Italian Forces

Last advices

Foligno’s Fighter School, Umbria, Central Italy, 1942 or 1943. A warrant officer pilot instructor give the last advices at his student in process to taking off with a Macchi MC.200 employed like trainer for fighter pilots. The aircraftman, who has assisted the student to accommodate in the cockpit and to fasten one’s seat belts, get ready to control the correct locking of the transparent panels of flight deck prior to jump off from the wing. The large red number on the fuselage (162) is the individual aircraft’s number and not the unit’s code. In the old Italian Air Force the warrant officers were the backbone of flying school and thousands of Italian pilots they are under this “terrible” figures. Victor Sierra