In the early post-war years, the Air Force laid the foundations for its organisation and established itself with the general public thanks to numerous raids and records achieved by the men in blue and their aircraft, both in Italy and around the world, marking the epic of flight.
It is sufficient to recall the Rome-Tokyo flight in 1920, whose protagonists were Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masiero, along with two young mechanics, Gino Cappannini and Roberto Maretto.
Following the establishment of the Royal Air Force as an autonomous Armed Force on 28 March 1923, aviation development in Italy received a new impetus: the aeroplane perfectly embodied the model of modernity, heroism, and capacity for absolute achievement promoted by the regime. And so, in 1925, Francesco De Pinedo and engineer Ernesto Campanelli flew 55,000 kilometres, from Sesto Calende to Melbourne, Tokyo, and then Rome. Two years later, De Pinedo, Carlo Del Prete, and Vitale Zacchetti undertook a 46,700-kilometre cruise along the route Elmas-Porto Naval-Rio de Janeiro-Buenos Aires-Asunción-New York-Newfoundland-Lisbon-Rome. In 1926 and 1928, Colonel Umberto Nobile's expeditions to the North Pole, with the exhilarating success of the airship Norge and the great tragedy of the Italia, marked, in just two years, first the epic and then the inexorable decline of the “lighter-than-air” craft.
Meanwhile, the project for long-distance collective raids, advocated by Italo Balbo, Minister of Aeronautics, is making headway. The first undertaking is the Western Mediterranean Cruise (26 May – 2 June 1928), carried out by a formation of 61 seaplanes from Orbetello to the Iberian Peninsula and back. The following year, from 5 to 19 June, it is the turn of the Eastern Mediterranean: 35 seaplanes visit Taranto, Athens, Istanbul, Varna, Odessa, Constanta, finally returning to Orbetello. Here, in 1930, preparations begin for the first formation transatlantic crossing, to Brazil. The undertaking is led by Balbo from 17 December 1930 to 15 January 1931, the day the aviators arrive in Rio de Janeiro. The success achieved launches a similar project to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Armed Force's establishment: the transatlantic flight to the United States. On 1 July 1933, a formation of 24 S.55X seaplanes commanded by Balbo takes off from Orbetello to reach New York eighteen days later. It is an unstoppable success; in the homeland of aviation, an exultant crowd awaits the Italian pilots who parade triumphally through the streets of Broadway. The mass cruises, the result of serious and meticulous preparation, mark the transition from the pioneering period of aviation to the modern era, where flight ceases to be an expression of individual initiative and becomes the product of accurate planning, the result of teamwork.
As the race for records continues – the Regia Aeronautica holds a remarkable 33 out of the 84 up for grabs by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale – the young Armed Force has the opportunity to test its capabilities and competence, first in Ethiopia and then in Spain, where it sends numerous volunteers who fight under the banner of the Aviazione Legionaria.
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