Further Developments
Even if this aircraft was used for many tasks and by many units, the modest speed of the S.81 soon led to it being replaced by the SM.79 for many applications. One of the later SM.81 models developed had two Isotta Fraschini Asso inline liquid cooled engines with 626 kW (840 hp). But its performance was quite disappointing, including 330 km/h (210 mph) maximum speed, so the modifications were not successful.
Another version was a tanker aircraft (for fuel transport, not air-to-air refuelling).
A command version was built with powerful radio equipment.
The VIP version was used in some numbers. Mussolini had one that he piloted personally. It was called the 'Turtle', a reference to its slow speed. Another nickname of the SM.81 was "Lumache" (snail). But the wide fuselage was more comfortable than the 'fast bombers' like the Sparviero. An innovative feature was the new Caproni-Lanciani turret, armed with a 12.7 mm (.5 in) heavy machine gun. This was considered better than two 7.7 mm (0.303 in), although the Scotti machine gun proved to be unreliable.
Another experimental example was an aircraft for dealing with magnetic mines: it was called the Saturno because it had a large electrified steel ring to trigger the mines. The weight of the gear was initially too high so the ring was changed to one made of aluminium.
Another task for the SM.81 was as a torpedo bomber. Experiments with up to two torpedoes were carried out in 1936. But even with only one on board, the aircraft was too slow, so this task was better suited to the SM.79.
The main task for this aircraft was as a transport. The SM.81T design was produced in 1941, fitted with a Caproni-Lanciani turret and AR 126 engines. More were produced in 1942, in spite of the availability of the larger SM.82. S.81s were almost as fast as the C-47, and had a defensive weapon set, while the range and payload was almost equal, with only a slight inferiority on installed power and speed.
Read more about this topic: Operational History Of The Savoia-Marchetti SM.81
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