100 years of Alenia Aermacchi: an Aeronautica Macchi MB.308 and SVA 9 at Le Bourget Air Show

Posted By: Marcel van Leeuwen May 21, 2013

100One Alenia AermacchiThis year, Alenia Aermacchi celebrates its 100th birthday. In honor of this historic occasion, Alenia will display its leading products, both past and present, at Le Bourget Air Show (June, 17t -23), including the Eurofighter, M-346, SF-260 and the MC-27J which will make its debut at Paris Air Show. It will also exhibit  an original Aeronautica Macchi MB.308, the first aircraft designed and produced by Macchi after the end of World War Two – an aircraft that marked the revival of the company’s aviation activities.
Designed by Ermanno Bazzocchi, the MB.308 – which performed its first flight in 1947 – can be considered the forefather of what is now, Alenia Aermacchi’s large family of trainers, which includes aircraft of the past such as the MB.326 and the MB.339, and the current M-346 and SF-260.
Designed as a trainer of the Piper L.4’s category but intended for higher performance, the MB.308 completed its maiden flight with a 60 hp CNA D4 engine, guaranteeing 160 km/h cruising speed and 900 Km endurance. The MB.308 had 220 exemplars built in several variants in Italy and Argentina, and was widely used as primary trainer, first by the Italian and Argentinean Air Force and then by the Italian Aero Clubs and by private owners both in Italy and abroad.
mb308The example on display at Paris Air Show is the 71st aircraft to be built, and one of the few to be directly delivered to a non-military client. Andrea Rossetto, its current owner, purchased it in Germany in 2005. Thanks to the nearly 2000 working hours that was spent restoring it to its original condition, in 2009 this aircraft was awarded the prestigious international Phoenix Diploma for the best amateur restoration of a vintage aircraft and the silver medal at the World Air Games in Turin. The aircraft was restored to its original livery of INCOM (Industria Cortometraggi Milano), the main Italian newsreel producer of the post-war period that employed the aircraft for aerial filming of Italy.
The MB.308 has already made two appearances at Le Bourget. Its first time was in 1949, when 14 MB.308 flew from Venegono to France, and operated by the ”Atlantic” pilot Leonardo BonziI (a member of the crew of the famous “Italo Balbo” flight from Italy to the US in the ‘30s). The second time was in 1951, when the example displayed at the Air Show aroused much interest in relation to a possible licensing production deal in both in France and Germany. However, the broadest success it gained abroad was in Argentina, where 100 examples were built on kits supplied from Italy by the German Bianco S.A. of Buenos Aires.
Only about ten MB.308 are still flying today, and are located in Argentina, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Australia.
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sva9The SVA family of biplanes was designed in 1916 by Italian engineers Savoja, Verduzio and Rosatelli who originally intended for it to be a fighter aircraft. About 2000 were built in various versions also for reconnaissance, attack and training missions. Some were built in the Pomilio plant in Corso Francia, Turin, which is still today part of a larger Alenia Aermacchi plant. The SVA 9 completed its first flight on  March 19, 1917.The aircraft was then exported to Argentina, Brazil, France, Latvia, The Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Russia, Spain and the United States. It featured either a 220 hp SPA 6A or a 250 hp Isotta Fraschini V6 engine.
On August 9, 1918, the SVA participated in the historic “Flight over Vienna”  which was performed by the 87a Squadriglia “Serenissima” and poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. It was also used for Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masiero’s Rome-Tokyo flight from February 1920 to May 1920.
The SVA 9 displayed at this year’s Le Bourget was discovered in the US in 1956 by Mr. H.S. Fyfield and restored by Reno Brenner of Aviation Techniques Inc. of Irwinna, Pennsylvania. The aircraft was purchased by the then Aeritalia in 1988, and transferred to Italy in 1989, where it underwent further restorations at the Turin branch of the Gruppo Amici Velivoli Storici (GAVS), the Italian historic aircraft preservation society.   The aircraft is part of Alenia Aermacchi’s historic aircraft collection. Turin branch of the GAVS is in charge of the aircraft’s maintenance and assembly.