Savoia-Marchetti SM.105

The Savoia-Marchetti SM.105 was a projected four-engine Italian transport aircraft for military and civil use in the years after the Second World War. It began as an improved version of the SM.104, but after the Fairchild XC-120 and Miles M.68 concepts appeared it was redesigned around a detachable cargo section with a capacity of 64 cubic metres. The cockpit sat above the cargo bay, with large doors forward and aft, and the load was meant to be eight horses and four assistants or two cars. A civil version would have carried 40 seats and a bar behind a fully glassed nose. Its most unusual feature was the detachable central fuselage, which left the cockpit in the middle of the wing, much like the later CH-54 Tarhe helicopter. Conditions in 1947 were not favourable to the project, and the estimated figures show a wingspan of 36.3 metres and a top speed of 400 kilometres per hour.