The award ceremony for the ‘Giulio Douhet’ Aerospace Literary Prize, organised by the AAA, will take place in Trento on Sunday 26 September. The initiative has received valuable and enthusiastic support from the Municipality of Trento, the Councillor for Culture of the Autonomous Province of Trentino, by Gianni Caproni Airport and the Caproni Aeronautical Museum in Trento, as well as by Countess Maria Fede Caproni and a group of sponsors. For this seventh edition, the city of Trento was chosen partly because of the rich history of this region, which has witnessed the sacrifice of so many of its aviators – how can we forget the five Gold Medals for Military Valour awarded to Martino Aichner, Giorgio Graffer, Ezio Maccani, Mario Rigatti and Vittorio Suster – and the contribution that Giovanni Caproni, a native of Trentino, made to Italian and international aviation with his aircraft, starting with that CA-1 which took to the skies for the very first time exactly 100 years ago, on 27 May 1910. There was a remarkable turnout of writers with works entered in the three designated categories (fiction, history, and technical-scientific), all relating to aerospace themes. The jury, chaired by Air Force General Mario Arpino, formerly Chief of the General Staff of the Italian Air Force and Defence, and comprising representatives from the military and academic worlds, carefully read and assessed the 73 entries submitted, selecting those deemed to best meet the requirements set out in the competition notice. The winning authors will be presented with their awards on Sunday 26 September at 10.00 am in the Ceremonial Hall of Trento Town Hall (Palazzo Geremia), made available by the Mayor, Alessandro Andreatta, in the presence of the town’s authorities, the National President of the AAA, Air Force General Gianbortolo Parisi, representatives of the Italian Air Force and a large gathering of aviators from Trentino. The award ceremony will be preceded by a series of events organised for the occasion by the Trento branch of the AAA, including: a concert by the AAA Band at the Sala Filarmonica, 30 Via Verdi, on Friday 24 September at 8.30 pm, an inter-regional gathering of AAA members who will parade through the streets of the city centre on the morning of Saturday 25 September, before converging on Piazza della Portella where, in the presence of the highest authorities and the Trentino military associations, a laurel wreath will be laid at the War Memorial. At the same time, several aircraft carrying AAA members from northern Italy will land at Trento’s ‘Gianni Caproni’ Airport; they will join their colleagues who have paraded through the city for a visit to the ‘Gianni Caproni’ Aviation Museum, located at the airport.
