Many are the memories and the records that our aviation has consigned to History, not merely the previously-mentioned exploits of Faccioli, Brach Papa, Laureati, De Bernardi and others.

The floatplane base on the Po near the Isabella Bridge, inaugurated in 1926

April 1° 1926 – the first Italian commercial flights between Turin-Pavia-Venice-Trieste

April 1, 1926 is certainly a historic date, not only for the city of Turin, but for Italy itself: it was the day when, on the initiative of the SISA company of Trieste (Italian Society of Air Services) owned by Andrea and Callisto Cosulich, an Italian commercial air service was established with the first regular link between Turin-Pavia-Venice-Trieste by CANT 10 TER seaplanes built by Cantiere Navale Triestino.
The CANT 10 seaplane, with its FIAT A12 BIS, 6-cylinder 300 HP engine, could carry four passengers and two crew members (a pilot and an engineer, sometimes substituted by a second pilot) plus 50 kilos of mail.

 

 

A test flight was carried out on March 28, 1926, carrying mail, newspapers and journalists, who were thus the first passengers.
The official inauguration took place on April 1 and was effected by two pairs of seaplanes which departed from Portorose (Trieste) and Turin; the westbound was scheduled to land at Venice (Sant’Andrea hydrobase, now the Lagoon), Pavia while the eastbound aircraft made stops in the opposite direction.
In Turin the aircraft took off from the River Po, in the stretch between the Isabella bridge and the Umberto i bridge.
Due to the strong winds of the Bora that were sweeping through the city, the planned departure of the seaplanes from Trieste harbor was abandoned in favor of the nearby Portorose bay.
According to the press, massive crowds had gathered along the Trieste shoreline near the floating hydrobase of the Audace Pier in the San Giorgio basin, but the wind gusting to around 60-70 kilometers per hour made a takeoff manifestly impossible for the two Turin-bound seaplanes.

The SISA hangar on stilts at Valentino

A Cant 10 ter in the hangar

A Cant 10 ter during take off from the Valentino floatplane base

The SISA’s FBA flying boat near the Umberto I bridge after a test flight prior to the innauguration of the Trieste-Turin route

The floatplane base on the Po, inaugurated in 1926

Cant 10 ter during takeoff with Valentino Castle in the background

In the main hall of the Hotel Savoia, Trieste, where most of the authorities from all over Italy were staying, an early-morning meeting was held to decide the best course of action. The possibility of a postponement was never considered, since the good names of Cosulich and Trieste itself were at stake. It was thus decided that the aircraft would take off from Portorose area, protected from the wind by the surrounding hills.
The Cosuliches rapidly organized a fleet of cars in front of the Savoy Hotel and in less than an hour ferried guests and authorities to the hangar of the sisa flying school, near the old Piran shipyard while the people of Trieste, who had come to see the departure, remained disappointed, getting only a view of the sea ruffled by the wind.
At 12,02 the two CANT 10 TER, one piloted by Luigi Maria Ragazzi, the other by Antonio Majorana, took off from Portorose, ushering in the era of scheduled flights in Italia.

A Cant 22 (twin-engined) at the Trieste landing site

One of the aircraft which left from Portorose held Oscar Cosulich, alderman Riccardo Sulligoi Silvani, General Alberto Bonzani with his Adjutant Captain Alberto Briganti, Manlio Molfese (head of the Civil Aviation Office - today ENAC) and the journalist of the “Il Corriere” Luciano Cavara, while in those from Turin were the journalists Quadrone (La Stampa), Carrara (La Gazzetta del popolo), the assistant Commissioner of the municipality of Turin Attilio Levi and Air Force officers Col. Tacchini, Maj. Lordi and Cap. Cassinelli. The take-off was watched by Senator Giovanni Agnelli and the Special Commissioner of the Turin municipality who sent a personal message of greetings to the then mayor of Trieste, Senator Pitasso.

