A few photos I took at the Museo Storica Aeronautica Militare when I visited back in November (thanks to a case of the Japanese cold back in July leaving me with a spare vacation week).
The museum's at good day trip distance from central Rome, just take the train from Valle Aurelia (the station's right upstairs form the subway station there, whatever Google Maps may say about it, there are vending amchiens for tickets there, or you can buy online in case the machine for some reason just refuses to recognise your card) to Valle di Vigna, and then walk the last few km (or find some other way if you're bringing kids, the roads aren't entirely pedestrian-friendly). Should you find yourself too busy with the museum to remember basic biological needs right until you're back at the Vigna di Valle station there's a vending machine with snacks and soda a few blocks up the road in the Supercasa 58 store.
Panavia PA-200, aka Tornado IDS, in Gulf War livery.
WHERE F-104S?
AMX International AMX, "Ghibli", an Italian-Brazilian light attack aircraft. It's the second aircraft with that nickname, the previous being the Caproni Ca.309 of the WW2 period (which is where a certain Japanese aircraft nerd may have picked it up). It's an italianized version of an arab term for the hot desert winds.
>>64695344Possibly sent off to serve as gate guard to whatever cemetery Hartmann's buried in, the one (complete) Lawndart they have on display is a G, or so the sign claims.
Aermacchi MB.339 PANThe normal MB.339 is a two seat jet trainer, the PAN version has been modified for use by Italy's national aerobatics team with modified flight controls (for better low speed agility, at the cost of top speed) and coloured smoke dispensers.
Republic F-84G
Piaggio P.166M
Piaggio PD-808
Fiat G.91 PAN, the MB.399 PAN's predecessor
Astronaut suit of colonel Vittori during the Eneide mission.
F-16A
The almost mandatory DC-3/C-47/Skytrain
Part of a hot air balloon, used in the festivities surrounding Napoleon Bonaparte's coronation as Emperor in 1804. It was raised on the 4th of December outside of Notre Dame, torn from its place by strong winds on the 16th, and eventually crashed into Lake Bracciano (on the shores of which this museum lies).Supposedly the oldest surviving aircraft piece in existence.
SPAD S.VIIMost of the display halls had great big windows facing the lake, giving me plenty of backlighting and mismatched colour temperatures to deal with. And of course I had forgot that I had set the camera display to "make shit easier to see" instead of "show the actual exposure" during some astrophotography attempts some time prior.
>>64695483>Supposedly the oldest surviving aircraft piece in existence.How old are hot air balloons? How come people didn't discover it earlier? Does glide-planes count? Someone out there must have made a functional glider back in ye ole days for it to count as a aircraft.
Another one. This one was originally flown by Paul Luis Malavialle of Escadrille Spa.69, it may later have been used by the Italian ace Fulco Ruffo di Calabria. Either way the Italian government gave this plane to di Calabria at the end of the war, who in turn later gave it to the Aero Club of Naples.The previous SPAD was likewise maybe used, and later given to, the ace Ernesto Cabruna, and both are displayed in liveries these pilots flew such SPADs in during WW1.
>>64695505maybe, some idiot could have made a glider and sucessfully "flew" before the Wright Brothers really "flew" but nobody saw it, documented it, and the surviving pieces all were lost to time soit's probably just the oldest SURVIVING part we've found
>>64695505Sky lanterns have been around China since the 3rd century BC, if not earlier. The first manned flight was made by by Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier in mid October 1783 in a balloon designed by the Montgolfier brothers (following a demonstration flight a few days earlier where it was crewed by a rooster, a duck, and a sheep.I would guess the large gap in between these two are due to the relatively low lifting power per cubic metre of hot air, meaning a balloon that can lift a man needs to be very large but still light enough that we don't spend all the lifting capacity on just the balloon itself.The first military use was at the battle of Fleurus in 1794.
Macchi-Hanriot HD-1, this one flown by the ace Flavio Torello Baracchini, though it's livery is that of another such aircraft previously flown and crashed by him.Also as far as "first aircraft" goes I would say a decent glider should count. Leonardo da Vinci famously did design one, but the first reasonably functional one actually built was probably late 19th century. The best known name in the business there is probably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Lilienthal
SIT Blériot XI-2A development of the aircraft used by Blériot for the first crossing of the English channel, this model is to have been the first airplane in military use when an Italian artillery captain named Carlo Maria Piazza took one for a recon flight in Libya on the 23rd of October 1911. The livery seen here is from 1915.
Ansaldo SVA 5A failed fighter that made an good recon and light bomber hanks to its very long range, the one on display here was used to drop leaflets over Vienna during WW1.
Il Barachino Idroplano No.2, "Croco-Ricaldoni"A hydroplane, so not really an aircraft (unless we're somewhere with a very thick atmosphere), but with the lake just outside... Managed 75km/h back in 1907 using variable pitch propellers.
Lohner LReverse engineered by Macchi and produced as the L.1 after one had been forced to land on the Po river in 1915. The one seen here was stolen by a pair of Austro-Hungarian sailors of Italian origin in June 1918 and ditched near Fano.
