I saw a picture on Facebook a couple of days ago that I thought was a faked-up steampunk-homage reconstruction of a racing seaplane with an impossibly large engine.
Macchi M.C.72 racing floatplane (Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)
Not only is it a genuine aircraft, but a couple of weeks ago on October 22, 2023 after a lot of research and reconstruction, a team in Italy actually got one of the monster engines running.
The aircraft is a Macchi M.C. 72, designed to compete in the 1931 Schneider Trophy race. Because of engine trouble it was unable to compete, and the Trophy was won outright by the British, who ran unopposed with their Supermarine S.5 and S.6 seaplanes. However Benito Mussolini continued to back the project and directed Macchi to continue development.
The M.C.72 at the Museo storico dell’Aeronautica Militare di Vigna di Valle. That’s not a black stripe – those are the exhaust ports of the FIAT AS.6 24 cylinder engine. If I read the story correctly, the brassy colored area in the nose is the cooling surface for the oil tank, and the similar looking areas in the floats are radiators for water and oil cooling. Just visible are more radiators built into the wing leading edges. Image by Alan Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The M.C. 72 held the world air speed record from April 1933 until September 1935 when Howard Hughes beat it in the Hughes H-1. However the M.C. 72 still holds the overall speed record for piston engine-powered seaplanes, which it set in October 1934.
Fast forward 89 years. October 22, 2023. Oh, and turn up the volume.