Conceived as a fast eight-passenger airliner in 1933 by Alessandro Marchetti, chief designer of the Società Idrovolanti Alta Italia (SIAI), the iconic S.79 had sufficient performance to make it suitable for employment by the Regia Aeronautica. The S.79P (P for passengers) prototype completed its maiden flight on 2 October 1934 at Cameri airfield near Novara, northern Italy, with test pilot Adriano Bacula at the controls. Bearing the registration I-MAGO (in Latin, imago means ‘image’ and mago ‘wizard’ in Italian), the aircraft earned its first laurels during 1935 when it set several world speed records (with different payloads) over increasing distances.

The trimotor soon attracted the interest of the Regia Aeronautica and, bearing the military serial MM260, it was chosen to transport Generale di Squadra Aerea Giuseppe Valle, Undersecretary and Chief of Staff, to East Africa to organise the invasion of Abyssinia. On 1 August 1935, flown by Tenente Colonnello Attilio Biseo and Capitano Gori Castellani, the aircraft flew from Rome for Massawa, in Eritrea, with an Egyptian stopover at Cairo, in just 12 hours. This performance was repeated on the return flight on 5 August, when the aircraft averaged 230 mph. This remarkable round trip made Generale Valle a strong supporter of the S.79, and he pressed for the development of a bomber variant, designated the S.79M (M for military).

On 3 October 1935 the Second Italo-Abyssinian war commenced, and S.79P I-MAGO soon saw combat for the first time. On 6 January 1936, the aircraft, flown by Tenente Colonnello Biseo and Maggiore Angelo Tondi, transported Generale Valle on another East African inspection tour. British authorities delayed I-MAGO’s onward journey at Cairo until the evening, and when the flight was resumed both worsening weather and a shortage of fuel forced the pilots to make a safe landing at dusk on a sandy coastal beach. The crew then informed Massawa of their situation by radio, and the base duly supplied the necessary fuel to enable them to reach their destination the following day.

While overflying the frontline in the Ogaden region of eastern Abyssinia on 13 January 1936, I-MAGO was fired upon three times by Abyssinian troops. No damage was inflicted on the transport. Three days later, with Generale Valle’s tour completed, the S.79P flew back to Italy in just ten hours. Following its Abyssinian ‘baptism of fire’, I-MAGO was posted to the Guidonia-based 12° Stormo Bombardamento ‘Sorci Verdi’ (‘Green Mice’), this bomber unit being charged with evaluating the new trimotor. After successfully performing test bombings on the Furbara range north of Rome, I-MAGO served as both the stormo’s ‘hack’ and as a VIP transport.

On 8 July 1936 the S.79M prototype, MM20663, made its first flight with Tenente Colonnello Biseo at the controls, the aircraft subsequently being assigned to 12° Stormo exactly three weeks later. During the second half of 1936 and into 1937 the ‘Green Mice’ received an initial 24 machines (MM20663 to MM20686), which were introduced into service by the Regia Aeronautica’s most skilful pilots. The S.79s quickly showed their outstanding speed to the world in a series of record flights, with the aircraft always crewed by 12° Stormo personnel. Generale Valle’s early relationship with the Sparviero (Sparrowhawk) also continued when he unofficially flew the Regia Aeronautica’s first operational sortie against Britain’s Royal Navy. On 18 August 1937, with Tenente Mancinelli as his co-pilot, Valle undertook a photo-reconnaissance mission over the Mediterranean Fleet’s Malta home at an altitude of 6500 ft, returning to Sicily after a flight lasting 1 hr 15 min.

Two days later, on 20/21 August 1937, the Regia Aeronautica took part in the international Istres-Damascus-Paris race with five specially modified S.79 Corsa (race) machines. Painted red, with green stripes along their fuselages, these specially modified trimotors lacked the type’s distinctive dorsal humps but displayed the Sorci Verdi badge that was destined to become famous during World War 2. ‘Seeing the green mice’ (far Vedere i sorci verdi in Italian) means ‘accomplishing outstanding deeds’, and the S.79 Corsas featuring three green mice on their fuselages proved worthy of their emblem. Each of the five racers carried a registration derived from their pilots’ surnames – I-BIMU (Attilio Biseo and, remarkably, Bruno Mussolini, Il Duce’s third son), I-TOMO (Tondi and Moscatelli), I-CUPI (Cupini and Paradisi, although some sources give this as I-CUPA), I-FILU (Fiori and Lucchini) and I-LICA (Lippi and Castellani). There was also a sixth aircraft, the humped I-ROTR (Rovis and Trimboli).

The S.79s dominated the event, with I-CUPI, I-FILU and I-BIMU taking the first three places, while another two were placed sixth and eighth. Needless to say, such a resounding success was fully exploited by the Fascist propaganda machine, which proudly announced that the S.79 was a mainstay of the Regia Aeronautica.

S.79 ‘Black 1’ of Capitano Tullio De Prato, 10a Squadriglia, XXVIII Gruppo Bombardamento Veloce, Aviazione Legionaria, Son San Juan, Balearics, December 1937
The aircraft flown by Capitano De Prato has the large three-tone band camouflage of verde, marrone and giallo mimetico (camouflage green, brown and yellow) used by Italian S.79s during the late 1930s. The 10a Squadriglia badge is typical of the period, featuring a white egg-laying hen inside a large black fuselage identification roundel. This humorous insignia derived from Capitano De Prato’s nickname, ‘Gallina’ (hen).

S.79 28-16 of Sottotenente Giovanni Chiasserini, 280a Squadriglia, XXIX Gruppo, 111° Stormo Bombardamento Veloce ‘Sparvieri’, Zaragoza, Spain, 4 January 1939
Italian aviators, being quite superstitious, did not allow any S.79s of 111° Stormo to carry the code 28-17, as 17 is an unlucky number in Italy. 28-16 was also regarded with suspicion, however, as the individual digits of its four-number code also added up to 17, and incredibly this Sparviero turned out to be the unit’s jinxed aircraft. The first S.79 so coded, 28-25, collided with flak-stricken trimotor 28-3 on 28 March 1938, only three airmen surviving among the two crews involved. Similarly-coded Sparviero 28-16 was hit by anti-aircraft fire over Borjas Blancas on 4 January 1939. Mutilated co-pilot Sergente Maggiore Ezio Biondi flew it back to base with pilot Sottotenente Giovanni Chiasserini dead and three wounded crewmen.

You can read more in COM 122 Savoia-Marchetti S.79 Sparviero Bomber Units