Caproni Ca.3300kg bomb load, 450km range, entered service in spring 1917, retired 1929.
Windows added during restoration for educational purposes (ie so we can see inside).
Airship helm, possibly from N 1/Norge?The Italian-built airship N 1 was bought by the Norwegian aircraft club, renamed "Norge", and used for a journey over the North Pole in 1926, covering 113000km in a single 170 hour trip. This raised interest in Italy to try something similar, and in 1928 airship N 4, renamed "Italia". Unfortunately it crashed due to poor weather, and the few survivors were later picked up by a Russian icebreaker.
Motor gondola form a Type G airship, housing two Maybach 1913 engines (and with room enough for people to work on them).
Colt revolver and a "musket" in the Airship-Arctic exploration dsiplay.
And, for some reason, a pair of wakizashi.
Schneider cup time.Macchi M67, built for the 1929 cup but forced to bow out as both the airplanes sent suffered severe engine issues. Later used to train pilots for such competitions.
Macchi Mc.72It had a bit of a shaky start, first it wasn't finished in time for the 1931 Schneider cup, and later that year there was two different crashes with fatal outcome with this model. In 1934 however things improved a bit when it (specifically the one seen here) managed to hit 709km/h, which would be the aircraft speed world record all categories until 1939, and remains the seaplane record to this day.
And here's what powered it, the Fiat AS.6 engine that could cough up about 3100 bhp. How to get that power in the early thirties? It's a 50-litre V24.
Fiat C.29Designed for the 1929 cup, it had a relatively moderate 1000hp engine and as such was designed with heavy focus on reducing weight and drag. As a result it wans't terribly easy to fly, and it missed the competition due to being off for repairs at the time.
Cooling vanes. An alternative take on the cooling panels seen on the two Macchi here (which consist of flattened pipes that make up part of the aircraft's skin). Anything to avoid the drag of a regular radiator. This kind of skin cooling is less popular on military aircraft, since a single hit in the radiator form almost anything means you're now leaking coolant and on a countdown timer to the engine seizing up. So turning a large percentage of the entire airplane into your radiator...
Caproni Ca.100Designed in the late twenties and produced 1930-37 to provide a suitable training, touring and towing aircraft to help raise a new generation of pilots in Italy.
Ansaldo Ac.2A license built fighter that served with the Italian air force 1925-1929.
IMAM Ro.37 BISRecon/light bomber, served from 1935 and into WW2. The one here was sold to the Afghani air force in 1937, eventually found in a scrap yard and returned to Italy in 2006.
Fiat Cr.32It was sent to the Spanish civil war (this one in the livery it had there), where it did perhaps a bit too well, since its success caused the Regia Aeronatuica to stick to biplanes rather longer than they probably should have.
Some limited skin cooling. Dunno if it's a few loops of the main coolant or perhaps as an oil cooler or so.
Bonomi Bs.17 glider for flight schools.
Fiat Cr.42Intended as a transitional machine, it ended up being the most produced Italian aircraft (1674 built) and served on the front line in Italy until 1943 (ie probably to the end of Italy's war).A bit closer to home a collection in Sweden gathered enough funds to buy 11 of these for the Finnish air force during the Winter War. That war ended before they were delivered though, and Finland wondered fi they could perhaps have the money instead, resulting in the Swedish air force buying them from the Finns and putting them to work as recon aircraft, their sue as fighters being rejected due to lacking performance. However when the US stopped deliveries of the Seversky EP-1-106 and Vultee Vanguard things had to be re-evaluated and Sweden ended up buying another 60 for use as fighters based on that being just about the only thing anyone was willing to sell. And that's by and large why Sweden has kept SAAB in the fighter making business ever since.
IMAM Ro.43Designed for use on the Trento and Zara class cruisers, it also ended up serving on Littorio and Vittorio Veneto. This is only surviving one.
SIAI S.82PW "Marsupiale"Long range passenger/transport/bomber aircraft, first flight in 1938 and final retirement in 1960.
Due tot eh 1947 peace treaty there was a short period when the Italian air force wasn't supposed to have aircraft like this, and so for a short while the Sovereign Military Order of Malta had an air force.
Aircraft bits that may turn out to not be all that well attached and fall off at unfortunate times. From the elft...(Partially hidden) British GP Mk.IV 250lbs500kg bomb 500T70kg incendiary bomb 70 IP160kg anti-submarine bomb 160 CS
Macchi C.200, which somehow wasn't nicknamed "Quasimodo".
NArdi FN.305Liaison and trainer aircraft
Reggiane Re.2002First flight in 1940, entered service in November 1942. The one here was originally built for the Luftwaffe who made some use of the type, wrecked, and restored after the war. Shown with the insignia of the Co-belligerent Regio Aeronautica.
