S.81 Italian Bomber IMPLEMENTED

[ZakTheBuilder1]

The S.81 is distinctive with its three engines, two on the wings and one in the nose. This provides a level of redundancy with the nose engine unlikely to be disabled except from a head-on or a diving attack.

History: Under the need to have an aircraft capable reaching the far reaches of the Italian colonies in Africa, a project was made to develop an aircraft able to suit the Regia Aeronautica. Approaching manufacturer Savoia-Marchetti, chief designer Alessandro Marchetti developed the aircraft based on the Savoia's SM.73 airliner and militarized the vehicle for its intended use.[1] The first prototype was built and flown in early 1935, approximately six months after the SM.73 debuted.[2] This aircraft was then known as the SM.81 "Pipistrello" ("Bat"). The aircraft was accepted for service in the same year with mass-production slated, with different engines used throughout the production life. 534 SM.81 would be produced in the time span between 1935 to 1944.[3]

[Shark guy 35]

Interesting.

[ZakTheBuilder1]

The passager plane with a bit of spaghetti and bombs

[Shark guy 35]

The passager plane with a bit of spaghetti and bombs

[ZakTheBuilder1]

It also has the probability of the big sour krout riding it to get secret plans underway.

[BrenoHenrique]

Sm.81

[Shark guy 35]

I always wondered why the Italians decided on using three engines on their bombers.

My guess is because it provided some degree of redundancy, as the third engine might get them home as it's hard to hit. I'm curious to see how effective it was.

[Stratego (dev)]

thanks for the image!
IMPLEMENTED