Montis, Marco de/Scarlato, Nico The Bazzocchi Connection

Aermacchi MB.326 & MB.339 in World-wide Service, 1961-Today

A volume from the series Technology @ War. The long-established Aermacchi brand was famous for its designs of bright red racing aeroplanes in the 1930s and a series of fighter aircraft designs that saw action in the Second World War. In the late 1930s, the design team was joined by a promising young man named Ermanno Bazzocchi. Although Bazzocchi had little influence at first, he later became known as the man who defined the modern jet-powered training aircraft and developed the concept that dozens of air forces around the world still use to train their pilots today. Based on his studies, Bazzocchi and his team designed the Aermacchi MB.326 in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Colloquially known as the Macchino or Macchi, the aircraft was exported to more than a dozen air forces around the world and used to train thousands of pilots. Often overshadowed by more spectacular fighter aircraft, the MB.326 participated in several high-intensity conflicts, often outperforming superior opponents. The MB.339 followed in the early 1970s, once again achieving commercial success. After more than 90 years, Aermacchi was integrated into what is now Leonardo SpA, but Bazzocchi's legacy lives on among other things in the form of another commercially successful Italian jet trainer: the T-349.