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Italo Balbo
While all the pathfinding
was going on, very little attention was being paid publicly
to military aviation. One European country, however, felt
compelled to attend to its air forces in the early 193Os,
and that was Italy. The Fascist dictator Mussolini had been
in power since 1923 and it was clear to all of Europe that a
future war was going to place Italy on the same side as
Germany and against France and England. With the German air
program crippled by the Treaty of Versailles, Mussolini
hoped that developing an air force would give Italy a
valuable bargaining chip in dealing with Germany when the
showdown came.
(He turned out to be
wrong. Germany had developed an air capability in secret and
was not very much interested in the Italian air strength.)
In 1933 Mussolini’s Minister of Air, Italo Balbo, planned
and executed a display of Italian air strength that
impressed the world. It involved building twenty-five
specially equipped twin-hulled Savoia-Marchetti SM.55X
flying boats and flying in formation across Europe and to
the United States, to the Chicago World’s Fair, then back to
Rome.
On July 14, the flotilla stops over in Longueuil by the
Fairchild factory where a large crowd gathered along the
shores of the St-Lawrence cheers the courageous pilots.
There are so many small boats attracted by the event that
the flyingboats have difficulty landing!
This was known as the
Italian Formation Flight of 1933, and it was a stunning
display of both airmanship and public relations. The planes
flew in formation, in groups of three, descending on a city
with a dramatic swoop. The Formation Flight began on July 1
and landed near Rome on August 12.
Balbo in the cockpit
The project required a
full year of planning and the training of many pilots and
mechanics. Only two planes of the original twenty-five were
lost en route. Wherever the group flew, they were accorded
welcomes reserved for dignitaries and were treated like
heroes. Professionals in the field of aviation were
impressed with the planes, but looked at the entire
enterprise as childish. Nevertheless, Mussolini was pleased
and Balbo was made Air Marshal of the Italian Air Force.
Premier Mussolini (centre) inspects
the Caproni bomber fleet in a 1927
tour accompanied by generals Balbo (behind and to
Mussolini’s left) and
Badoglio. The Italian premier was a steadfast proponent of
air power and
was himself an accomplished pilot.
Savoia-Marchetti SM.55X
flying boat
In spite of the success of the Italian Formation Flight and
his promotion, Balbo was sent off to be the governor
of Libya. Possibly Mussolini regarded him as a threat and
was suspicious of his overtly pro-British sentiments. Balbo
was killed in 1940 by Italian gunners who claimed they
mistook his airplane for a rebel fighter. Recent
investigations have brought Balbo’s support of Mussolini and
the Fascist government further into question.
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