The first 100 years of the Italian Air Force

Today, with a conference in Florence (at the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio), the cycle of celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the official birth of the Italian Air Force begins, which will take place on 28 March. The event, curated by the Institute of Aeronautical Military Sciences of Florence, is attended by the leaders of the blue Army, with a group of historians and authorities; everything can be followed in live streaming on the “social” channels from 9 am. This meeting takes its cue from the past but is also projected onto the present and the future. In Italy, in the space of a century, we have passed from biplanes made of wood, canvas and metal tubes to F-35 fighter-bombers, and now the country is preparing to equip itself, in the context of an international collaboration, with the future “sixth generation” Tempest, which can be commanded by a man or woman pilot, or be remotely controlled from the ground or from a satellite, or will fly itself in full autonomy, and will be able to act as a base for swarms of drones. A leap into science fiction.

What is celebrated in 2023 is the official birth of the Air Force, but in Italy an Army and Navy aviation already existed before, albeit not as an autonomous weapon. There is a prehistory dating back to 1885, when a department of the Engineers was equipped with balloons for observation (of course, they weren’t as sophisticated as the ones China sends over America today to spy on it…). In the Libyan war of 1911-1912, Italian aircraft were the first in the world to be used in bombing operations. And in the First World War (1915-1918) Italian planes and pilots made a decisive contribution to victory, especially in battles such as that of the Solstice in June 1918. Francesco Baracca (1888-1918) stood out among the heroes of the Great War, who made dozens of acrobatic duels in the skies and shot down 34 enemy aircraft. His coat of arms, the Prancing Horse, later became the symbol of Ferrari.

After the war, Italy in 1922 became fascist, and in March 1923 Benito Mussolini placed great hopes in forging the Air Force as an independent entity: he wanted to make it a “Fascistissima” weapon, as new and free from the already stratified traditions of the Army and Navy. With Italo Balbo’s great air raids on the Americas, the regime created a formidable propaganda tool. Dreams of glory were shattered in the Second World War, but already towards the end of the conflict the surviving units of the Regia Aeronautica, fighting alongside the Anglo-Americans, washed away any suspicion of the Arma Fascistissima. A few more years passed and Italy integrated its Air Force into the NATO system, to which it continues to contribute in 2023.