Savoia-Marchetti SM.62

The Savoia-Marchetti SM.62 was an Italian single-engine maritime patrol flying boat produced from 1926, and one of the main successes of Savoia-Marchetti. It developed from the SM.59, which first flew in 1925. A wooden single-spar biplane, it was powered by one Isotta Fraschini Asso 500 engine of 373 kW mounted between the wings and driving a pusher propeller, and it had a wingspan of 15.5 metres and a maximum take-off weight of 3,000 kg with a crew of four. It competed in the 1926 New York to Buenos Aires air race and set speed and load records. It was the most successful Italian flying boat outside Italy, bought by Japan, Romania and Spain, and the Soviet Union built the SM.62bis under licence as the MBR-4.