The flight of three and a half hours had a particularly high price for its time: 350-375 lire, equivalent to the cost of a first class train ticket plus the “sleeper” supplement.
Two seaplanes were flown to Turin on March 31 from the Monfalcone factories: I-OLTC (piloted by Mario Ceroni, flight engineer Inghignolo) and I-OLTF (piloted by Bruno Pascaletto with flight engineer Casnaghi) while the another two went to Portorose: I-OLTB (piloted by Luigi Maria Ragazzi, flight engineer Giannetti) and I-OLTD (piloted by Antonio Majorana with flight engineer Ferrari).
At Pavia, the seaplanes were scheduled to meet on the Ticino, where the official protocol ceremony was attended by the Head of the Government, Benito Mussolini.
The first seaplane from Turin landed on the Ticino at 11.45, followed a few minutes later by the second, while the two seaplanes from Trieste, following their stop in Venice, landed in the early afternoon, at around 3 pm.
Of the four aircraft, only the one piloted by Ragazzi would complete the entire journey in the day, while Majorana, Ceroni and Pascaletto, plagued by modest technical problems, only completed their journey the following day. However, the result could be considered as a success, and the feasibility of air links had been established, moreover using seaplanes.

Following this inaugural flight, a regular service (three days a week) was established, with synchronized departures - from Turin and Trieste - at 11.00 with landing forecast at 16.10. Each flight included a stop in Pavia and one in Venice, with a stop of about half an hour before taking off for the next stage.
The percentage of successful flights is almost incredible – in its six years of activity, the company attained an amazing 99,42%, demonstrating what can be done with seaplanes operating from water, even without “blind flying” instruments and anti-icing systems.
The route was a complete success – it is sufficient to consider that in the first year only, fully 575 connections were made, for a total of 1589 hours of flight time with 1,588 passengers (the full journey, with stops in Pavia and Venice, lasted about 5 hours). The final totals were for 12,093 journeys, 28,330 hours of flight time and 59,021 passengers.
The story of this route is particularly interesting and sufficiently full of episodes to merit being narrated in various books (see “Sisa. La prima compagnia aerea italiana”, by Carlo d’Agostino and Mario Tomarchio, published by Aviani & Aviani).

This event preceded by a few days the first flight of the sana Company between Genoa, Rome and Naples, which took place on the 7th of April. From the 1st of August of that same year, “Aero Espresso” began the first service between Brindisi and Constantinople.

April 2016. The Cessna 172 Hydro of Aero Club Como in un simulated landing in
commemoration of the 90th Anniversasry of the first SISA flight

The first ground-based air routes

n 1926, FIAT started up a new company called ali – Avio Linee Italiane (which later became “Ali-Flotte Riunite” following the merger with Airone, SISA and Transadriatica) and saw Count Antonio Farini (future President of the Aero Club Torino) as its Managing Director. Initially with the tri-motor Fokker-F.VII , it established the first regular Turin-Rome flights in 1929, departing from the Mirafiori airfield.

1929. Fokker-F.VII which flew the first Turin- Milan-Rome route, departing from Mirafiori airfield.

1929. The “comfortable” internal of the Fokker in service on the Turin-Rome route

From 1927 up until the Second World War

The administrative headquarter of the Aero Club “Gino Lisa” which since 1927 had been in Via Carlo Alberto 41 moved to Via Pietro Micca 18 in 1930, then to Via del Carmine, 18 in 1932 and finally to Via San Francesco d’Assisi 14 in 1933. Flying took place at Mirafiori South, site of many sporting events, demonstrations and gatherings of one sort and another through the years – meetings which are part of the history of Torinese and Italian aviation. There was a mixed gathering of members, enthusiasts and others who were just simply curious, many of whom, for the first time in their lives, came close enough to touch one of these marvellous machines called aeroplanes.

Late ’20’s. Social outing Aero Club Gino Lisa

A number of distinguished men followed Montù as Presidents of the “Gino Lisa” (for a brief biography of each, refer to the Appendix “Former Presidents”): Count Carlo Nicolis di Robilant (1927-1930), Count Paolo Thaon Di Revel (1930-1934), Engineer Ugo Sartirana from 1934 until 1938 (during his Presidency, Amedeo of Savoia Duke of Aosta was nominated honorary President), and from November 1938 until 1946, Count Antonio Farini.

