The Macchi MB.323 was an Italian single-engine basic
training monoplane designed and built by
Macchi
Aermacchi was an Italian aircraft manufacturer. Formerly known as Aeronautica Macchi, the company was founded in 1912 by Giulio Macchi at Varese in north-western Lombardy as Nieuport-Macchi, to build Nieuport monoplanes under licence for the Ita ...
. No orders were placed and only a
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
was built.
Design and development
Designed as a basic trainer to complement the
M.416 in Italian military service, the MB.323 first flew in 1952. It was a single-engine, low-wing
cantilever monoplane powered by a nose-mounted
Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engine and a retractable tailwheel
landing gear. It had two tandem
cockpit
A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft.
The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...
s covered by a sliding one-piece
canopy. The type was evaluated against the
Fiat G.49 which was preferred by the air force and the MB.323 did not enter production.
Operators
;
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Italian Air Force operated two aircraft for evaluation test
Specifications
See also
References
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{{Macchi aircraft
1950s Italian military trainer aircraft
M.B.323
Single-engined tractor aircraft
Low-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1952