Savoia-Marchetti S.59

The Savoia-Marchetti S.59 was a 1920s Italian reconnaissance and bomber flying boat designed and built by Savoia-Marchetti for the Regia Aeronautica, developed as an updated version of the Savoia S.16 for the air force's maritime patrol squadrons. It was a biplane flying boat with two side-by-side cockpits forward of the wings and a low cockpit fitted with a 7.7 mm Lewis gun. The prototype, powered by a 268 kW Rolls-Royce Eagle engine, first flew in 1925 but was underpowered, and the 40 production aircraft with a 298 kW Lorraine-Dietrich engine did not cure the limited performance. The S.59bis had a more powerful Isotta Fraschini Asso 500 engine. In 1928 the Regia Aeronautica flew a formation cruise of the western Mediterranean with 51 of them, and the type was withdrawn from front-line service in 1937 and relegated to training.