Amedeo di Savoia duca d’Aosta Amedeo di SAVOIA, DUCA di AOSTA, (Honorary President of the Aero Club “Gino Lisa” of Torino from 1937 during Ugo Sartirana’s presidency) and often referred to as the “Iron Duke” or the “Hero of Amba Alagi”. A pilot and General in the Italian army, he was the Viceroy of Italian East Africa from 1937 to 1941. He was born in Turin in 1898, son of the second Duke of Aosta, Emanuele Filiberto and Elena of Bourbon-Orléans. He gained a degree in Jurisprudence at the University of Palermo and on the 24th of July 1925, was licenced as a military pilot. He was sent with the Army to Africa, where he took part in a number of raids, and was awarded the Military Silver Medal for his intrepid operations over Cirenaica. During the ’30’s he was resident at the Miramare Castle, near Trieste, while he was the C.O. of the 29th Artillery Regiment “Gorizia”. During this period he was also honourary president of the Trieste Football Club. At the end of the Spanish Civil War, in 1939 he was proposed for the throne of Spain, following the deposition of the Bourbons, but the proposal was vetoed by General Francisco Franco, the Spanish Dictator. On the 5th of November 1927, he married Anne of Orléans in Naples. The couple had two girls, Margherita who married Robert of Hapsburg-Este, second son of Carlo I, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor in 1953, and Maria Cristina who married Casimir of Bourbon-Two Sicilies in 1967. In 1932 he transferred to the Royal Italian Air Force. On the 21st of October 1937, he was nominated Governor-General of Italian East Africa and Viceroy of Etiopia. During the Second World War, in 1941, he was Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and found himself fronting the overwhelming advance of the British troops in Italian East Africa. With the few troops remaining under his command, he retreated to set up the last resistance in the mountains of Ethiopia. With 7,000 men, he was able to hold out at Amba Alagi from the 17th of April until the 17th of May 1941. The Italian defence soon came under siege by General Cunningham’s 39,000 men. The Italian soldiers put up a strenuous defence for an entire month, but ultimately debilitated by the cold, lack of water and out of ammunition, they were forced to surrender to the British on the 19th of May 1941. The British troops, as a gesture of regard for the resistance put up by the Italians, accorded the survivors the honour of their arms, allowing the officers to keep their pistols. Amedeo d’Aosta died of malaria in Nairobi, on the 3rd of March 1942. He was 44 just years old.

1929 – The international challenge for touring aircraft

Aeronautical tourism had begun to become popular, so that in the summer of 1929 the FAI (International Aeronautical Federation), together with the various national Aero Clubs, organized the “International Tourism Challenge” which was at that time the most important competition for touring aircraft. It was essentially an aerial tour of Europe.
The 1929 edition, which was the first, was followed by three more in 1930, 1932 and 1934, had its departure and arrival in Paris-Orly and included a stage which arrived at Mirafiori airport within the St. Raphael – Turin – Milano Taliedo leg.
Of the 82 competitors who registered in Paris, only 55 presented themselves.
The race involved 4 distinct phases:

• Test of the practical qualities of the aircraft
• Fuel consumption test
• Regularity around the European circuit
• Speed around the European circuit

The first phases took place at the Paris-Orly airport from August 3rd to 6th, in which all 55 competitors took part. There were 24 Germans, 12 Italians, 9 French, 3 Czechoslovaks, 2 Swiss, 2 English, 2 Belgians and 1 Yugoslavian.
On August 7, the fourth phase, that of “Speed around the European circuit”, took place, again from Orly, in which only 45 crews participated, as after the first phase some aircraft had shown imperfections and were eliminated.

7 august 1929. Bustle and activity at the Paris airfiled before the start

The race course included the following stages: Paris, Basel, Geneva, Lyon, Marseille, Saint Raphael, Turin-Mirafiori, Milan, Venice, Belgrade, Bucharest, Turnu Severin, Budapest, Vienna, Brno, Prague, Wroclaw, Warsaw, Poznań, Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris. The main fields were Paris, Belgrade and Warsaw.

Miss Spooner during a refueling stop

The 12 Italian planes present were: four IMAM-RO5, (Gelmetti, Castaldo, Guazzetti and Benasatti), one CANT 26 (Stoppani), three REDA CIRRUS 15’S (Ferrarin, Mazzetti and Liberati), four FIAT AS.1’S (Lombardi, Donati, Castaldo and Bottalla).
The aircraft were divided into two categories based on the unladen weight (up to 280 Kg and up to 400 Kg). But it is curious to note that in addition to the unladen weight, not only the weight of the crews, fuel and other equipment but also that of the “mouth supplies”, that is to say the food, needed to be added.
Summing up the results of the four phases, the competition was won by the German Eric Morzick with a B.F.W. having a 70 HP Siemens engine, followed by the Englishman Hubert Broad with an 80 HP Gipsy-Moth, while third came the Canadian John Carberry with a 90 HP Raab-Cirrus.

