There was also a 7.7 mm (0.303 in) Lewis Gun in one of a pair of “waist” mounts, on a mount that allowed rapid change of side of the weapon. Three of these were 12.7 mm (0.5 in) guns, two of which were positioned in the dorsal “hump”, with the forward one (with 300 rounds) fixed at an elevation of 15°, and the other manoeuvrable with 60° pivotal movement in the horizontal, and 0–70° in the vertical plane. Soon however, the Sparviero faced the Hawker Hurricane and the naval Fairey Fulmar, which was faster but still quite slow in relation to other escort fighters. The maximum ferry range, when flown at its optimal cruise speed, was unconfirmed; in order to reach Addis Ababa with non-stop flights from Libya, SM.79s were frequently modified in order to carry more fuel, and were able to fly over 2,000 km (1,200 mi). Endurance when flown at full load was reportedly around 4 hours 30 minutes at an average speed of 360 km/h (220 mph).
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- The ‘Sparviero’ started its operational service at the end of 1936 when 8� Stormo B.T.
- The series organized by the Campeonato Nacional de Carreras Federado uses the Tatuus FA010 chassis from the Formula Abarth, one of the predecessors of the Formula 4 car.
- The pilot, Solimene, and1° Aviere Armiere Torrisi were rescued from the sea, but the other four crew members were lost.
- The Sparviero began its torpedo bomber (Aerosilurante in Italian) career on 25 July 1940 when a new unit was established after several years of experiments.
- More recently as of 2020, the series has run alongside older F3 chassis as a part of the Finnish Championship Series’ category Formula Open Finland.
The first sortie under way on 15 August 1940 saw five SM.79s that had been modified and prepared for the task sent to El Adem airfield. Not all of these wings had Gruppi (groups) entirely equipped with the SM.79. 12 Wing was involved in the initial evaluation of the bomber, which continued throughout 1936. The engines were subsequently replaced by Alfa Romeo 125 RC.35s (license-produced Bristol Pegasus). The wings were of all-wood construction, with trailing edge flaps and leading edge slats (Handley-Page type) to offset its relatively small size.
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Following its service in the Spanish Civil War, the Sparviero came into use with 111° and 8° Wing. The torpedo bomber variant was much more unstable and harder to control than the civilian version (and much less precise than its successor, the SM.81). A pair of Fiat BR.20s had also competed in the same race, but were only able to achieve a joint sixth place (with a SM.79) and an eighth place. The bombardier, who had an 85° forward field of view from his position, was normally provided with a “Jozza-2” aiming system, automatic cameras and a series of bomb-release mechanisms. Of all its defensive weapons, the dorsal one was often considered to be the most important as, following the shift to low-level attacks, the Sparviero was attacked almost exclusively from the rear and above. Bristol Beaufighters were fast and well-armed, and as well as being effective long-range day fighters, were successful night interceptors and late in the war often chased Sparvieros in night missions.
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Italy also had six SM.79s as part of the reserve forces but two of them were under repair. The pilot, Solimene, and1° Aviere Armiere Torrisi were rescued from the sea, but the other four crew members were lost. On 26 April 1937, three SM.79 took part in the bombing of Basque town of Guernica, carried out with the Nazi German Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion, at the behest of Francisco Franco’s rebel Nationalist faction. One of the SM.79s was damaged, but its defensive armament prevented the fighters from performing close-up attacks. By 4 November 1936, there were only six SM.79s with enough crew to fly them operating in Spain.
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- Even these modifications could not provide sufficient range to achieve the necessary distance that the mission required, and so all weapons except one were removed, one member of crew was left behind, and the fuel load was increased to 5,000 L (1,320 US gal).
- Both Yugoslavia and Romania opted to procurethe type for their own air services, while large numbers were also procured forthe Regia Aeronautica.
- The craftsman added a small chamfer to the metal bracket.
During 1937, the Romanian government decided to place an order for 24 twin-engined SM.79B bombers, fitted with 746 kW (1,000 hp) Gnome-Rhône Mistral Major 14K radial engines. Some of these aircraft escaped to Greece, carrying King Peter Karadjordjevic and his entourage. Favourable reports of the type’s reliability and performance during the Spanish Civil War led to the 1938 Kingdom of Yugoslavia’s order of 45 aircraft generally similar to the SM.79-I variant, designated the SM.79K. Additionally, several more Allied warships were torpedoed and suffered serious damage as a result of attacks by the SM.79s.
After the war, a few of them continued to serve with the new Italian air force Aeronautica Militare as passenger transports; they were retired in 1952. After the Italian surrender, 34 SM.79 bombers served with the pro-Allies government and 36 served with the pro-Axis government in the north. Another aircraft captured at Castel Benito was a Fiat G.50 Freccia single-engined fighter, which was also painted in RAF markings, but later handed over to the USAAF 79th Fighter Group. The aircraft was later handed over to a USAAF unit, but was destroyed by fire before it could be flown. This aircraft was repainted in British markings with the Squadron code letters ZX, and used extensively as a Squadron communications aircraft and wore the name Gremlin HQ. These were former Yugoslav Air Force aircraft which went into operation with No. 117 RAF Squadron in Khartoum on 30 April 1941.
