IMAM

Not to be confused with Imam.

IMAM

Predecessor	IMAM
Founded	1923 (1923)
Founder	Nicola Romeo
Successor	Aerfer
Headquarters	Naples, Kingdom of Italy
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Nicola Romeo

IMAM (Industrie Meccaniche e Aeronautiche Meridionali) was an Italian aircraft manufacturer founded in Naples in 1923 by the engineer Nicola Romeo. In 1955 it merged into Aerfer.

History

The Industrie Meccaniche e Aeronautiche Meridionali had its origins in the aircraft division of OFM (Officine Ferroviarie Meridionali), an Italian railway and rolling stock manufacturing company owned by Nicola Romeo. Romeo hired Alessandro Tonini, who had worked at Macchi on the flying boat fighter designs, as OFM's chief designer. Tonini had a great experience in aerodynamics and airplane design as he had worked at Macchi on the flying boat fighter designs. OFM contacted Fokker and got production licence for the Fokker C.V. It was built by the Naples factory in 1927 as the OFM Ro.1. With the Ro.1 production line established, OFM turned its attention to its own first designs such as the Ro.1 Ridotto. In 1929, Alessandro Tonini suffered some serious health problems, so Romeo hired Giovanni Galasso to work as a designer at OFM.

On 27 October 1934, Romeo changed the organisation of the company by splitting the OFM railway workshop and the aircraft business, renamed Società Anonima Industrie Aeronautiche Romeo (IAR). In 1935, OFM (the railway workshop) was sold to Società Italiana Ernesto Breda. Later, between 1935 and 1936, Romeo also sold Società Anonima Industrie Aeronautiche Romeo to Società Italiana Ernesto Breda, which combined the two companies into a single subsidiary organisation on October 1, 1936, the Industrie Meccaniche e Aeronautiche Meridionali (IMAM). The new company continued Ro.37 recon biplane, Ro.41 fighter biplane, Ro.51 fighter monoplane (land/seaplane versions) and developed Ro.43/44 seaplanes, Ro.57/58 twin-engined fighters and STOL Ro.63.

An IMAM Ro.43 floatplane catapulted by a RM cruiser in the early 1940s

The two-seat Ro.43 and single-seat Ro.44 were evolved during 1935-36 from the Ro.37bis land-based reconnaissance aircraft for use aboard the larger warships of the Royal Italian Navy. The Ro.43 and Ro.44 were essentially similar apart from armament and the number of crew members carried, and both were powered by the Piaggio P.X R nine-cylinder radial air-cooled engine rated at 670 h.p. for take-off and having a maximum output of 700 h.p. at 3.280 ft., although the prototype Ro.43 had a 610 h.p. Piaggio P.IX RC 40.

On November 1, 1939, the Ro.43 equipped twenty shipboard reconnaissance floatplane elements, 101 machines of this type being in service and a further twenty-nine under construction. When Italy entered the Second World War, 105 were in service of which sixty-four were attached to Squadriglie of the Naval Force, although only forty-two of these were serviceable, eleven were stored at naval depots, and thirty were undergoing overhaul or repair. Many of the serviceable Ro.43s were aboard vessels of the Italian Navy, a Littorio-class battleship sometimes carrying as many as three machines of this type for gunnery observation or reconnaissance. The type was to remain in service onboard ships until June 1942 taking part in some of the most important naval actions in the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II such as the battle of Calabria in July 1940 and the battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941.

Ro.57bis

In 1939, Meridionali projected a twin-engined single-seat fighter, the Ro.57. Powered by two 840 h.p. Fiat A.74 R.C.38 radials, the Ro.57 carried two 12.7 mm. and two 20 mm. guns in the nose, and attained a maximum speed of 500 km/h (310.5 mph). Designed by Giovanni Galasso, the IMAM Ro.57 began to leave the production lines of the Naples factory early in 1942, and entered service in small numbers with the Regia Aeronautica as a fighter-bomber because of its comparatively low speed and poor manoeuvrability. From the Ro.57 was developed the Ro.57bis, evolved from the start as a fighter bomber and dive bomber. Although it was similarly powered, two 20 mm cannon were added to the 12.7 mm machine-guns and dive-brakes were installed. Carrying up to a 500 kg (1,102 lb) bomb under its fuselage, this version was fairly successful but had faded from the scene before the Armistice of Cassibile.

The Ro.63, a short-range reconnaissance and light transport aircraft of comparable quality and reliability or even superior to its German competitor, the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, was not put into production in significant numbers due to the shortage of available engines.

After World War II Officine di Pomigliano per le Costruzioni Aeronautiche e Ferroviarie-Aerfer was constituted and in 1955 merged with IMAM to form Aerfer.

Bibliography

• Green, William (1961). Warplanes of the Second World War. Vol. 2: Fighters. London: Macdonald. pp. 153–154.
• Green, William (1967). War Planes of the Second World War. Vol. 6: Floatplanes. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. pp. 111–13.
• Taylor, Michael John Haddrick (1980). Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation. Vol. 4. Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier Educational Corporation. pp. 687–688.
• Callaway, Tim (31 May 2013). "Alenia Aermacchi: Officine Ferroviarie Meridionali and Industrie Aeronautiche Romeo". Aviation Classics magazine (20). Archived from the original on 12 December 2013.

See also

• List of Italian aircraft companies

External links

• Media related to Industrie Meccaniche Aeronautiche Meridionali at Wikimedia Commons