Sponsored by REGGIANI S.p.A. Illuminazione - Milano, Italia

Italian Air Force Museum

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Hours: Oct-May: Tue-Sun 9,30-16,30; Jun-Sep: Tue-Sun 9,30-17,30

Phone: +39-6-9024034/9023975

Transports: By car, some 25Km far from Rome on Via Cassia, on the southern Web:http://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/comlog/comaer/museostor/ side of Bracciano Lake.

Italian Air Force Museum, besides being the most important in Italy, is also one of the most interesting of its kind.

Hosted in the hangars of the old seaplane station of Vigna di Valle, Museum conserves some 50 valuable pieces, most of Italian origin, and a restoration and maintenance center for historical planes.

Exposition follows history of Aviation in Italy, with some drawings and works of Leonardo da Vinci regarding flight, passing to Bleriot Xi monoplanes used in 1912 Lybian War. Among several WW1 aircraft, it is worth noting a SPAD VII, a huge twin-engined Caproni Ca.33 bomber and an Ansaldo SVA-5 which flew in the famous raid over Vienna in 1918.

A section dedicated to airships and Gen. Umberto Nobile, who flew first over North Pole in 1926 with Norge airship with Roald Amundsen, beinh heavily wounded in following polar journey of 1928 with airship Italia, preludes to aircraft which, during the '30s, gave Italy several records and exploits: Savoia-Marchetti S.55, flying boat which first crossed Atlantic in formation under command of Itao Balbo; Macchi MC39 seaplane, winner of 1926 Schneider Cup flying at 414Km/h; Macchi MC72 seaplane, holder, with pilot Francesco Agello, of world speed record for piston-powered seaplanes at 709Km/h, unbeaten from 1934.

Really valuable planes follow, as trimotor bomber SIAI-Marchetti SM79, found in Lebanon as the example conserved in Caproni Aeronautical Museum in Trento) and restored in original 1942 Royal Italian AF painting, biplane fighter FIAT CR32, famous in Spanish civil war, and the only complete example of Caproni-Campini CC2, which in 1938 experienced the motor-jet principle. Moreover, a trimotor transport SIAI-Marchetti SM82 "Marsupiale", which leaved service in 1960, and the trilogy of Macchi Series "2" fighters, i.e. MC200 "Saetta" with radial engine and MC202 "Folgore" and MC205 "Veltro" with German Daimler-Benz DB601 and DB605 engines.

The display ends recurring the recent history of post-war Italian AF, with a FIAT F86K end two FIAT G91, the first in PAN version, used by Aerobatic Wing "Frecce Tricolori" and the second in twin-engined version G91Y.

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