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The Sparvieri were already obsolete and phased out of service in bomber Wings and its intended successors, the SM.84 and Z.1007, were considered to be failures, while the latter were not produced in enough numbers. Despite the increased activity in 1942, the results were considerably poorer than those of the previous year; the efforts made by the bombers were subject to heavy criticism and widely deemed to have been insufficient. On 18 November, the light cruiser HMS Arethusa was torpedoed and badly damaged during Operation Stone Age.
The first recorded interception of an SM.79 formation took place on 11 October 1937 when three aircraft were attacked by a formation of 12 Polikarpov I-16s. Around 19 SM.79s of what was dispatched to the Spanish theatre were lost, while deliveries to 12 Wing and other units involved in combat numbered at least 100 aircraft. As on the prototype, the “hump” was not fitted to some of the first production aircraft, these being transformed into performance aircraft, designated as the SM.79CS.
Instrumentation in the central panel included oil and fuel gauges, altimeters for low (1,000 m, 3,300 ft) and high altitude (8,000 m, 26,000 ft), clock, airspeed and vertical speed indicator, gyroscope, compass, artificial horizon, turn and bank indicator, rev counters and throttles. A specialised drone version of the aircraft flown by remote control wasalso developed, although the Armistice with Italy was enacted prior to anyoperational deployment. In 1937, the Bucharest government of Romania, ordered 24 twin-engined SM.79B bombers fitted with 746 kW/1,000 hp Gnome-Rh�ne Mistral Major 14K radial engines. Favourable reports of reliability and performance during the Spanish Civil War led to the 1938 Kingdom of Yugoslavia’s order of 45 aircraft generally similar to the SM.79-I variant, designated the SM.79K. Horizontal bombing proved to be a failure and only dive bombers and torpedo-bombers achieved some results.
On that day, on a simple ferry flight of 1,100 km, the 18th lost five Sparvieros and at least one crew, with many wounded. The other eight from 52ª Squadriglia could only take off 40 minutes later, while the first seven circled over the airfield. The wing was put out of action and the personnel were sent back to Italy aboard the RM Città di Messina, but on 14 January 1941 the ship was sunk by submarine HMS Regent, with the loss of 432 men, including 53 members of the 9°. A number of twin-engined versions were sold to Brazil (three with 694 kW (931 hp) Alfa Romeo 128 RC.18 engines) and Iraq (four with 768 kW (1,030 hp) Fiat A.80 RC.14 engines).
Amongst the determinations made was that the installation of either two or three defensive machine guns would produce a highly effective defense against contemporary fighter aircraft. Soon after, on 2 August 1935, the prototype established a new speed record by flying from Rome to Massaua, in Italian Eritrea, in 12 flying hours (with a refuelling stop at Cairo, Egypt). It featured very sleek contours and continuous panoramic windows, true to its original intended role as a passenger aircraft. In 1934, Italian aircraft manufacturer Savoia-Marchetti started work on what would become the SM.79. A specialised drone version of the aircraft flown by remote control was also developed, although the Armistice with Italy was enacted prior to daman game download any operational deployment.
On 15 August 1940, the type’s first combat sortie saw five SM.79s that had been modified and prepared for the task dispatched to El Adem airfield. This was despite previous Italian experiments into the practice of aerial torpedoing in 1914, 26 years earlier. There had been experiments for many years but still, no service, no gear (except hardpoints) and no tactics were developed for the new role. The same period saw the five Iraqi SM.79Bs and the 45 SM.79Ks in Yugoslavian service unable to mount a successful defence in either Iraq or Yugoslavia.
The wings were of all-wood construction, with trailing edge flaps and leading edge slats (Handley Page style) to offset their relatively small size. The fuselage had a welded tubular steel framework covered with duralumin on the forward section, a mixture of duralumin and plywood across the upper fuselage surface, and fabric for all of the other exterior surfaces. The SM.79 was a cantilever low-wing monoplane trimotor, with a retractable taildragger undercarriage.
Almost all Axis air potential was used against the first big Allied convoy of 1942, code-named Operation Harpoon. On 24 October, they sank the merchant vessels Empire Pelican and Empire Defender, on 23 November they sank the merchant vessels Glenearn and Xhakdina, and on 11 December they heavily damaged Jackal. The large merchant ship SS Imperial Star (12,427 GRT)) was damaged by an SM.79 on 27 September during Operation Halberd which resupplied Malta; unable to tow it to Malta it was scuttled by HMS Oribi.
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The ‘Sparviero’ started its operational service at the end of 1936 when 8� Stormo B.T. During Operation Harpoon, over 100 torpedoes were launched with only three hitting their targets. In the first six months of 1942, all the Italo-German efforts to hit Allied ships had only resulted in the sinking of a single merchant ship. Further Italian successes came in August, when the light cruiser HMS Phoebe was damaged.