The L.59 was the culmination of work done by Carlo Lualdi throughout the 1950s, and was an enlarged version of his earlier two-seat designs.

Of conventional pod-and-boom design with skid landing gear, the aircraft had the slightly unusual feature of having its engine mounted in the nose, turning the main rotor by a long driveshaft that reached through the cabin.

Lualdi was able to interest Macchi in the design and two Macchi-built prototypes began flight tests in 1960.

Macchi planned an initial production batch of 50 machines, but only a single example was sold - one of the prototypes was purchased by the Italian Army for evaluation purposes.

An Aer Lualdi L.59 wearing the Italian military serial MM576 is preserved in the Centro Polifunziale Ferruccio Lamborghini at Dosso near Ferrara.