The Italian glider Lombarda AL.12P. Besides a crew of 2 it could transport 12 troops. First test flight on the 16 September 1942. Never entered operational service.

Lombarda AL.12P glider

Macchi fighter’s fuselage lined up in the large hangar of the Lecce-Galatina airfield during the work of re-establish of the flight conditions. Note the tricolor roundels adopted by the Regia Aeronautica after the armistice with the United Nations and the declaration of the war to Germany by the Kingdom of Italy. The Lecce’s maintenance base was established on Autumn 1943 when the SRA-Squadra Riparazione Aeromobili (Aircraft Repair Team) of Brindisi, Manduria and Monserrato was assigned to Stormi 4th, 5th and 51st (all with the co-belligerent Regia Aeronautica) and afterward organized on the STC-Servizio Tecnico Caccia (Fighter Technical Service) inside the Lecce’s Raggruppamento Caccia (Fighters Grouping). The STC is the direct ancestor of the today Italian Air Force’s 10th Reparto Manutenzione Velivoli (Aircraft Maintenance Unit), or 10th RMV, the centre of excellence for maintenance, check and overhaul of all the Aeronautica Militare’s Alenia Aermacchi MB-339 (A and CD) primary and advanced trainer included the MB-339PAN of the “Frecce Tricolori”, the well-acquainted Italian aerobatic team. Victor Sierra

Return to flight conditions

The instrument panel of a bomber Savoia Marchetti S.79 show some distinctive features of the Italian planes of this time as the undercarriage’s brakes commanded by the lever on the left wheel control (instead of the pedals). Note also, over the central console, the three power levers. Unlike the other belligerent’s aircraft, the Italian airplanes, as the French aircraft, had the “inverted” throttles: back lever for plus power (“manetta in tasca”/throttle in the pocket=full power according the Italian aviator’s slang), forward lever for reduce power. This features gave some problems when the Italian pilots flew, during the Co-belligerence, with the English and American planes. The famous torpedo aircraft’s pilot Carlo Emanuele Buscaglia, for example, dead very probable because a mistake with the power lever of the Baltimore on take-off. The “inverted” throttles disappeared after the war with the arrival of the new English and American aircraft (as the Spit IX and the P-51D and P-47D) and definitely during the jet era. Victor Sierra