TNT History Archives: Air Warfare's Origin in Turkey-Italy War (1911-1912)/Part III

                     Capt. Piazza with his Bleriot airplane.

Let us now discuss the best flights: ın February, Moizo and Gavotti  

flew from Tripoli to Homs via Ayn-Zara and Sidi-Ben-Nur.  One of the 

airplanes followed the coastline and returned to Tripoli the same day, a 

round-trip of 250 kilometers.  In April (1912), First Lieutenant Palmo 

di Cesnola flew from Tripoli to Buchemess, covering the 200-kilometer 

distance in two hours and sixteen minutes. 

There were a few accidents but no loss of life.  Capt. Ballo fell into the 

sea on 3 July, a few days before the peace accord.  Moizo had to make a 

crash landing because of motor trouble and was taken prisoner by the 

enemy at Zavia.  

When it comes to the technical virtues of the various types and models 

of airplanes, all the Italian officers prefer the single-wing model over the 

double-wing type and they like to fly by themselves, without an observer 

on board.  Patrol motors are less affected by the effects and influence of 

sand, allowing them to operate quite well.  With regard to the other 

elements of the airplanes, they are impacted by the change of temperature 

from day to night in Libya: since the expansion joints do not resemble 

one another, they bend and bunch-up, causing them to open.   In the end, 

though, compared to the transportable balloons we work with, the 

airplanes recorded more flights and operational days.

As events indicated that the war would be prolonged, the General Staff 

decided to send the transportable balloons to Libya, despite the distrust 

regarding these balloons felt by the expeditionary force leaders’ staffs 

and assistants. 

Under the management and care of Navy Capt. Scelsi, the commander 

of the transportable balloon detachment, in December (1911) an effort 

was made to construct two de-mountable hangers with metal roofs 

especially for the P-2 and P-3 transportable balloons, in Tripoli city 

and near the airplane HQS.  On 16 December, one of these hangers 

was nearing completion and the other one was on schedule, as well.  

But a cyclone struck and destroyed them both, to the point that they 

could not be repaired.   The transportable balloons’ envelopes were 

lying on the ground ready to be inflated at the time, but they, too, 

suffered so much damage that they had to be sent to Rome.

The military command, undaunted by this disaster, immediately 

ordered two new hangers from an Italian commercial house.  But the 

delivery time was too long, so a single hanger for the two balloons 

was purchased from Germany.  Although this was a quicker and more 

economical solution, putting both the balloons in the same hanger 

proved to be problematic, with regard to getting them in and out 

independently. 

//END of PART THREE//