This Day in Aviation History
July 6th, 1926
First flight of the Macchi M.39.

The Macchi M.39 was a racing seaplane designed and built by the Italian aircraft company Macchi Aeronautica in 1925–26. An M.39 piloted by Major Mario de Bernardi (1893–1959) won the 1926 Schneider Trophy, and the type also set world speed records that year.

The M.39 was designed by Mario Castoldi (1888–1968) to represent Italy in the 1926 Schneider Trophy race, and it was the first low-wing monoplane that he designed for Macchi. It was a single-seat, twin-float racing seaplane, of mixed (metal and wooden) construction. The wooden wings were wire-braced, with two thirds of the upper surfaces used as low drag surface radiators. The pilot sat in an open cockpit parallel with the trailing edge of the wing; the cockpit’s windscreen was profiled into the fuselage decking to reduce aerodynamic drag. The floats carried fuel.

The M.39 had features specializing it for Schneider Trophy competition. The course circuit required left turns, so the left wingtip was slightly farther from the fuselage than the right wingtip to allow it to make tighter left-hand turns. To counteract propeller torque reaction, the floats had unequal buoyancy…..

Source:
Wikipedia, Macchi M.39: http://gstv.us/29Mlx9U

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