I-ABNE S.M. 79 of Duke of Aosta

Mirek Riha · Post by **Mirek Riha** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 6:43 am

In Warpaint no. 61 is colour profile S.M. 79 belonged to personal transport plaine of Amedeo, Duke of Aosta. It is very interesting camo, but in Warpaint is`t photo of this "79". Are there any pics of this camo?

Post by **Editor** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:38 pm

Good question, I was wondering the same thing about the tri-colored fuselage band. I can check around, also try Stefano,

Mirek Riha · Post by **Mirek Riha** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:05 am

Webmaster wrote:Good question, I was wondering the same thing about the tri-colored fuselage band. I can check around, also try Stefano,

Hi I found one photo in Sqadeon Signal. It is view on the right side. Fuselage tricilor-band is visible and partially I-ABNE code.

Stefano · Post by **Stefano** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:26 pm

Ciao Mirek,

Happy of your interest on Duke of Aosta, a great leader and man of honour, beloved by his pilots and worldwide respected. I think you mean the following aircraft:

It was MM 21154, and wore the typical band camo scheme, described by CMPR book, 1st edition of 1977. This pattern had been ordered in mid-Thirties, but proved to be ineffective during Spanish War.

Note that on the actual aircraft the engine cowlings were grey overall, as were the undersides. Front face of propeller blades and spinners were FS 35526. On this aircraft, Italian flags and tri-colour band had been applied just to transfer it to East Africa. They were applied to all civil aircraft which went abroad. The scheme was the following, as seen in S.75s (drawing modified by CMPR/GAVS/GMT book, 2nd edition). Dimensions are in centimeters.

I'm not sure about the dimension of rudder flag. Here is another similar S.79 which can better show it to you.

However, once in East Africa, flags and band were deleted, as we can see in the following (poor quality) photos. Duke Amedeo of Aosta is in white overalls.

Please note that the black "I" (international code for Italy) on tailplane were closer to the fuselage in respect to S.75 drawing. It is possible that smaller flags had been previously painted outwards of them, but probably were not.

I hope this helps.

Happy Easter to all of you!
Stefano

Mirek Riha · Post by **Mirek Riha** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 4:09 am

Hi Stefano,

many thanks for your response. I speculating about this camo. It is very interesting.

Mirek