Moto Italia
Aermacchi History

The text from this Aermacchi history is reprinted from a 1965 MOTOR CYCLIST ILLUSTRATED article by Carlo Perelli titled, "AERMACCHI, the story of the world's best-selling boy-racer"

AERONAUTICA MACCHI (soon abbreviated to Aermacchi) was founded in 1912 for the manufacture of seaplanes, which accounts for the factory being conveniently sited on the shores of Lake Varese. It grew quite big during the First World War and continued to concentrate on aircraft in the years that followed. The company became one of the keenest contenders for the famous Schneider Trophy and among its outstanding achievements was the fastest-ever Schneider race speed of 440 mph that the C-72 plane set up in 1934. During the Second World War, abandoning seaplanes, Aermacchi built perhaps the finest of all fighters used by the Italian air forces.

Soon after hostilities had ended it was decided to start peacetime production with a three-wheeler truck. This was unorthodox but very good and is still being made to this day. Then, anticipating the motor cycle boom and intending to have a stake in it, the Aermacchi chief’s looked for a good designer who could produce an attractive lightweight. Their choice was Lino Tonti, who had been at Benelli and had worked on aircraft engines during the war.

1951 Aermacchi Monsone

Tonti’s first design for Aermacchi, produced in 1950, was distinctly unorthodox. It was an open-frame lightweight with a 125 cc two-stroke engine pivoting in unit with the rear suspension. The luggage or tool container, shaped like a fuel tank, had a hinged mounting at the steering column so that it could be fixed near the saddle to give motorcycle minded users something to grip with their knees. This machine enjoyed some popularity and a sports version of it, which had the frame “closed” by a real tank, was used in trials, including the International Six Days of 1951 and 1952. Rather unsuccessful, on the contrary, was the 250 cc twin (two 125s coupled together) which was produced in 1953-4.

In 1955 Tonti designed a record breaker, making full use of wind tunnel and other resources of the factory’s aircraft department, which had by then resumed production of civilian planes. Powered by double-ohc engines of 48 cc and 75 cc capacity, this was one of the first examples of a “flying cigar”, being very low and almost 10 ft. long. Placed behind the driver, the engine had the peculiarity of having its cylinder inclined rearward at a angle of 20 degrees. The overhead camshafts were chain driven, bore and stroke dimensions were 44.5 mm by 43 mm for the larger version and 40 mm by 39 mm for the smaller: and, with a compression ratio of 10:1, the power output was 9 bhp at 11,000 rpm for the 75 cc and 7 bhp at 12,000 rpm for the 50 cc--quite good figures, considering the period and the poor petrol which had to be used. The engine, which had wet sump lubrication, was in unit with a four-speed gearbox and final drive was by chain. Weight in running order was 214 lb. 18-in tires were employed and space frame construction was used for the fully sprung "body".

1956 75 cc Aermacchi record holder

The record attempts were made early in 1956 on the Milan-Varese motorway. Neither weather nor road conditions were ideal but the Aermacchi "flying cigar", piloted by Massimo Pasolini (father of the present works rider, Renzo) reached a speed of 100.2 mph over the flying mile and 108.8 mph over the flying kilo, breaking, by a considerable margin, the records set up only a few months before by Germany’s Adolf Baumm in his NSU “flying bedstead”. With the 50 cc machine, the standing mile record was broken, also with a marked increase, at 51.25 mph.

Soon after the successful record bid Lino Tonti left to join FB Mondial. One of the best men in Italy was chosen to succeed him as technical director. This was Alfredo Bianchi, previously with Alfa Romeo and Parilla, and a very keen motor cyclist himself before the war. He had designed the ohc 250 cc Parilla sports and racing models which were so successful in Italian events just after the war, and had also manufactured his own Astoria engines and complete machines, the single-ohc and two-stroke power-units, 125 cc and 175 cc; enjoying quite a lot of popularity as proprietary components for use by small manufacturers.

Alfredo’s first task when he joined Aermacchi was to evolve a production machine from a sketch of an ideal machine which had been executed by Count Revelli, a well-known car stylist who had himself been a racing motorcyclist and had actually won the 1925 Italian GP at Monza on a GR machine of his own manufacture.

1958 250 cc Aermacchi Chimera

The new model, the all-enclosed 175 cc Chimera, was introduced during 1956. But although it aroused a considerable amount of interest the Chimera never sold well, either on the home market or outside Italy. So it was decided to undress it to produce a more orthodox motorcycle. Bianchi went back to his drawing-board, expressly charged to make as few changes as possible in order to avoid further heavy manufacturing costs. This explains the single-tube backbone and the horizontal disposition of the engine, both obligatory features of the original machine.

At a time when most Italian designers regarded overhead camshafts as a "must", even for touring models, Bianchi had given the Chimera a push-rod engine. This was in the interests of easy maintenance but he had backed his decision with the contention that, even for fast sports models, there was no absolute need for an ohc layout. And by now the strength of that argument had been more than proved by the success of the racing version of the Aermacchi.

