Pay attention to this picture: often, and also in many articles, she’s pass of as the photo of the airplane, the Piaggio P.108 bomber, upon which to die the Duces’ son Bruno Mussolini. NO: this is the photo of an emergency landing - most probably for engine troubles (note only two of three blades of external engines propellers crushed), a problem which plagued the entire P.108’s career - to the prototype of Piaggio’s four engines bomber at beginning of 1940. On the fuselage’s rear section you can make out the acronym PF hemmed in a circle. The acronym PF mean Piaggio-Finale: on the Thirties and early Forties the Italian prototype aircrafts were marked with two letters in a circle: the first for the manufacturer, the second for the factory (Finale is Finale Ligure at the time the Piaggio’s main factory). Note also the upper canopy open employed as emergency exit. The following photos are the real photos of Bruno Mussolini’s accident. Victor Sierra

Pay attention to this picture

The Italian ace, ten victories on WW2 plus one during the Spanish Civil War and other four in collaboration with other pilots, warrant officer Ennio Tarantola, nickname “Banana”, fasting the parachute helped by an airman prior of boarding on its fighter, a Fiat G.55 Centauro of Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana, Spring 1944, perhaps at Venaria Reale. The Tarantola’s fighter is a particular aircraft: is in effect the G.55 Sottoserie 0 military code MM91060 which, prior the transfer in charge to ANR, was employed by Fiat to test the modifications for the G.55 Serie I. Note the elevator still blocked in position “nose up”. Victor Sierra

Centauro’s pilot

The wreck of the Piaggio P.108B, military code MM22003, of Regia Aeronautica 274th Squadriglia Bombardamento Grande Raggio (Long Range Bombardment) destroyed near Pisa, on 7 August 1941, by the fatal accident which caused the death of Capt. Bruno Mussolini, commander of the same 274th Squadriglia and son of the Duce Benito Mussolini and Rachele Guidi, and of other two crewmember, the Lt. pilot Francesco Sacconi and the Warrant Office flight engineer Angelo Trezzini, while the other five on board saved oneself. The accident’s origin was an unexpected dropping of the pressure of hydraulic system just after the take-off from Pisa with flaps extended. Retracted the flaps the pilots decided to turn around and to return at the base. During the final approach to Pisa Airport, with landing gear up, the aircraft banked too sharply, lost speed and stalled banging into the terrain. That according many sources(according other loss of power), an in effect the few photos of the accident seeming confirm an impact on the terrain nose down, typical of a stall. But it seems to me that the only authentic technical accident report, in my opinion still unknown (supposing in existence), can say the real event’s sequence. An unhappy coincidence: also the Bruno Mussolini’s widow, Gina Ruberti, dead tragically, for a fast boat accident, on 4 May 1946, during the Como Lake, for a fast boat accident during a night tour on Como Lake with a friend and two English officers. Victor Sierra