Italian Aviation History buffs please help...

[santan]

Hi, I am trying to reproduce a pictrue from an old piece of artwork. It is a picture of Bruno Mussolini and 3 S.M. 79's.

For a gift to the holder of the artwork I would like to model the S.M. 79 getting it as close to accurate as possible.

I need help locating a picture of the markings on his plane, or one in the same sqaudron. I imagine the pictures came from S.M. 79's in the Spanish war, or the abyssian war as I believe those were the only ones he was active in. Although I did see a news clipping where the British blamed a sunk ship to Bruno Mussolini's Plane, so someone must have known the markings or id numbers?

This would be simple but the artwork is done in metal. I can tell no specific camo pattern but there is a cross in the tail. This must be significant because most of the pictures I have seen the S.M. 79's usually have a single stripe without the horizontal. Also there are Italian Roundels on the Wings, and the Fascist emblem on the nose cowlings.

If one could possibly direct me to a more appropriate source, if no knowledge from forum members exists, I would be most appreciative.

Thanks for reading the long post and I hope I will hear from someone on this obscure subject. Just being the Duce's son I would have imagine there would be a plethora of his exploits to have been documented with and photographed.

[Vincent Biondi]

Hello Santan,
Im not sure I quite follow what you are looking for.
Are you talking about the SM79, that Bruno mussolini flew in the Damascas air race 1937 , SM79, code I-BIMU or the Rome -Rio de janiero, race of 1938, SM79, code I-BRUN?
Both airplanes were red and I am including a link that has the aircraft colours and markings of SM79, code I-MONI, that was flown by pilots Moscatelli and Castellani, with bruno Mussolini, in the Rome - Rio race.

http://www.ams.vr.it/Documents/Sm.79%20 ... les_04.jpg

Hope this helps,
Vincent.

[Editor]

You may want to try contacting Stefano Lazzaro (alias Stefano) also.

[santan]

Thank you very much for the help gentlemen. I greatly appreciate it.

Vincent, I thank you for the time you took to reply. Unfortunately those are not the airplanes on the artwork. I first had the artwork described to me over the phone, 3 planes and Bruno Mussolini. I immediately assumed it must have been the 3 race planes from the air race you mention. But upon viewing the artwork the S.M. 79's are definately the military version.

It is rather hard to understand what I am looking for from my post, and I apologise. I will be happy with any information regarding Bruno Mussolini and S.M. 79's, particularly in military use. I am trying to reproduce, as close to possible, a model of a military S.M. 79 flown by Bruno Mussolini.

I tried to mention the distinguishing markings on the plane as well and failed that also. There is a cross on the movable part of the tail fin(white I assume, but again this is metal artwork), the Italian emblems(3 black marks in a black circle over white(assume)border are present on the wings, And the Italian fascist symbols of the ax and bundle of sticks are present on the nose cowlings.

Webmaster....thanks for the reply I will see if I can locate the person you mention and hope my question will not be too much of a bother. This is a great website, keep it up!

I may be reduced to a best guess scenario, but he was killed in 41 I believe and spent time with the long range bomber squadron, so I would think I only need be concerned with camo and squadrons from 1940 and earlier. Even if you have pictures of airplanes from the same squadrons as him, that would be helpful.


I found one picture with a caption underneath that said it belongned to Bruno Mussolini and will try to post it. It does not have the white cross on the tail, but maybe someone can tell if it is truly his. I cannot past the link and am not savy enought to post it any other way...probably won't work.

Thank you all for the help. This has turned into a rather daunting task.

[Editor]

thanks for the reply I will see if I can locate the person you mention and hope my question will not be too much of a bother. This is a great website, keep it up!

If you have trouble reaching Stefano, give me a shout offline and I'll provide you with his direct email.

[zochan]

Good afternoon counterparts. Help to reproduce an inscription

[Chris Busbridge]

I-11 (I-BIMU) had 'Istres-Damasco-Parigi' with '1 arrivato' centred underneath, as seen on page 36 of ALi d'Italia 28.
It is assumed that I-13 (I-FILU) would have been the same, except it should have '3 arrivato', being that it was the third to arrive!

I-13 was re-registered as I-BRUN for the Rome-Rio de Janeiro race.

[zochan]

I thank!