It was designed by Sergio Stefanutti and was based on his previous SS.2 and SS.3 light airplanes that were tested in Guidonia, the test centre of the Regia Aeronautica.
The SS.4 was an all-metal single-seat fighter with a canard configuration wing with mounted twin fins on the wing trailing edges. It had also retractable trycicle undercarriage and short fuselage with an Isotta-Fraschini Asso XI RC.40 V-12 engine that delivered 960hp of power and was cooled by two radiators placed in either side of the fuselage in ducts just behind the cockpit and the fuel was storaged in two fuel tanks located at mid-fuselage together with another oil tank.
The pilot sat in the cockpit placed in the centre of the fuselage forward of the two fuel tanks and aft of the armament in the nose. The place of the cockpit gave the pilot an excellent visibility specially on the sides and front. The prototype was unarmed, however the expected armament to be installed was to be two 20mm cannons and another one of 30mm calibre clustered in the nose. Trully a very well armoured airplane for the time and for being an Italian one, specially when compared to another Italian fighter of the time.
The prototype was built by SAI-Ambrosini at their factory of Pasignano sul Trasimeno and then sent to the Eleuteri Airfield, located all of them in the Trasimeno region in central Italy. There, the aircraft was successfully flown on 7th March 1939. On next day, the prototype was going to be transported to Aviano airbase, in North-Eastern Italy, to be furtherly tested, however, the test pilot, Ambrogio Colombo, wanted a second test flight. After 45 minutes in the air, an aileron malfunctioned just 2km away from Eleuteri airfield. Colombo tried to land but he couldn't reach the runway and crashed near Campagna hitting a tree and, unfortunatelly, killing the pilot. The investigation of the accident concluded that the accident was caused by a faulty installation of the aileron and that the engine transmitted excessive vibration to the wing.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosini_SS.4
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
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