ORIGINAL MANUFACTURER'S MODEL

This is the large and rare model produced by Savoia Marchetti in aluminum and zamac, very few of this model have survived due to their fragility.

The S.55X is the last variant of a series of 8 versions of this seaplane model, it was equipped with an Isotta Fraschini Asso 750 engine.

The Savoia-Marchetti S.55 was a double-hull seaplane produced in Italy at the beginning of 1924. From its introduction, it set records for speed, payload, altitude and range.

Even if its design was singular, the Savoia-Marchetti S.55, was a device recognized for its seaworthiness. In 1926, the prototype S.55P set 14 world records for speed, altitude and distance with a payload1. The S.55's greatest successes, however, were its numerous flights between Europe and the Americas.
The Brazilian João Ribeiro de Barros and his crew of three crossed the Atlantic with the S.55 Jahú on April 24, 1927. Departing from Santiago Island, he crossed the Atlantic in the Jahú and landed on Fernando de Noronha Island, Brazil.

The Savoia-Marchetti S.55 made a number of early Atlantic Ocean crossings, at a time when doing so was still a very risky and difficult undertaking, starting when the Plus Ultra, a Spanish Dornier Wal piloted by Ramón Franco, sailed from Spain to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in January 1926, then the Santa Maria, piloted by Francesco de Pinedo took off from Dakar, Senegal to land in Pernambuco, Brazil, on February 13, 1927.
This was three months before Charles Lindbergh's crossing, but almost eight years after Alcock and Brown made the first non-stop flight in 1919 in a Vickers Vimy. After the crossing, the plane was exchanged in Brazil for coffee beans.
Pilots Francesco de Pinedo and Carlo del Prete took off from Sesto Calende in Italy, in an S.55 westward to cross the South Atlantic. Four months later, they are back in Italy, having flown nearly 48,280 km in 193 flight hours and having made just over 50 stops, including in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and New York.

The then Italian Air Marshal Italo Balbo rose to fame for organizing a squadron of S.55 for Atlantic crossings, culminating in 1933 with a flight of 24 planes to the World's Fair of Chicago, a century of progress. On July 1, 1933, General Balbo commanded an S-55 flight from Orbetello, Italy, completing the crossing in just over 48 hours, maintaining strict "V" formation. These large fleets of aircraft were sometimes referred to as "Balbo".

The aircraft went to serve in the Regia Aeronautica as a long-range bomber and patrol aircraft, but with the onset of World War II the last S.55 was no longer in service and remained in reserve.

These search criteria may interest you: