Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero

The Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero, Italian for sparrowhawk, was a three-engined heavy bomber developed and manufactured by Savoia-Marchetti, and may be the best-known Italian aeroplane of the Second World War. It is a cantilever low-wing monoplane of combined wood and metal construction, designed in the early 1930s as a fast eight-passenger transport before the Italian government took an interest in it as a combat aircraft. It made its first flight on 28 September 1934, and early examples set 26 world records between 1937 and 1939, making it for a time the fastest bomber in the world. It was easily recognised by the dorsal hump of its fuselage, saw its first combat in the Spanish Civil War, and became an effective torpedo bomber against Allied shipping in the Mediterranean. About 1,300 were built, the most numerous Italian bomber of the war, and examples stayed in Italian service until 1952.