Macchi M.26

Macchi

Industry	Aerospace
Headquarters	Italy
Products	Aircraft

Template:Infobox aircraft

The Macchi M.26 was an Italian prototype flying boat fighter, designed and produced by Macchi in 1924.

Design and development

In 1924, the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy) issued a specification to find a successor to its existing Macchi M.7ter flying boat fighter. To challenge the SIAI S.58 for the production contract, Macchi’s lead designer, Mario Castoldi (1888–1968), created the M.26. This aircraft was a wooden, single-seat biplane with a single-bay wing structure, featuring equal-span, unstaggered wings covered with plywood and fabric. It was armed with two fixed, forward-firing 7.7-millimeter (0.303-inch) Vickers machine guns. The powerplant was a 221-kilowatt (296-horsepower) Hispano-Suiza HS 42 V8 engine, mounted above the hull on struts beneath the upper wing, driving a pusher propeller configuration. Notably for its class, the M.26 exhibited a streamlined aerodynamic design.

Completed and flown for the first time in 1924, the M.26 demonstrated promising performance during testing. Despite constructing two prototypes, the Regia Marina ultimately decided against procuring the new model, opting instead to extend the operational life of their existing Macchi M.7ter fleet by re-engining them as a cost-saving measure. Consequently, no production orders were placed for the M.26. Nevertheless, this design influenced Macchi’s later development of the Macchi M.41, which incorporated features derived from the M.26 several years afterward.

Operators

Template:Country data Kingdom of Italy

• Regia Aeronautica

Specifications

Template:Aircraft specs Notes:

• Climb to 4,000 m (13,123 ft): 12 minutes 18 seconds

References

• Green, William, and Gordon Swanborough. The Complete Book of Fighters: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Every Fighter Aircraft Built and Flown. New York: SMITHMARK Publishers, 1994. ISBN 0-8317-3939-8.