Macchi M.C.72

The Macchi M.C.72 was an experimental seaplane designed and built by the Italian aircraft company Macchi Aeronautica. The M.C.72 held the world speed record for all aircraft for five years. In 1933 and 1934, it set a world record for speed over water which still stands to this day. The Macchi M.C.72 was one of a series of seaplanes developed by Macchi Aeronautica. An earlier model, the M.24 was a twin-engine flying boat armed with machine guns and capable of carrying a torpedo. Later in the 1920s, Macchi focused on speed and on winning the Schneider Trophy. In 1922, the company hired aircraft designer Mario Castoldi to design high-speed aircraft. In 1926, the company won the trophy with the M.39 which attained a top speed of 396 km/h (246 mph). Further planes (the M.52, M.52R, and the M.67) were designed and built but victory in the Schneider races kept eluding the Italians. Castoldi then designed the ultimate racing seaplane, the M.C.72, a single seater aircraft with two floats. The design of the Macchi M.C.72 was unique with a fuselage partly metal to the cockpit and wood monocoque bolted to the front tubular portion by four bolts. The streamlined nose contours enclosed an oil tank with its outside wall exposed to the airstream. The wing was all metal with flat tubular water radiators smoothly faired into the wings. The twin pontoons had three smoothly-faired radiators on the outer surfaces, the forward radiator for water and the centre and rear radiators for oil cooling.