EB.4,
Ermanno Bazzocchi was one of the most famous Italian aeronautical designers. Born in Tradate in 1914, he graduated in Engineering at the Milan Polytechnic in 1938, and for most of his life he linked his name to that of the most famous aeronautical company in Varese, Aermacchi, of which he became Technical Director 1945 he left in 1989 after having been its Chief Executive Officer until the previous year.
During the years of the Second World War the young and enterprising Bazzocchi began to design a small experimental aircraft with "canard" architecture (i.e. with the horizontal plane placed in front of the main wing and not behind, like de tella majoric and not behind the front and engine rear with pushing propeller.It is essentially the progenitor of the famous VariEze of the seventies.
During the war the technical literature concerning "canards" and tricycle trolleys was very scarce, so Bazzocchi had to ingenuity to learn through experimentation and… errors. He designed the EB-4, tested a couple of aerodynamic models in the wind tunnel of the Milan Polytechnic and finally, in 1944, the project was ready for construction.
Aeronautica Sestetti was involved, specialized in the construction of gliders, which built the aircraft in a few months under the assiduous supervision of the designer. At the beginning of 1945 the prototype was ready to be tested and Bazzocchi himself was the test pilot. Since the first taxis on the ground, he noticed a design error: the nose gear supported an excessive part of the weight of the aircraft and this, combined with the beating moment of the engine placed high on the tail, made it almost impossible to lift. After a few unsuccessful attempts, Bazzocchi finally managed to lift the aircraft off the ground and make a short straight flight but on landing the nose dropped excessively and the nose gear gave way. It was repaired in a few days and the EB-4 was flown again but bad luck raged again: the crankshaft broke and after landing the small aircraft was definitively grounded.
Despite everything, the experience of the EB-4 was useful to Bazzocchi to correctly design the tricycle undercarriage of his next creature, the MB-308, which became a highly successful aircraft.
Then the EB-4 was stored for 40 years in a corner of the Varese Aero Club, then by Aermacchi technicians in 1985 and stored in the Aermacchi Historic Center. In 1998 it was donated to the Italian Air Force Museum, which has always kept it on display. In 2022, the Air Force entrusted it to Volandia, where it joined the display of other very famous aircraft designed by Bazzocchi and built by Aermacchi: MB-308, MB-326 and MB-339.
Ermanno Bazzocchi è stato uno dei più famosi...
volandia.it
![Bazzocchi_EB-4_[Malpensa_22_June_2022].jpg](/data/attachments/235/235673-6ef1499072b8dd6ecaee1c29560faad9.jpg)
