As promised a bit of background on the Italian Air Force. They did have jet powered aircraft by the 50's, but for now lets have a look at the beginnings. The Italian Air Force was originally an offshoot of the Italian Army. In 1884, a special division, called the Aerostatic Regiment for balloon operations was created to, well, have balloons to fly. Mainly to fly over the battlefields and report back by semaphore or telegraph, the balloons, like any other suffered from one huge inescapable weakness: they went where the winds blew. But hey, they had a real cool name for the regiment.
The Italians have had quite a history with aviation, scoring it's first balloon flight in 1784. They have a page in the history of dumbass steam powered aircraft with a working steam powered model helicopter . It took to the air in 1877, but was never seriously developed further. Odd.
The Italian Air Force really came in to it's own though around 1911 when Italy and Turkey were at war. This was the first time airplanes were used in a war for bombing anything. Poor Turks.
Italy did not have an actual arm of the military called an air force until 1923 when the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica Italiana) was born.
Next post I look at those flying Fiats.
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