Despite its seemingly late type number, the BS.16 was one of the first aircraft designed by Camillo Silva after joining the company set up by Vittorio Bonomi in about 1930.
They were connected by a vertical pair of members and two diagonal ones, attached at two points on the lower frame and three on the upper.
Underneath it, a curved skid was mounted and faired in, forming a long, deep, narrow box, reaching aft to the rear vertical frame.
From the trailing edge rearwards the upper frame member was split into two, running parallel to each other and cross braced in the horizontal plane.
Parallel chord elevators projected behind with a cut-out for the movement of the tall rudder, which was hinged on the extreme frame and was rectangular apart from a cropped under edge.