Born in 1884, Marchetti graduated in engineering from the
Sapienza University of Rome in 1908. In 1910 he built his first aircraft, the sport biplane Chimera, and made his first flight. He started working for the
Vickers subsidiary at
Terni in 1917. For the Vikers he designed a very fast small
biplane known as the
Marchetti MVT (Marchetti-Vickers-Terni). In 1922, he joined the SIAI (
Società Idrovolanti Alta Italia) as
technical director and in the period between the world wars designed a series of
seaplanes of technical originality and commercial success. One of the first was the
S.55, conceived as a torpedo seaplane, and then produced in various versions, both civil and military. Unlike previous
flying boats with a central hull like the
Dorniers or with two floats, he designed a craft with twin hulls set beneath a single large wing of considerable thickness, making it possible to eliminate the
bracing. Marchetti went on to produce the planes that
Francesco de Pinedo flew around the world, and
Arturo Ferrarin made a non-stop flight from Italy to Brazil. Marchetti is best known for having created the
Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 and the
Savoia-Marchetti SM.81, two
World War II bomber aircraft. His last projects were the four-engine transport aircraft
SM.95 (1943) and the light transport cabin monoplane
SM.102 (1949). ==See also==