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SAML A.1/A.2/A.3

Страна: Италия

Год: 1915

Ricci - R.6 - 1920 - Италия<– –>SAML - S.1/S.2 - 1917 - Италия


J.Davilla Italian Aviation in the First World War. Vol.3: Aircraft M-W (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 75)


SAML "Amphiplane"

  Two biplanes with 80-95-hp Aetos engine. It was entered in the final round of the 1913 Military Aircraft Competition. This called for an ascent to 1000m in less than 40 minutes and 300 km of distance. The SAML completed the course in 4 hours 5 minutes, an hour behind the Borel.



SAML Aviatik, S.1 & S.2

Aviatik P.13, P.14,& P.15

  The SAML two-seat reconnaissance machines were purchased as interim aircraft pending the arrival of more modern designs for the corpi d’crmata and crmata squadriglias. The failure of the Italian aviation industry to develop new reconnaissance machines that were both reliable and efficient, resulted in the type serving almost to the end of the war. It is interesting that such a modest design, so clearly outclassed by 1916, would play such an important role in the Aviazione Militair.
  The Aviatik firm had considerable success in producing military aircraft for the German Fliegertruppe prewar. Three successful prewar military designs had been designed by Wild, the famous Swiss aeronautical engineer, for the German Aviatik firm. These aircraft were:
  Aviatik B - Type P 13 - produced as in a three or four-bay version. Its first flight was on May 1912. It was also known as Aviatik DD Military
  Aviatik B - Type P 14 - a smaller wing; purchased by the Fliegertruppe in 1913 for its stable flight characteristics and load carrying ability.
  In 1913 a total of 101 B-type tractor biplanes based on types P 13 and P.14 fitted with wing cellules of varying wing span were ordered.
  Aviatik B - Type P 15 - a contemporary design of the successful P.14, the P.15 had two-bay wings and shorter fuselage. A three bay version was built as a bomber. The engine was a 100-hp Argus or Mercedes.
  SAML, which had manufactured industrial machinery since 1901, obtained a license to produce the Aviatik under license.
  In 1913, SAML entered an Aviatik P.13 in the first Italian military aircraft competition in 1913. The design did not elicit any orders, French designs such as the Bleriot 11 being preferred.
  By early 1915 colonello Maurizio Mario Moris, of the DGA (Direttore Generale d Aeronautica = Director General of Aeronautics), ordered the Aviatik P 15 copy to be built, These would not be used as army co-operation types or bombers, but were intended to serve with various squadriglie da difesa (defence squadrons) to provide for local protection for Italian cities and factories.
  By the spring of 1917 no Aviatiks were still equipping any operational unit at the front, since they had been gradually replaced by the newer SAMLs for use in reconnaissance missions and by the nimbler single-seat Nieuport biplanes. The Aviatiks were assigned to flying-schools, where they operated quite successfully.

Technical

  The Aviatik P.15 was a two-bay biplane with the upper wing being substantially longer than the lower. The two spar wings were of wooden construction, covered in fabric. The struts were metal.
  The wooden fuselage was slab sided without much streamlining. There was fabric covering, except for the forward portion (to the cockpit) which was covered in aluminum sheeting.
  The crew of two sat in tandem in separate cockpits.
  There was a triangular fin and curved tailplanes.
  “V” struts supported the conventional undercarriage, and there was a wooden tail skid. Bungee chords provided shock absorption.
  Various engines were used in the German Aviatiks, and the Italian machines followed suit using several types:
   150-hp Isotta-Fraschini
   125-hp Salmson
   140-hp Salmson
   200-hp Fiat A. 12


Форум Breguet's Aircraft Challenge


The Societa Anonima Meccanica Lombarda was established in Milan in 1901 (workshops in Monza and Sesto San Giovanni-Milan). It was one of the many small companies born after the first industrial developement which took place in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century,during the so-called "Giolitti age".
   The company at first manufactured mechanic and industrial components but became interested in aircraft manufacture (like other Italian firms) in consequence of the Italo-Turkish war of 1911/12, which produced *favour and interest towards military aviation both in the military and the public opinion.
   In October 1912 the Ministero della Guerra announced a competition for aircraft for the air branch of the Italian Army (by that time Battaglione Aviatori).The great majority of the Italian aeronautical firms were too recent and lacked technical background, experience and, to some extent, funds to undertake the development of successful prototypes, so that the aircraft the Italian Army took in charge as a consequence the 1912 contest were licence-built machines.S.A.M.L. didn't even participate to the contest.
   In 1913 new official contests were announced;for aeronautical engines,for aircraft designed in Italy and for licence-built machines. In the course of the same 1913 S.A.M.L. management discussed with the German firm Aviatik the possibility of licence-production of Aviatik models.Consequently,S.A.M.L. nearly won a contest for licence-built machines with an Aviatik biplane, entirely built in Germany,which however S.A.M.L itself assured being able to start manufacture of in short times.
   The 1913 competition was a failure for S.A.M.L.,and its interest in aircraft production decreased, but after the outbreak of the Great War the military, in order to increase and strenghten Italian aviation industry, begun to press the Italian companies to start or re-start aircraft and engine manufacture.
   As for S.A.M.L., they tried to make it develop technical capability in modern aircraft design and, to this end, favoured the arrive (at the beginning of 1915) of Ing. Wild, a designer (Swiss, I believe) who had worked for Aviatik until 1914, and who was now unwilling to work for the Germans (possibly Wild's contacts with S.A.M.L. dated back to 1913).
   Wild's arrive allowed S.A.M.L. to create a small but very efficient design bureau,of which Wild himself was put at the head.
   Unavoidably,the first S.A.M.L. designs differed little from the early Aviatik's two-seater reconnaissance machines. According to M. Castoldi, a S.A.M.L.-Aviatik prototipe made its maiden flight at the end of May 1915, a few days after Italy's declaration of war.This machine (which was powered by a 135 hp liquid-cooled Salmson radial engine probably licence-built by Aquila Italiana) performed well, albeit the engine appeared to be insufficiently cooled.
   The production of the aircraft of the first batch - which commonly were referred to as S.A.M.L. Aviatik-Salmson or Aviatik-Fiat, or also as Aviatik 100, 125, or 140 hp depending upon the engine they were fitted with (125 or 140 hp Salmson radial, or 100 hp Fiat in-line) - went on slowly. When the first machines became operational (in the autumn-winter of 1915) they were soon considered to be among the best aircraft by then available, so to be employed not only for reconnaissance but also for fighter duties. S.A.M.L.'s production capability increased notably in the following months, mainly thanks to its new factory at Sesto, and its two seaters, which were considered to have not spectacular, but good overall qualities,soon became a common view on the Italian military airfields.
   S.A.M.L two-seaters were unceasingly improved, mainly by means of the installation of more powerful engines (which led to the increase of the wing-span,and consequently of the number of the wing-struts) and armament but the design remained basically the same in the various versions.

J.Davilla - Italian Aviation in the First World War. Vol.3: Aircraft M-W /Centennial Perspective/ (75)
SAML Aviatik trainer.
Форум - Breguet's Aircraft Challenge /WWW/
J.Davilla - Italian Aviation in the First World War. Vol.3: Aircraft M-W /Centennial Perspective/ (75)
SAML amphibian.
J.Davilla - Italian Aviation in the First World War. Vol.3: Aircraft M-W /Centennial Perspective/ (75)
SAML Aviatik trainer A.20173.
J.Davilla - Italian Aviation in the First World War. Vol.3: Aircraft M-W /Centennial Perspective/ (75)
SAML Aviatik trainer.