Description

The traditions-rich brand Aermacchi was famous for its designs of bright red racing aircraft of the 1930s and a series of fighter designs that fought in the Second World War. In the late 1930s, its team of designers was reinforced by a promising youngster, Ermanno Bazzocchi: while having a lesser impact early on, Bazzocchi rose to prominence as the man to create the definition of a modern-day jet-powered training aircraft, and the concept after which dozens of air forces around the World were shaped to train their pilots until this very day. Based on his studies, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Bazzocchi and his team have designed the Aermacchi MB.326. The jet that colloquially became known as the Macchino or Macchi, was exported to more than a dozen of air forces around the world and used for training of thousands of pilots. Often overshadowed by 'more spectacular' combat aircraft, the MB.326 took part in several high-intensity conflicts, often outperforming superior opponents. In the early 1970s, it was followed by the MB.339, which again met commercial success. After surviving more than 90 years, Aermacchi was merged into what is nowadays the Leonardo SpA, but Bazzocchi's legacy is still alive - between others in form of yet another commercially successful Italian jet-trainer design: the T-349.