Central-hull flying boat, biplane, two-seat light bomber, single-engine.
With an extremely conventional configuration of rectangular wings with a wooden structure, fabric covering, and two pairs of struts per side, it had a large wooden hull with the pilot and crew housed in the bow.
The engine, which powered a four-bladed pusher propeller, was the 300 hp Fiat A.12 bis.
The S.16 (version “bis”) were assigned in the course of 1923 to the bombing squadrons at the seaplane stations of Brindisi, Lero, Naples, and Pola.
It enjoyed considerable export success, with sales beginning even before Italian military orders. The main foreign buyer was the U.S.S.R.
The careers of the S.16 ( “ter” version) ended at the Air Observation School in Taranto, where five seaplanes were still in service in August 1933.