SIAI Turbo Marchetti

SIAI Turbo Marchetti

The SF-260 is one of the world’s most revered military trainers, with some 880 aircraft in service and 27 different military customers around the world. It was, and still is, marketed also as an aerobatic plane as well. Stelio Frati (the F in SF-260) designed this airplane in the early 60s for Aviamilano, which was later purchased by SIAI Marchetti (the S in SF-260). It is powered by a 260 hp 6-cyl Lycoming engine (denoted by… yeah, right, the 260 in the name…).

The red/white scheme is not a complicated, but very nice scheme for high visibility. But many of these SF-260 TP have been painted in camouflage colors. Since it is not feasible to paint a flat camouflage pattern in the molds, we opted to do an all silver plane as well. This works great as a base coat, allowing even easy weathering of a later applied paint job. 

TheTurbo Marchetti is a rocket ship! The power of the SPT5 in this airplane is unbelievable, so a high visibility scheme is a must. Towing gliders up to 25 kg with this amount of power is an incredible experience...

There is no difference in flying characteristics, if you look at the 260 TP version:

• it looks like a great sport flyer with sufficient wing area, tricycle gear and large cowling for a vast variety of engines. The wing tip tanks make it even look “sexy”.
• due to the retractable landing gear it is a very clean looking and flying plane, but the gear itself is set up very simple, making it a great first experience with large scale retracts
• air foil, control surfaces, leverages and general configuration as a low wing sport plane, make it a great aerobatic trainer as well. A perfect sight within the uniformity of Extras, Yaks and Edges, doing almost everything these modern Aerobats would do in classic routines.
• Even for glider towing this airplane is perfectly suitable. With a powerful engine it pulls gliders up to 25 kg safely to altitude and the towing pilot can have some serious fun making his way down to the ground for the next one waiting in line.
• Just by the looks the SF-260 already represents a slick, fast airplane. Almost Jet like it can be flown through its paces, with an extremely wide range between top speed and stall speed. CARF picked the right airfoil for the task, that’s for sure.
• Last but not least, there are plenty of military and civilian, colorful schemes available, so that there will be something for the taste of everybody. It also wouldn’t look bad in a Fantasy Scheme, too…

So, there was no way past doing this airplane one day as a Turboprop version as well. 

It just is another example of great CARF engineering, showing its qualities right at the first fly by. Its structural integrity, high prefabrication, detailed surface structure and straight forward mechanical solutions make it a pleasure to build, to fly, and to pose with at your local club field, as well as on a highly decorated show event.