An Italian crew take a rest at the Màtyàsfòld-Budapest airfield

The best that can be said is the Italians did “reasonably well”, with Federico Guazzetti taking 5th place, followed by Gustavo Castaldo in 8th place, Umberto Gelmetti in 9th and Carlo Benasatti in 12th (all four in a Romeo 5 with a FIAT 80 HP engine). Francesco Lombardi in a FIAT AS1 came 13th.

It is important to mention that navigation was a serious problem, to the point that, on the occasion of the Turin stage, the organizers worried that competitors would land by mistake at the Aeritalia airport instead of at Mirafiori.
In order to avoid these misunderstandings the AeroClub of Piedmont, i.e. the Aero Club Torino (organizer of the stage) which at that time had its premises at Mirafiori, requested the specific collaboration of the Aeronautica d’Italia.

 

After the 1930

In the meantime, the runway of the Aeritalia airfield had seen a long series of aircraft take to the skies (30 years of activity): prototypes of the “SP” of Savoia-Pomilio, the “SVA” of Savoia Verduzio Ansaldo, the “CR’S” and the “BR’S” of Rosatelli and the “G”’s of Gabrielli.
During the 1930’s, FIAT built the tarmac runway “30” for the testing of these aircraft. This was originally 1,000 metres long, but was lengthened to 1,500 metres in 1961.

FIAT CR.30

FIAT G.59

From this airfield between the wars, test pilots like the previously-mentioned Brach Papa, Lovadina, Ferrarin, Rolandi, Cus and Catella brought to perfection aircraft which would carry the name of Turin to the furthest corners of the world (one example being the CR.32 fighter which was exported to China and Romania in 1933, to Hungary, Austria and Spain in 1936 and to Venezuela in 1937).
Later, the famous FIAT G.50, G.55 and G.59’s would also take their place on the runway as they took off for their test flights.
During the period 1937-38 the “Air Marshall” Italo Balbo also frequented the Mirafiori airfield, as can be seen from the signed photograph in the Aero Club archives.
Then came the difficult years of the Second World War, followed by those, equally difficult but full of hope, years of the post-war reconstruction.
The Aero Club Torino had been seriously damaged by air attacks. The collapse of its hangar caused the loss of almost all its aircraft, and in the devastation caused by the retreating Germans, most of its documentation was also destroyed. Thus, much of its history is now gone for ever.

 

Nuvoli – a winning wager

Count Engineer Prospero Nuvoli (Turin 1901-1986) graduated in mechanical and electronic engineering from Torino Polytechnic in 1924.
In 1925, with the congratulations of the president of the Committee, General Alessandro Guidoni, he won a place to enter the Military Aeronautical Engineers and in 1926 was assigned to the Directorate of Aeronautical Constructions in Turin.
In 1927, under the tutorship of Modesto Panetti he completed the class in aircraft construction, and in 1930 he was appointed as Supervisory Officer at FIAT Aeritalia in Corso Francia.
It was perhaps then that he began to think of his own airplane and made a wager with Senator Giovanni Agnelli for a dinner that in just nine months he could build a monoplane using an engine 50% less powerful than the FIAT AS.1, but with much better performance.
And so it was. In 1931 the airplane N-3 began to take shape at FIAT in collaboration with the three technicians that Senator Agnelli sportingly put at his disposal, and on October 30, 1931 the aircraft undertook its maiden flight in the hands of Francesco Brach Papa.
With a weight of 285 kg and a payload of 215 kg it could fly at 165 km/hour, climbing to 1,000 m in 5’40” powered by a 40 HP Salmson AD9 engine, baptized by the press as the “aerial motorcycle”.
Senator Agnelli honored the bet and on November 14, 1931 offered a lavish dinner at the restaurant Del Cambio in Turin. presso il ristorante Del Cambio di Torino.

The record-breaking Nuvoli 5R

The plane underwent developments and improvements with the n-3s model in which a FIAT A.50 engine was installed.
In 1932 Nuvoli opened his own company called laa (Laboratorio Artigiano Aeronautico) at no. 25 via Crissolo, where with the collaboration of five workers, he built the N-5 version using the British Pobjoy “R” 75 HP engine. This was tested on March 6, 1933 by Sebastian Bedendo, reaching a speed of 204 km/h.
In 9 months the N-5 set five world records for “Category 3” aircraft, I.E. two-seaters with with a curb weight of up to 280 kg.
The following world records were homologated:

• April 24, 1933 – Straight line non-stop distance record: 886 km, from Cinisello (Milan) to San Vito dei Normanni (Brindisi) in 4 hours 56 minutes, pilot Bedendo;
• June 17, 1933 – world speed record over 100 km circuit: 196.936 km/h; at Ciampino, pilot Bedendo;
• June 17, 1933 – world speed record of 189.573 km/h for 500 km circuit; at Ciampino, pilot Bedendo;
• October 2, 1933 – world altitude record for the category at 6,475 meters at Guidonia-Montecelio, pilot Zappetta;
• December 2, 1933 – new world altitude record for the category of 6,951 meters at Guidonia-Montecelio, pilot Zappetta.