Autoblindo AB.41
Reggiane Re.2000 catapult version prototype.The Re.2000 didn't do terribly well in Italy, with the air force only ordering a total of 18 (including prototype) and the navy then picking up another 8 catapult launch ones (also including this prototype). It did somewhat better abroad, with sales to both Sweden (happy to have something, anything, more modern than the Cr.42 to buy) and Hungary. Of course as we've already established Sweden was desperate enough to buy the Cr.42...In Sweden it was reasonably well liked by the pilots, and hated with the most intense passion by the mechanics who had to keep these very-poor-even-for-wartime-production aircraft flying for years of neutrality patrol flights.
Fox Mk.1, a variant of the British Humber built by a Canadian branch of General Motors, used by the Italian air force for base defence until the early eighties.
Fiat G.212Post-war passenger aircraft based on the WW2-era Fiat G.12
>>64695971retro future vibes
>>64696148Yep, though to me the Schneider cup ones hit that note even harder.
Macchi C.202 "Folgore"
Macchi C.205VA C.202 that they crammed a license.-built DB605 into. Originally armed with two 12.7mmm and two 7.7mm machine guns, the latter were later replaced with 20mm cannons.
No G91Y?
Fiat G.55 "Centauro">>64696246We'll get there.
CANT Z.506S "Airone"
Presumably a D
Merlin
Mk.IX
Fieseler Fi 156 "Storch"
Siai-Marchetti S.79 "Sparviero"
Siluro-Whitehead Avio
Alfa-Romeo 126 RC 34A development of the 125, which was a license built Pegasus. Similar enough that the Yugoslavians could use English components on the AR126 engines after the war without issue.
Whitehead torpedo
"Crocco-Guidoni" gyro-guided glide bomb. An experimental affair dropped from Type M airships during trials back in 1918.
Motobombvo F.F.F. (After Freri, Fiore, Filpa)If I'm reading it right (which is questionable, I thought I'd warm up a bit before tomorrow and as it turns out I'm too old and sober nowadays to get very far with 50/50 GT's) an airdropped parachuting torpedo that'd run in concentric circles in the water until it found something in prompt need of an explosion.
Also, it should perhaps be noted that the order of posting here is what we're left with after I went in and sorted things out as far as I could be arsed.
And at long last we get the first sighting of a Fiat G.91Y
Canadair CL-13 Mk.IV (F-86E Sabre a'la Beaver)
Republic F-84F ThunderstreakApparently easy to fly, except for warm weather takeoffs (luckily the Mediterranean climate... oh) and it's complete inability to get out of a spin.
Republic RF-84FNorth American/Fiat F-86K
Fiat G.91T/1
Sai Ambrosini CVV.6 "Canguro Palas"A pre-WW2 design that didn't get into production until 1953, 31 or 34 built were bought by the Italian Air Force for use as basic trainers. Retired in 1980.
Fiat G.91R/1
A bit on the nose perhaps.
>>64696210>>64696246Why didn’t they use an elliptical planform like they did for the rudder and stabilizer? Do they also have a Re 2005?
What happens when you accidentally put the camera into full manual mode switching lenses and, thanks to having it set to "make stuff visible in the viewfinder" don't notice for a while that it's set to f/22 1/800s all of sudden. Auto iso did what it could, but...
Aerfer "Ariete"An attempt at an Italian jet fighter from the end of the fifties, didn't go anywhere beyond this prototype.>>64696583Dunno and no, none survive. Though apparently there's the arse of one in Trento.
Aerfer "Saggitario II", the predecessor of the Ariete
Sai Ambosini Super S.7
Panavia Tornado ADV (the fighter version) and F-104G
Skytflash missile and Orpheus IV recon pod.
>>64696678
Lockheed RT-33A trainer
Agusta-Bell AB.47G-2
Agusta-Sikorsky SH-3D/TS
Agusta-Sikorsky HH-3F Codice B
Fireworks
Also near mandatory: a Texan
Air raid siren
Starfighter cockpit
Breguet Br.1150 "Atalntic"
Renovation in progress.
Various engines.
And to round it off an SPA Falcolini No.3 engine from 1911. If I'm guessing the Italian right it's a 5.3 litre engine that could manage 50bhp at 1600rpm.All the photos (a bit over 500 with the signs): https://www.mediafire.com/file/iy6sdadkwbqhopt/Italien_-_Museo_Aeronautica.zip/file
an actual topic, on /k/bravo OP
>>64695387Is that an S-2?
>>64695968>>64695971Italy's first "jet". It looks very cool but it had worse performance than pretty much anything else.
>>64696645it has always bothered me how the Tornado isn't a true multirole aircraft and you had to order a model specifically for the role in need
Amazing thread OP thanks
>>64695544Not true at all, there were many contemporary gliders during the Wright Brothers time, they were mainly large kites. The brotheres were actually in contact with one of the more successful designers. It was powered flight that the Wright brothers pioneered, as before them no one had an engine light enough to put on a glider of the time. They also invented the controls that made the aircraft steerable, rather than just a kite in the wind.
very cool anon, thank you.
