An airliner Savoia Marchetti S.73 of Avio Linee Italiane, an airline of FIAT Group, during engine maintenance’s operation perhaps at Taliedo Airport, near Milan, base of the same Avio Linee Italiane. The S.73, also employed by Ala Littoria and purchased by Belgian company Sabena and by the Czechoslovakian CSA, was developed by Alessandro Marchetti in parallel with the bomber S.81. After the Italy’s entry in WW2 all the S.73s was militarized and employed by the Regia Aeronautica like transport troops aircraft. The plane of this photo is the I-SAUL, military code MM603 (at this time the Italian Civil Aviation were a branch of Air Force under the Air Ministry), with certificate of registration (CoR) number 2000 delivery 5 March 1937. Victor Sierra

Italian airliner

The Savoia-Marchetti SM.79P I-ALAN, former S.79C I-TOMO, in the livery of Ala Littoria SA Linee Atlantiche before its transfer to LATI-Linee Aree Transatlantiche Italiane. The aircraft, with cabin for four passengers, has the Italian civil national markings in used on late Thirties with civil code I+four letters on fuselage and under the wings, the I for Italy on the rudder and the Italian flag on the fin. This markings date the photo before the outbreak (September 1939) of WW2, perhaps on the first months of 1939. Victor Sierra 

The golden age of I-ALAN

Second half oh Thirties, for Italy the war is still a long way: on Rome’s Littorio Airport, at this time the Italian capital’s commercial airport (Ciampino were a military airfield), the aircraft of two future enemy, an Italian and a French, parked side-by-side. The French plane is an Air France’s three engines Bréguet-Wibault 282 operated on the Paris-Rome line. Very interesting the Italian aircraft: it’s in effect an American-built Douglas DC-2 purchased via Netherlands and registered in Italy, I-EROS, by Avio Linee Italiane (FIAT Group) operated from 1935 on international airlines. After the Italy’s entry in WW2 the I-EROS, on 14 June 1940, was embedded by the Air Force and afterwards transferred to German Luftwaffe. The Avio Linee Italiane had also a DC-3, the I-EMOS, former Belgian Sabena OO-AUH commandeered after the Belgium’s fall, afterwards transferred to Ala Littoria on 26 September 1940 and registered military with the code MM60520. On September 1943, after the Italy’s Armistice, the I-EMOS was commandeered by the Germans and switched to Deutsche Luft Hansa with the registration D-ATZP. The ultimate fate of this aircraft is unknown. The Littorio Airport is today the Urbe Airport (Aeroporto “Mario De Bernardi” di Roma-Urbe) employed by general aviation. Victor Sierra