I-PLIO              Macchi M.100                                      (c/n  4157)

                           

                              The Macchi C.100 was an enlargement of the Macchi C.94, the main flying boat type used by
                              Ala Littoria, the Italian national airline in the Mussolini era of the 1930s and 40s.  Only three
                              C.100s were built (possibly due to the outbreak of WW II), of which I-PLIO was the prototype
                           .  It had three passenger cabins giving a total of 26 seats in all.    The above is a Macchi photo
                              taken at Trieste where this particular machine was based.  The other two were I-PACE and
                              I-PLUS. All three were impressed into the Regia Aeronautica in 1940 but were still flying
                              (boldly) on the Rome-Cagliari-Barcelona-Lisbon route well into the outbreak of hostilities. 
                              I-PACE, (c/n 4158) seen below, crashed on take-off on a Rome-Ostia flight on 30 July 1941.