Engineer Nuvoli then went on to develop several other models including one with completely redesigned fuselage with a large baggage area, called N-5T (Tourism) with a 90 HP Pobjoy engine, destined for the private tourism market at the price of 38,000 lire.
Only 2 examples of this were produced, sold to Ferdinando Avogadro Collobiano (registered as: I-COLB) and Cesare Maffei (I-MAFF).
In 1945 he was appointed as Director of the FIAT plant in Riva del Garda by prof. Vittorio Valletta, who at that time was the managing director of FIAT.

Prospero Nuvoli at his desk in the DTCA in Turin

Fongri

 

The monoplane (right) beside a FIAT AS.1

In 1931 Eugenio Grignani from Turin, owner of the Fongri motorcycle factory (Fontana & Grignani), built what he called the smallest aircraft in the world (called “Colibrì”), with an opposed twin-cylinder 4-stroke, 900 cc motorcycle-derived, ohv air-cooled engine of his own production.
The aircraft, of which only two examples were ever produced, was 4 meters long, had a total weight of 130 kg, with a wingspan of 5,40 m and was flight tested at Mirafiori by the Air Force Warrant Officer Fausto Moroni. The aircraft was presented during the “Wings Day” held in Rome in 1931.

Eng. Nuvoli at the controls of Fongri monoplane with motorcycle engine of 900 cc

Francis Lombardi

Carlo Francesco (better known as Francis) Lombardi (Genoa, 21 January 1897 - Vercelli, 8 March 1983), was a military aviation ACE of the First World War, during which he was awarded one gold and three silver military medals for bravery. After the war he continued to cultivate a passion for flying which knew no limits.
On February 12 ,1930, with the small FIAT-Ansaldo A.S.1 touring aircraft, he took off from Rome heading for Somalia, where he arrived on February 18, covering the distance of 8,060 kilometers in 65 flight hours with six stopovers. The final 2,700 km from Tobruk to Mogadishu took 22 hours and 45 minutes without a stopover.
Also in 1930 (13 July) accompanied by his friend Gino Capannini, he carried out an extraordinary feat that took him from Vercelli to Tokyo via Austria, Poland, Russia, Mongolia, China, North and South Korea and finally Japan in 9 days and 6 hours.
The celebrations lasted a long time in Tokyo. It was an event that made history. Lombardi and Capannini were treated as authentic celebrities for their entire stay.

Vercelli-Tokyo Raid

Francis Lombardi and Gino Capannini during a pause in their Vercelli-Tokyo raid

The enterprise of the Vercelli pioneer was given major coverage in the Italian and Japanese newspapers as front page news.
In 1938 he founded avia (Anonima Vercellese Industria Aeronautica), an aeronautical company active during the Second World War which produced various models of aircraft, including the fl.3, a two-seater plane used to train both civil pilots as well as military pilots in the flying schools of the Regia Aeronautica. The Regia Aeronautica bought about 250 examples and Croatia ordered a further 20 to equip the flight schools of its own air force.
Another aircraft produced by avia was the lm.5 (Lombardi- Mortara) whose production had begun in the pre-war period. The plane was not very successful due to the large cost increases caused by the war, so production came to an end in 1948.
Lombardi sold the production rights of his aircraft to Meteor SpA, (later Iniziative Industriali Italiane SpA) which continued their development and production in various models into the 1950’s.
For his contribution to aeronautical development with avia, Lombardi was awarded a gold medal in 1947.
He then decided to change to another field, moving into the automotive sector, and in 1947 he founded the “Carrozzeria Francis Lombardi” in Vercelli. This closed nearly thirty years later in 1976.
Francis Lombardi died in Vercelli, at the age of 86, on March 8, 1983.

Baron Piero Casana in flight with his LM.5 I-PIER

Go to the Next Chapter