IMAM (Industrie Meccaniche e Aeronautiche Meridionali) was an Italian aircraft manufacturer founded in Naples in 1923 by the engineer Nicola Romeo. In 1955 it merged into Aerfer.

The Industrie Meccaniche e Aeronautiche Meridionali had its origins in the aircraft division of OFM ( Officine Ferroviarie Meridionali), an Italian railway and rolling stock manufacturing company owned by Nicola Romeo. Romeo hired Alessandro Tonini, who had worked at Macchi on the flying boat fighter designs, as OFM's chief designer. Tonini had a great experience in aerodynamics and airplane design as he had worked at Macchi on the flying boat fighter designs. OFM contacted Fokker and got production licence for the Fokker C.V. It was built by the Naples factory in 1927 as the OFM Ro.1 and became the standard, general-purpose biplane of the Regia Aeronautica during the early 1930s. With the Ro.1 production line established, OFM turned its attention to its own first designs such as the Ro.1 Ridotto. In 1929, Alessandro Tonini suffered some serious health problems, so Romeo hired Giovanni Galasso to work as a designer at OFM. ^[1]

On 27 October 1934, Romeo changed the organisation of the company by splitting the OFM railway workshop and the aircraft business, renamed Società Anonima Industrie Aeronautiche Romeo (IAR). ^[1] The most successful aircraft produced by IAR was the Ro.37 Lince. The first prototype Ro.37 flew on November 1933. ^[2] From 1934 until 1943, the aircraft and its derivatives served wherever Italian forces were found, both on land in Italy, Spain, France, Libya, the Balkans, Ethiopia, and Somalia and at sea with the ships of the Regia Marina. It was, by contemporary standards, a successful contender on the export market as well, being adopted by Afghanistan, Ecuador, Hungary, and Uruguay. In 1935, OFM (the railway workshop) was sold to Società Italiana Ernesto Breda. Later, between 1935 and 1936, Romeo also sold Società Anonima Industrie Aeronautiche Romeo to Società Italiana Ernesto Breda, which combined the two companies into a single subsidiary organisation on October 1, 1936, the Industrie Meccaniche e Aeronautiche Meridionali (IMAM). ^[1] The new company continued Ro.37 recon biplane, Ro.41 fighter biplane, Ro.51 fighter monoplane (land/seaplane versions) and developed Ro.43/ 44 seaplanes, Ro.57/ 58 twin-engined fighters and STOL Ro.63. ^[3]

The two-seat Ro.43 and single-seat Ro.44 were evolved during 1935-36 from the Ro.37bis land-based reconnaissance aircraft for use aboard the larger warships of the Royal Italian Navy. The Ro.43 and Ro.44 were essentially similar apart from armament and the number of crew members carried, and both were powered by the Piaggio P.X R nine-cylinder radial air-cooled engine rated at 670 h.p. for take-off and having a maximum output of 700 h.p. at 3.280 ft., although the prototype Ro.43 had a 610 h.p. Piaggio P.IX RC 40.

On November 1, 1939, the Ro.43 equipped twenty shipboard reconnaissance floatplane elements, 101 machines of this type being in service and a further twenty-nine under construction. When Italy entered the Second World War, 105 were in service of which sixty-four were attached to Squadriglie of the Naval Force, although only forty-two of these were serviceable, eleven were stored at naval depots, and thirty were undergoing overhaul or repair. Many of the serviceable Ro.43s were aboard vessels of the Italian Navy, a Littorio-class battleship sometimes carrying as many as three machines of this type for gunnery observation or reconnaissance. ^[4] The type was to remain in service onboard ships until June 1942 taking part in some of the most important naval actions in the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II such as the battle of Calabria in July 1940 and the battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941. ^[1]

In 1939, Meridionali projected a twin-engined single-seat fighter, the Ro.57. Powered by two 840 h.p. Fiat A.74 R.C.38 radials, the Ro.57 carried two 12.7 mm. and two 20 mm. guns in the nose, and attained a maximum speed of 500 km/h (310.5 mph). Designed by Giovanni Galasso, the IMAM Ro.57 began to leave the production lines of the Naples factory early in 1942, and entered service in small numbers with the Regia Aeronautica as a fighter-bomber because of its comparatively low speed and poor manoeuvrability. From the Ro.57 was developed the Ro.57bis, evolved from the start as a fighter bomber and dive bomber. Although it was similarly powered, two 20 mm cannon were added to the 12.7 mm machine-guns and dive-brakes were installed. ^[5] Carrying up to a 500 kg (1,102 lb) bomb under its fuselage, this version was fairly successful but had faded from the scene before the Armistice of Cassibile. ^[6]

The Ro.63, a short-range reconnaissance and light transport aircraft of comparable quality and reliability or even superior to its German competitor, the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, was not put into production in significant numbers due to the shortage of available engines.

After World War II Officine di Pomigliano per le Costruzioni Aeronautiche e Ferroviarie-Aerfer was constituted and in 1955 merged with IMAM to form Aerfer. Aerfer worked notably on the first generation Italian jet fighter prototypes Sagittario and Ariete.

IMAM aircraft included:

• Ro.5, acrobatic sportsplane, 1929
• Ro.26, biplane trainer aircraft, 1932
• Ro.30, observation biplane, 1932
• Ro.35, single-seat glider, 1933
• Ro.37 Lince (Lynx), multirole reconnaissance biplane, 1933
• Ro.41, biplane fighter, 1934
• Ro.43, reconnaissance single float seaplane, 1934
• Ro.44, fighter seaplane, 1936
• Ro.51, fighter aircraft, 1937
• Ro.57, monoplane fighter, 1939
• Ro.58, monoplane heavy fighter and attack aircraft, 1942
• Ro.63, STOL reconnaissance aircraft, 1940

• List of Italian aircraft companies

• Media related to Industrie Meccaniche Aeronautiche Meridionali at Wikimedia Commons
• "Le Romeo Ro-35 à longeron "Monospar"". Les Ailes (583): 13. 18 August 1932.
• Cenciotti, David (12 July 2010). "The IMAM Ro.37bis found in Afghanistan". The Aviationist.

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