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Showing posts from September, 2018

Libya from the Air (With a Brief Look at Morocco)

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Cyrenaica: A two-seat SVA in air-cooperation with a Squadriglia of Italian Royal Army's armored cars.   The Italian Royal Army was the first armed force in the world to employ aircraft in combat, during the 1911-12 Italo-Turkish War for the control of the territory that became modern Libya. After the end of WWI the Italian airplanes were back in force on their Fourth Shore (as the Italians called Libya), and it was there, where airplanes had fought for the first time in history, that the European colonial forces grew their wings and learned to fly. The following is a translation of an excerpt of an Italian "Storia dell'Aviazione," written by various authors and published in weekly installments in Italy by Fratelli Fabbri Editori S.p.A. beginning in 1973 (this comes from issue N. 42). After the Libyan chapter I added a page about what the Spanish airmen were facing in Morocco at about the same time. I hope you will find it interesting, and your c

Where the six hundred still ride

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The Fiat 600's of Asmara. Di Alberto Alpozzi (translated and edited by L. Pavese) “Asmara not only showcases her architectural heritage, her tree-lined boulevard and her public spaces, but as important are her cafes with their outside tables, the croissants and the pastries that this town can offer the visitors, together with all that the Italians brought here with their architecture,” says Susanna Bortolotto, a researchers from the Polytechnic University of Milan. “That is the added value of this city. And if one strolls through the streets of Asmara one will still be able to see the 600’s: those old classics FIAT's that have all but disappeared from the Italian roads.” “When can their glory fade? Honour the charge they made! Noble six hundred.” Tennyson would say. The economy “utilitarian” FIAT 600 automobile, the symbol of the Italian post-war economic boom, designed by Dante Giacosa, was presented at the Expo Palace in the