AEROPLANE TO AEROPLANO

          The first (and probably last) glider flights in Somalia     by Alberto Alpozzi         Towards the end of the 1920s, Guido Corni , Governor of Italian Somalia, looking at the vultures and at the marabou storks who took off from the ground with a few wing beats, had the intuition that, in those regions, the constant and strong rising currents could be used to practice soaring in the best conditions; and maybe, after studying the air currents, sailplanes could be even employed to carry light loads within the Colony. An Italian colonial map of Somalia      Therefore, on the “Petrella” Italian Royal Air Force base near Mogadishu, an experimental glider was built for the purpose of training the pilots of the colonial air squadriglia .      After a few test launches, the trials demonstrated the good handling qualities of the aircraft and, once the fairing of the cockpit was improved, the a...

           Like a Roman lictor the lighthouse still guards the entrance of the Red Sea, and faithfully discharges its duty to warn the passing ships of the danger of the crouching-lion-shaped treacherous cape. T he Fasces of the Lictors at the tip of the Horn of Africa? Why? That is what Italian photoreporter  Alberto Alpozzi  wondered on that July of 2013.          He was flying along the Somali coast as an observer on an Italian Navy's AB 212 helicopter engaged in the suppression of piracy, when the aircraft reached Cape Guardafui at the easternmost point of the Migiurtinia.  When the ruins of the most unique lighthouse in the world came into view, for the young Italian reporter it was the beginning of a one year long research work, that traced the historic facts leading to the building of the lighthouse back to the opening of the Suez Canal.           The result was a very interesting ...