ?.
 
Yes, Hesham, good questions. They were airplanes and sailplanes. Not all of them were done when at Macchi. Most famous of all is the EB.4, which was a "people plane", a little canard (canards were always a keen interest for Bazzocchi; he started to use them anew in various configurations of the MB-340 and 341, and in the ATX and derived projects).
 
Uh, regarding the radial, yes, the design of the cowling is very streamlined, but the notes by Bazzocchi explicitly specify Alfa 135s. Keep in mind that the one shown is a conceptual early design, that wouldn't have been possibly built by a company like Macchi at the time (complex, dual curvature surfaces, etc). In the following refined designs the shapes were less streamlined and more "buildable". The basic idea of the project was to marry the lifting fuselage idea from Burnell with the streamlined contour from Miles (Burnelli's and early Miles X projects were well known in Italy at that time, since they had been covered in magazines like L'Aerotecnique and Flight, that were widely read in Italy in the aeronautical coomunity).
I'm scanning like mad, tomorrow I'll start to post EB.9s.
 
E.B. 1 " Littore " sporting sailplane 1934
E.B. 2 sporting sailplane 1936
E.B. 3 ( C. 3 ) sporting sailplane project 193?
E.B. 4 research aircraft 1944
 
The C.3 was another kind of beast. ok, I'll post that too... :p
And the EB. was earlier than 1944.
 
Ok, Mav ! ;D
Now let me finish the scanning for this, I'm late, I'm late, as the White Rabbit said....
 
Ok, here we go. In late 1942 Bazzocchi modified the first configuration of its assault transport in a way more manufacturable by Macchi standards. In so doing, the design became more angular and apparently lost the ability to load and unload cargo via a rear door in a roll-on/roll-off fashion. Intended engines were alfa 135s.
 

Attachments

  • EB9 evo-1.gif
    EB9 evo-1.gif
    33.9 KB · Views: 504

Similar threads

Please donate to support the forum.

Back
Top Bottom