Piaggio-Pegna P.c.7: Sweet Sacrilege.

The 1929 P.c.7 was the boldest challenger conceived to take part in the famous Trophy created Jacques Schneider. To avoid the surplus drag and weight of floats or the boat shaped fuselage this marvel used watertight fuselage and two strut-mounted movable hydroplanes. Its engine was geared to a maritime variable pitch maritime propeller at the back which was used to take the Pegna to the speed needed to get the air propeller out of the water. At that precise moment the engine power should be transferred to the forward propeller; imagine the sheer complication of the transmission system.
It was just too much boldness. Irremediable problems with hydrofoils water spray and the engine clutches meant the abandon of further work. It was never able to achieve flight.

To think that Schneider original idea behind his Trophy was to stimulate the development of a safe and effective civil maritime aviation and he was specially adamant about the exclusion of “speed-freaks racers”…. Gladly, Schneider wasn’t there to watch his original idea so magnificently perverted.