Last italian bombers part 1 - Savoia Marchetti S.M. 95B

[archipeppe]

In the latest issue of Italian bi-monthly "Aerei nella Storia" the good Nico Sgarlato has written a nice article about the SM 95B (the "b" is for bomber) the latest Italian heavy bomber ever flown.

It was conceived by SIAI (or Savoia) Marchetti project office in early 40's as a sort of "puzzle bomber", it was made up by the SM-82A ("armato") fuselage coupled with SM-95C ("Civil") engines, wing and tail and the FIAT BR 20 nose.

Some drawings about such bomber were realized across the years but all of them was not consintent od imprecise. Sgarlato's article shows up a clean 3-views (probably original factory drawing with machine gun position) and a good illustration of Michele Marsan. This one, in my guess, is good but not exactly precise. Since all the sources are according about the BR-20's nose, any of them specify the version, my opinion is that SM 95B exploited the BR-20Bis nose instead of earlier version.

So I decided to realize my own drawings to illustrate such concept, here they are.
Enjoy them!

P.S. For those who read Italian:
http://www.aereinellastoria.it/

 

[Skybolt]

Peppe, thanks for giving me the opportunity to note that, having written the article in Aerofan No. 99 on which the Nico's account is based, the bomber side view is wrong. The Corrieri Militari version (disarmed transport) is inspired to the one on the cover of the Dimensione Cielo volume covering the SM-95. It was transformed in the factory in a very informal manner (no engineering drawings done). I've a full scale drawing of the SM-95B I never bothered to scan (it's two meters long..), but I see I'll have to buck some 20 euros just to save the posterity from error. As for the BR-20 nose, it wasn't a BR-20 nose, it was simply a nose inspired by the BR-20 one.... And besides this, the intended in-line engines were DB.601 or DB-601Es (Marchetti did calculations for both). I hadn't yet discovered the document saying this when a I wrote the article. And no, the design wasn't intended for Germany.
Uh, yes, the armament disposition document is original and it was published in the aforementioned Aerofan issue. I have the inline powered version one, too. Lastly, the color of the bomber version is wrong: it was a night bomber, so the intended color was matt black overall (see P-108). Just to set things straight.

 

[archipeppe]

Thank's a lot Skybolt!!

Such clarification is very welcomed in order to better enlight this obscured project.
Unfortunately I don't have Aerofan n. 99 in my library, so I have exploited all I had (ok very few) about the SM 95B, the summentioned Sgarlato's article, an old "Dimensione Cielo - Trasporto Vol.9" and an also older article of "Aerei" (in mid '70s) with a brief description for the "Operazione S".

I will eager to modify my drawings in order to make them correct (as much as possible), but I need to have some more reference material about the nose to do that.
I will also update the camouflage in order to match it with the P-108B's one (anyway the Marsan drawing on "Aerei nella Storia" had also the belly painted in grey....).

A small question: there was two different SM 95B versions? One with Alfa Romeo (or Piaggio at least) radial engines and one with the DB 601, or the bomber version had only German engines while the civil version had the radial ones?

 

[Nico]

Hi Archipeppe,
as Skybolt said, the SM.95B was a very elusive project; unfortunately (or happily, according the various pint of view) to write about aircraft is my job and sometime we have some stringent requirements, in terms of space and time, from the publishers and not even the final result correspond to what was expected. The artist's impression of the SM.95B that appeared on 'Aerei nella Storia' was strictly based on a wooden wind tunnel model of the bomber but Michele had very little time to perfect it and eventualy the design is faulty in some areas.
As Skybolt said, I would say that the nose of the SM.95B was similar in design to the BR.20bis and not the very same...
Anyway your impressions are by far the best I have ever seen of that beast.
Nico

 

[archipeppe]

Anyway your impressions are by far the best I have ever seen of that beast.
Nico

Many thanks for your kind words Nico!! ;D ;D

Anyway are you the great Nico Sgarlato?
If yes, is indeed a great pleasure to meet you here (I'm a long time reader of Aerei, Aerospazio Mese, Aerei nella Storia and all the other Delta publications). I'm also a fan of Marsan's masterpieces.

As wrote to Skybolt I'm ready (and also happy) to modify my drawings in order to match (as much as possible) them with the SM 95 actual design.

