AEROPLANE TO AEROPLANO

Ovvero, più storte di cosí... Di Jon Cadd (Tradotto e adattato da L. Pavese) Il telefono squillò, e all’altro capo c’era il mio amico Simon Rodger che mi chiamava dal Sudafrica. Aveva avuto qualche guaio con il suo Cessna 185 e, siccome io mi ero specializzato a lavorare su di essi, e avevo insegnato a Simon a pilotare il suo, lui aveva pensato che forse io avrei potuto aiutarlo. Aveva acquistato quel particolare 185 dalla Mission Aviation Fellowship , grazie a uno dei nostri programmi di rinnovamento della flotta. L’aereo era appena uscito da un’officina commerciale, dopo un cambio di registrazione e la sostituzione degli elementi strutturali incrinati del carrello d’atterraggio. Sarebbe stato uno dei primi voli dell’aereo, dopo le riparazioni. C’era una vibrazione nel ruotino di coda, ma l’aereo, secondo Simon, era molto più difficile da pilotare di quanto si ricordasse, e aveva pensato che forse sarebbe stato meglio se avessimo volato un po’ insieme di nuovo, per un ripasso. ...

    The Libyan War: the absurdity of it is in the numbers.     By Gianandrea Gaiani  (Translated by Leonardo Pavese).                There really wasn’t a need for new revelations to remind us of the absurdity of the Libyan war that, in 2011, led to the killing of Muammar Gaddafi and the fall of his regime. Fomented by the Emirates of the Gulf, headed by Qatar with the support of France, the United States and Great Britain, the war created chaos in Libya - a country that by now has been thoroughly rendered like Somalia, and has fallen in the hands of tribal militias, Islamic terrorists and criminal gangs, exactly like the African Union had warned us. The same war has seriously damaged Italy, forced by her NATO “allies” to intervene against a government with which she had made a Friendship Treaty, and against a country that was her main supplier of oil. In the history of war, this is pro...

     Neither the Afghan nor the Syrian front create as many problems, in foreign policy, to President Obama's Administration, as the Libyan civil conflict. So, now that the situation in the former Italian colony seems to get out of control, it looks like the U.S. government remembered the special role that Italy has always played in that land: Italy's fourth shore; as someone had called it at time of the Empire. The following article originally appeared, as an editorial, on the Italian on-line magazine Analisi Difesa , and was published here with permission. (Thanks to J.J.P for reviewing the English text). Your comments, as usual. will be greatly appreciated. Now they have the gall to ask for our help. by Gianandrea Gaiani. (Translated from Italian by L. Pavese).     “Italy, thanks to the privileged relationship that she has with Libya, could have a crucial role in the stability of that country, and we want to work with Rome.” T...

     Besides the references to the controversial figure of Italian "monk" Enzo Bianchi and his opinions on the matter, that could escape non-Italian, non-Catholic readers (and probably will), the following article is interesting because it directs the attention of the readers to the political aspect of an act which, besides being repulsive in itself, is only apparently an individual selfless action, inspired by a religious belief (not to say that selflessness is necessarily good), but it is just another weapon in the panoply of warriors. Your comments will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Leonardo Pavese      A Political Calculation      By Roberto Dal Bosco      (Translated and edited by L. Pavese).      The self-immolations in Tibet, to protest the Chinese presence in the region, are continuing. Yesterday (4/25/2013), three new cases of monks and civilians who set fire to themselves wer...

“It is certainly German. Its wings bearing the black crosses reveal it; but it’s a very odd bird. It’s running away at full speed. It’s really extraordinary: it has a cruciform empennage, but it looks like it not only has a forward propeller but also a pushing one behind the stabilizers, at the end of the tail.” Do-335 This is how Pierre Clostermann described his first encounter with the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil, over the Elbe River, in April of 1945. Ten years earlier, Alberto Jona had designed an astonishingly similar heavy fighter, the J.10. The  drawing of the J.10 that was filed  in 1935. By Roberto Gentilli  (translated by L. Pavese) The drawing of the first patent, # 342987, which was filed on June 22, 1935, depicts a large single-seat, monoplane, retractable-gear fighter. The projected aircraft was powered by an air-cooled radial engine, mounted in the conventional position in the nose, and by a fuselage mounted, in-line eng...