The millennial dream of flying becomes possible in the early 1900s with the Wright ...
The millennial dream of flying becomes possible in the early 1900s with the Wright brothers. The globalized world is an achievement often associated with the birth of internet, but even before digital connections planes physically and quickly connect goods and people across the world. The history of aviation is a history of ideas and sophisticated technologies that were previously unimaginable, rather than one once realized they have helped to feed and fulfill the dreams of millions of people.
On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright manage to fly the Flyer, a biplane with an engine about 16 horses. Despite the few seconds and only 40 meters traveled, the two brothers realize the dream of flying. Flight fever officially kicks off.
The construction technique is gradually refined, to allow the first crossings only a few years later. Among the most memorable, in 1909 Louis Blérot flew over the English Channel in 32 minutes flying at an average height of 100 meters and in 1913 Cesare Suglia crossed the entire Italian peninsula from Turin to Bari.
In Italy the Wright brothers are called to hold flying courses, Mario Calderara and Umberto Savoia are the first Italian pilots to receive the patent.
In the meanwhile flying demonstrations are spreading all over. In Rome on May 30, 1908, Léon Delagrange conquers the European flight record for duration and distance covering 12 km and 750 meters in 13 minutes and 25 seconds.
The first entirely Italian-built airplane by the engineer is designed in Turin. Aristide Faccioli, the Triplano Spa-Faccioli which on 13 January 1909 led by his son Mario gets up in flight from the meadows of Mirafiori for about 20 meters. In 1910 Baroness Raymonde de Laroche is the first woman to receive from the Aéro-Club de France the flight license. Over a hundred years later, in 2022, a Boeing 747 takes off for the first time from Milan to Seoul with an all-female crew.
The Italian Air Force takes off during the Italian-Turkish War. On September 28, 1911 for the first time an airplane is employed as a military force, the commander of the Aviators Flotilla cap.
Charles Piazza on a Blériot manages to spot some enemy camps along the road that leads to Azizia, starting the aerial observations. A few months later it is experimented for the first time the aerial bombardment. On 1 November the first bombs are dropped from an airplane on Ain Zara and in the Oasis of Tagiura. Military aviation strengthened during the First World War World.
After the conflict, the Italian aviation landscape is fragmented into several small companies: Aero Italian Express, SANA Air Navigation Company, Italian Air Service Company SISA, S.A. Transadriatica, Italian Airlines and the Mediterranean Air Company that use war aircraft abandoned for commercial flights. In Germany there is already a single company, Deutsche Lufthansa and in France Air France, in England Imperial Airways is being born. The first was born only in 1934 Italian state airline, Ala Littoria S.A., the result of the merger of SAM, SANA and SISA.
The technological acceleration developed by the world conflict only allowed a few years after the carrying out epic challenges such as the first transatlantic voyage from New York to Paris. 3600 miles traveled by Charles Lindbergh in 33 hours, 30 minutes and 29 seconds on the Spirit of St. Louis without a stopover. In July 1933 a formation of 25 aircraft led by Italo Balbo makes the double crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in stages, from Orbetello to Chicago. Services of the Victory Wing in recent years connected Rome to the main European capitals, passing through Africa (Massawa-Assab) and the Indian Ocean.
World War II marks a sharp decline in domestic civilian air traffic, as in all states. Military aviation, on the other hand, is experiencing a second golden age, which sees it excel Germany, England and America. In the aftermath of the war, in Italy from the disused Ala Littoria Alitalia-Italian International Airlines is born. In 2021 the flag carrier comes replaced by ITA Airways.
Technical innovation is one of the fundamental guidelines of the history of aviation. From the first artisan experiments with planes made entirely by hand with materials such as wood and canvas, almost a century later, the first entirely computer-designed aircraft arrived in 1995, the famous one Boeing 777. At the dawn of civil aviation, people traveled aboard seaplanes capable of carrying up to 18 passengers at a speed of 200 km/h, four-engined engines are used for international routes capable of carrying up to 24 passengers at a speed of 300 km/h. The spearhead of the Italian fleet is the three-engine Savoia-Marchetti 73. After the war period, bombers of the First World War are readjusted, between the 1920s and 1930s the first airliner were more comfortable and safer than military aircraft. Until the Second World War the planes have a propeller engine, subsequently it comes the jet engine, which changes the face of aviation once again with the advent of jets plane, the De Havilland DH.106, Comet is the first jet airliner. Between the sixties and seventies, air transport becomes mass, potentially accessible to all segments of the population, with the introduction of the giants of the sky produced mainly from Boeing and Airbus.
A centenary history that has its roots in mythology and continues to follow always new targets. From Icarus' wax wings to powerful modern subsonic or supersonic aircraft, flying remains a dream that will accompany humanity forever.
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