by Sikka
In the mid-1960s, SIAI-Marchetti developed a five-seater, substantially similar but with a higher-powered engine, from its S.205 four-seater light aircraft. The prototype of this new aircraft, named S.208, flew for the first time on May 22, 1967. Monoplane, a low-wing single-engine built entirely in metal, was mass-produced from the spring of 1968 and in the first five years about eighty, of which more than half destined for the Air Force in the S.208M version (aeronautical nomenclature U-208A) which used it for connection and training. Other civil tasks assigned to this light aircraft were, marginally, the sanitary one, the freight transport one and finally the agricultural one in the S.208AG version. The version intended for the Armed Force differed from the civilian version due to the modified on-board instrumentation, two doors for the pilot position, the possibility of mounting the hook for towing gliders and the lack of tanks at the wingtips. It is currently used by the connecting squadrons and by the 60 ° Stormo, for towing gliders.
