Macchi Aeronautica WF (Patreon)

Aeronautica Macchi was founded in 1912 by Giulio Macchi at Varese in north-western Lombardy as Nieuport-Macchi, to build Nieuport monoplanes under licence for the Italian military. With a factory located on the shores of Lake Varese, the firm originally manufactured a series of Nieuport designs, as well as seaplanes. After World War II, the company began producing motorcycles as a way to fill the post-war need for cheap, efficient transportation.

The company gained a new lease of life after, surprisingly, winning the official Italian WF licence over more favoured competitors such as Fiat-Ferrari, Eni, Pirelli, Saipem, and Atlantia. Rumours of corruption were widespread although a legal case brought by Fiat-Ferrari found Macchi to be innocent of any charges. Macchi, led by chief engineer and technical director - Mario Castoldi III, relocated to a site high in the Dolomite mountains from where they built some of the most startling Weird-Field Spaceships seen. Merging the design sensibilities of Italian racing with the astonishing new technologies of the WF instructions, Macchi eventually produced a fleet of spaceships in the traditional glossy red that graced their racing seaplanes of two centuries ago.