AEROMEDIA
The Italian Aerospace Information Web
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Quinquagenary of the Turin's 5th Salone Internazionale dell'Aeronautica e dello Spazio

Fifty years ago, the fifth edition of the biennial showcase of the Italian aerospace industry was organized. It lasted from Thursday 1st to Sunday 11th, June 1972 which was the day of the final "Festa dell'Aria". After the set-up of the Air Spotter Association in 1970 and the publication of the initial ASA Bulletins in 1971 (available from the Aeromedia home-page), Luciano Bertolo had the courage to contact Torino Esposizioni (the company which was organizing the air show) offering the collaboration of ASA. In exchange for an advertising page inserted in the ASA Bulletin No. 2, Dr. Silva offered the free use of a small glass showcase and the release of a number of press passes for the Bulletin editors. At this point, apart some copies of their Bulletins, ASA was looking for something to put in the showcase able to attract the visitors. Luciano get a loan of an helmet from Commander Vittorio Sanseverino, then Chief Test Pilot of FIAT Aviazione. In 1970 Luciano had visited the previous air show a couple of times by using bicycle and paying the entry ticket. In 1972 he went Caselle along almost every days of the event with daddy's FIAT 500.
A true surprise was the "press room" where he get to know the community of the aviation journalists of the period. Between them Claudio Tatangelo, Giuseppe Stifani, Romolo Cichero of Interconair Aviazione e Marina, Fausto Alati of Air Press, Giorgio Apostolo of Alata, Stefano Silvestri of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, set up in 1962 by Altierio Spinelli and editing the bi-monthly IAI Informa, Marco Crovara of Difesa Terra-Mare-Cielo magazine, Corrado Barbieri who was to establish Delta Editrice and the related Aerei magazine in 1975, Leone Concato legendary director of the Agusta house organ L'Ala Rotante, and, last but not least, free-lance publicist Nico Sgarlato.
It was an interesting air show, somewhat too long but rich of flying novelties from Italy and abroad. Nobody was foreseeing that it would be also the last. Despite the efforts of Associazione Industrie Aerospaziali, the "Salone" 1974 was snubbed by the German and British industries which preferred to concentrate their public appearances at their respective aerospace home-events. In particular, from 1974, the Farnborough air show, traditionally reserved to UK manufacturers, will open their gates to worldwide exhibitors. The final blow was the energy-crisis which occurred in 1973.
In 1971, during the air shows, the manufacturers were giving to the journalists the opportunity of short demonstration flights. The first day of the 1972 Turin Air Show Luciano was invited to have a ride on the twin-engine Partenavia P.68 Victor prototype. At that time he had just experienced some types of airliners and it was the first time he was boarding a small aircraft, totally unaware of what awaited him. At the controls there was the the Partenavia test pilot Neil Williams, a multifaceted British airman, aerobatic champion and brave test pilot of the replicas of pioneering era aircraft of the Shuttleworth Collection. At Neil's right there was astronaut Gordon Cooper who in 1963 was on board the Mercury Faith 7 spacecraft. He was at Caselle as an acute observer on behalf of Cessna Aircraft. On the rear sofa the newbie aviation journalist was flanked by engineer Luigi Pascale, the Victor designer. While taxiing on the tarmac the aircraft passed close to the first Chinook delivered to the Italian Army which was warming its engines. Lacking previous experiences, the steep climb appeared "normal" to Luciano apart the strong noise of the engines very close to the cabin. The pilots where exchanging comments by radio while flying North-West in the mist. When almost arrived over the Avigliana lakes, Neil announced it would test a stall! Luciano took a picture of the zero-pitch propeller seconds before the sudden dive, spinning and agile return to normal flight attitude. Notwithstanding the never tried before absence of gravity, the photographer maintained an apparent self-control. As a matter of facts he recovered completely just before the landing and took a final photo with the runway just in front of the Victor.
The years passed by and the nice habit of the press flights during the air shows was progressively reduced until it came to a total standstill.

In the picture: The prototype of the Partenavia P.68 Victor I-TWIN on display in 1972 at the Turin's 5th Salone Internazionale dell'Aeronautica e dello Spazio. (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, June 2022)