Fiat C.R.32 “Chirri”: Lavoro per tutti.

S.55’s Asso mechanic, “Chirri” pilot? The Italian Ministero dell’Aeronautica had a job for you in this magnificent Italian recruiting poster of 1934/35.

Artist: Raffaele Francisi.

Nieuport 11 Bébé: Nebbia di guerra.

Is the Bébé‘s Italian pilot changing drums or is he trying to fire his drumless Lewis using the rear handle?

Piaggio P.148: Back & Forth Trainer.

First flown in 1951, the cute P.148 was a primary/aerobatic trainer ordered in quantity by the Italian Air Force. Fairly modern and really pretty, it was powered by a trusty 190hp Lycoming O-435 air-cooled flat-six piston engine. The latter became its demise when the Italians, like other air forces, chose to undertake an all-jet training. Well, until the early-1970s saw a return to old ways with a mixed training program and the survivors of the around a hundred produced went back to their original job.

CANSA CT.25: Guarda, Mamma, Senza Motore!!

This desperate dive-torpedo bomber was designed by Giacomo Mosso of CANSA in 1942/43, near the Italian surrender. Simple in design, the pilot was placed in a prone position to withstand the dive bomber G-forces and to produce a small frontal area, I guess. Yep, you can’t see any engine because it was a glider. No idea about how it was to be operated, the data about the whole project is way too sketchy.

Macchi M.C.202 Folgore: “Did I Do that? (XXVII)”.

Way too lightning fast this Folgore of the 4° Stormo. That poor 1935 Ford Model 48 of the LUCE institute was not there to be the subject of a photo. The truck is a Fiat 626N. Martuba Airfield, Spring of 1942.

Fiat G.91T/1: Resting Places (LXXVII).

A two-seat Gina in the wilderness, Northern Italy.

Drone photo by @sixcentdouze.

Fiat APR.2: An Italian shooting star.

This “AP” (Aereo Postale) was designed by “R” (Celestino Rosatelli) in the early 1930s as a 10-passenger smart twin-engined airliner for the Avio Linee Italiane SA. Clean and powered by a pair of 700hp Fiat A.59Rs, the prototype (I-VEGA) made its maiden flight in 1935. Later reengined with 840hp Fiat A.74s, it became one of the fastest airliners of its era. Sadly, only the prototype was completed, because priority was given to the military market. In fact, the APR.2 design soon evolved into the BR.20. The I-VEGA served on the prestigious Milano-Torino-Parigi route; extended in 1938 to Londra. During the war it joined military service as a fast VIP transport.

Photo taken on April 1937 At the Taliedo airport. It appeared on an issue of the “L’illustrazione Italiana” of 1937.

Macchi M.C.202 Folgore: Just Because (CXXII).

30 October 1942.

The Folgore of Serg. Pietro Buttazzi (10° Gruppo CT, 4° Stormo) marvellously captured by Serg. Magg. Luciano Perdoni during a transfer flight from Fuka to Abu Smeit.

Photo: Associazione 4° Stormo, collezione Perdoni.

CANT 22: Palpito d’ali.

Elegant, but utterly conventional, the CANT 22 was an 8-passanger flying boat designed by Raffaele Conflenti in the mid/late-1920s. A sesquiplane of traditional construction, it was originally powered by a trio of 250hp Isotta Fraschini Asso 200s; the central engine was later replaced in some examples by a 500hp Asso 500, becoming the CANT 22R.1. Ordered by the SISA company, the around ten produced served mainly in the North Adriatic well into the 1930s, operated by then by the Ala Littoria.

Artist: Pollione Sigon (1927).

Romeo Ro.1bis: “What’s in a name?”

The Fokker C.V with the Fairey III and especially the French duo, Bréguet XIX and Potez XV, were the recon/light bomber bestsellers of the 1920s/early 1930s. Utterly Fokker in its construction philosophy, the design was also quite flexible with an assortment of engine options (both radial and liquid-cooled), with and without floats and various wing span configurations. Circa a thousand were produced inhouse and under licence.

The Ro.1 was a licence-built version of the Fokker C.V-E produced in Italy by what later became the IMAM company. An improved Ro.1bis flying over a really impressive cloud cover in this charming photo.