When first introduced, the Chimera was a 175 cc machine. But before long a 250 cc version had also been made. So the Aermacchi also appeared in both forms. Before long their sporting potential was being explored. In 1957 a hotted-up 175 cc model, giving 15.5 bhp instead of the standard model’s 13 bhp (at the same 8,000 rpm) was being made available for use in Italian sports machine races. Since then the performance of the 175 cc production racer has been increased to 20 bhp--despite the fact that development of this model has tended to be shelved in favour of the more popular 250. This appeared later than the 175, the prototype being given its debut in the 1960 German GP by Alberto Pagani. It made such a good showing, up against the cream of the GP racers, that Aermacchi decided to go ahead with a small batch of similar machines for sale to private owners.

1960 250 cc Aermacchi Ala d'oro

The first of these 250s, the Golden Wing model as it is called, still had the long-stroke 62 mm by 72 mm bore and stroke dimensions of the Chimera, had a four-speed gearbox and produced 22 bhp at 8,000 rpm. One of the few obvious changes was an increase in wheel size from 17-in to 18-in.

The low initial cost of the Golden Wing, together with its ease of maintenance and ready availability of reasonably priced spares, made it immediately popular as a private-owner racer. And it was soon showing itself to be a mean performer, particularly on short, twisting circuits where its light weight and good acceleration paid off.

No doubt, it was the international success of this model, plus the achievements of the scrambles version (Lanfranco Angelini was five times Italian champion on an Aermacchi) that led Harley-Davidson to embark on a 50/50 commercial arrangement with the Varese factory in 1960. With a lightweight boom developing in the U.S.A., America’s biggest manufacturer badly needed a good 250 that could be sold in sports, racing and moto-cross forms. It has been a very satisfactory venture for Aermacchi, more and more of whose products are being shipped across the Atlantic. Last year 75% of the factory’s production went to Harley-Davidson for distribution in America and recently sales of the 50 cc moped have been added to those of the 250s.

1965 Aermacchi/Harley-Davidson M-50

The increased production resulting from the merger with Harley-Davidson has made it necessary to separate the motorcycle and aircraft companies in Italy. The aeroplane factory is in Varese itself while the old lakeside workshops have been modernized and enlarged to handle the growing output of motorcycles.

By the end of 1962 it seemed to Alfredo Bianchi that no more power could be squeezed form the longstroke 250, so he change the bore and stroke dimensions to an over-square 72 mm by 61 mm. Up went the power output to 28 bhp at 9,500 rpm (more than the world championship winning double-knocker Guzzis produced) and the adoption of a five-speed gearbox allowed full use to be made of this boost in performance. For 1965 the power will be up to 30 bhp at 10,000 rpm--not bad for a push-rod production racer!

Alive to the fact that it will be difficult to make much improvement on this, Bianchi already had a completely new design on hand. But as Harley-Davidson are utterly opposed to having a racer which differs fundamentally from the roadster machines--they even used one of the ohv Golden Wing motors for their 1964 U.S. record-breaking "cigar". The project has had to be shelved.

1964 Aermacchi/Harley-Davidson SC-250 record holder

Changes which have been made to the Golden Wing for 1965 mainly concern the transmission. A dry type multi-plate clutch is being used instead of the wet type previously employed and a more robust five-speed gearbox replaces last year’s component. Sold throughout the world, these Aermacchi racers are now being produced in greater quantities than Manx Nortons, 7Rs or G50s ever were.

The story of the 350 cc Golden Wing is also of interest. It was first envisaged to allow for competition in 500 cc scrambles and was devised at the end of 1962, by coupling a short-stroke piston and cylinder to a long-stroke bottom half. The resulting 72 mm by 72 mm bore and stroke measurements gave a displacement of 293 cc and this machine, by virtue of its light weight and easy handling (like the more recent ease of the BSA Victor) was quite successful in Italian moto-cross, winning two national championships for the factory before Aermacchi dropped official participation in scrambles in order to concentrate on road racers. Scrambles models continue in production in 250 cc (long-stroke) and 293 cc versions, the former producing around 22 bhp and the larger one 25 bhp, both with plenty of power coming in at low revs.

A 293 cc road racer was a natural offshoot from the moto-cross model. As it first appeared, at the beginning of 1963, this machine produced only slightly more power than the short-stroke 250, turning over at 9,000 rpm. Then in 1964 it was changed to a real 350, with 74 mm by 78 mm bore and stroke. This motor produces 33 bhp at 8,000 rpm and is on sale to the general public with a sturdier five-speed gearbox and dry type clutch.

The racing programme for 1965 will be much the same as last year. Renzo Pasolini and Gilberto Milani, as works rider-testers, will perform the same sort of role as Norton team men when the British factory adopted the policy of racing production Manx models. Alberto Pagani, on the other hand, will ride a semiprivate machine with a new tubular space frame that he has built himself. Aermacchi will participate in most of the important meetings including some of the “classics”, in Italy and abroad, in order to provide further data to enable Alfredo Bianchi to improve still further his over-the-counter racers.

Aermacchi is so far the only Italian factory which has successfully followed this policy and, in doing so, made a great contribution to motorcycle sport throughout the world.