P.S. BTW I'm also working on Piaggio P. 50 (I and II) and P. 133 three views for future delivery here...
P.P.S. In future I will also work on Stefanutti's fighters family from Freccia to Leone (for the last one a three views was also delivered during 2010:
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,9822.msg91450.html#msg91450)

 

[Nico]

Yes, Peppe:
He's me! But I'm non to great: I'm tall less than 5.5 ft and my wight is 130 lbs!
As you know, I'm particularly interested in the Piaggio P.133 (its only prototype was being built less than 20 km from my home). As for the SM.95, Michele was forced to 'invent' (at least partly9 its impression on 'Aerei nella Storia' # 61 (pages 8-9) as the information the editors' committee sent him was lost.
As you can see, the two fin and rudders were less triangular and more rounded and the entire fuselage was a bit less... Liberatorish.
About the livery, Sky's opinion is that tha aircraft should be painted black overall, as the P.108B and surely is correct but... perhaps the black livery was considered operational, and the P.133 was only a prototype, then I don't rule out the standard dark olive green camouflage with light blue-gray undersurfaces.
About markings every solution is open as we talk of a "what if": the prototype was ordered in the period between January and August 1943, until July 25 all Italian aircraft had the "fasci", but after that date remained only the Savoy cross on the rudder. After September 8, every new aircraft had Luftwaffe insignia but, as we know all activity was stopped.

Nico

 

[archipeppe]

As you can see, the two fin and rudders were less triangular and more rounded and the entire fuselage was a bit less... Liberatorish.
About the livery, Sky's opinion is that tha aircraft should be painted black overall, as the P.108B and surely is correct but... perhaps the black livery was considered operational, and the P.133 was only a prototype, then I don't rule out the standard dark olive green camouflage with light blue-gray undersurfaces.

Many thanks for such further details Nico!!

I'm relying my drawings on the Garello's Book about P-108 (I'm pretty sure you know it better than me), especially the wind-tunnell wooden model that it is represented inside the book.

Actually that model seems to resemble more an AVRO Lancaster (or Lancastrian judging the rounded nose) than a B-24 Liberator, but it also could be an earlier version of the P-133 while the actual built incorporated more details coming from the B-24 captured by Regia. And we all know the strong Casiraghi's interest about American aeronautics.

As soon as I will finish my job about P-133 I will post here (in a dedicated thread anyway).

 

[Skybolt]

Peppe,the one and only built SM-95B had Alfa 128 RC 24. The bomber and civilian versions were very different, the B had the same fuselage of the Sm-82, the SM-95C (Civile) had a fuselage similar to the SM-75 one. Actually, the first C prototype was different from the post-war ones, the fuselage was longer. As for the engines, the C had either Alfas or P&W (this post-war). The in-line version was considered but never ordered and built. I have an original document describing it with a Marchetti's scribble (he had a very intricate script, to say the least) saying "with this engine, it would be worthwile to use a more aerodynamicay profiled fuselage" ("con questi motori meriterebbe usare una fusoliera profilatissima"), and that's all. BTW, using the DBs would have be necessary to re-design the engine nacelles, and the time was running out.

 

[archipeppe]

Many thanks Skybolt such new details makes things clearer (at least to me) about the intricate, and often obscure, SM-95 evolution.

 

[airman]

Ah, welcome Nico Sgarlato, i admire your articles , i like " Aerei" , "Aerei nella Storia" , so i like works of Marsan !

 

[airman]

Savoia Marchetti S.M. 95B

Well, about pictures we know more, but technical data of SM.95B ?

 

[Skybolt]

Re: Savoia Marchetti S.M. 95B

Alla data refer to the built version:

Lenght: 22.70 mts
Span: 34.28 mts
Wing surface: 128.30 sqmts
Empty weight: 12,800 kgs
MTOW: 23,000 kgs
Max bomb load: 4,000 kgs
Crew: 9
Defensive armament: 5 12.7 mm SAFAT machine guns (350 rounds per weapon)
Max speed: 360.00 KM/h
Cruise speed: 250 KM/h
Radius with a 2,000 kgs bomb load: 1,500 KM

 

[Antonio]

merged