Museo Storico dell'Aeronautica Militare

On the lake shore at Vigna di Valle, where Italy's military aviation began in 1908, the Air Force Historical Museum preserves more than eighty aircraft in five hangars. The collection includes record-breaking seaplanes, the country's first jet and the historic Troster hangar.

Why it matters

Vigna di Valle is central to the history of Italian military aviation: the first Italian military dirigible was built and flew there in 1908. Named after General Luigi Bourlot, the airfield is among Italy's earliest aviation sites; until 1945 the shore also hosted the experimental centre for seaplanes and naval armament. The museum itself was inaugurated on 24 May 1977 in the presence of the President of the Republic, gathering the material memory of Italian military flight in one place. Five hangars, outdoor displays and an engines section present aircraft, uniforms, memorabilia and engines from the pioneers to recent decades.

What to notice

The collection includes aircraft representing key developments in Italian aviation. The Macchi-Castoldi M.C.72 racing seaplane stands for the absolutism of speed: on 23 October 1934 Francesco Agello drove it to a world seaplane speed record of 709.202 km/h over the water at Desenzano. Nearby, the Macchi M.39 recalls the Schneider Cup triumph of 1926, and floatplanes such as the CANT Z.506 and IMAM Ro.43 are the sole surviving examples of their types. The Caproni Ca.36 bomber of 1916 is one of only two left in the world; the Campini-Caproni CC.2, which flew on 27 August 1940, was Italy's first jet-propelled aircraft; the Aerfer Sagittario II of 1955 was the first Italian plane to break the sound barrier. A SPAD S.VII of September 1916, flown by Fulco Ruffo di Calabria, is the oldest surviving example of its type, and a replica of the 1908 Wright machine honours Mario Calderara, Italy's first licensed military pilot. The hangars deserve attention too: the Troster hangar, obtained from Austria as war reparations, is the oldest in Italy, while the Hangar 100 wing completed in 2023 shelters the post-1952 generations.

Context and history

The collection embodies the institutional continuity of Italian military aviation from balloons and dirigibles to jets. Aircraft were chosen both for technological turning points, the jump from propeller to jet, the competition years of the seaplane races, and for the human stories attached to them, from First World War aces to postwar test pilots. The museum's documentation centre, named after Umberto Nobile, the designer of the airship Italia, holds thousands of volumes. The museum also serves as a heritage site and ceremonial venue for the Air Force's history office; the newest hangar was completed in 2023.