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Aeronautical Culture Courses for the Young in Turin

Some three hundred excited adolescents from nine of Turin’s high schools enjoyed an aviation familiarization course at the Turin/Aeritalia airport from the 14th to 21st May, 2010. The event was organized in collaboration between the Turin Aero Club, the local scholastic authorities and the Italian Air Force. The main protagonists were a detachment of four SIAI Marchetti S.208M four-seat aircraft plus their pilots and autonomous logistic support from the Italian Air Force’s Training Command Gliding Center based at Guidonia airport, near Rome.

The schools which took part in the event were the “Istituto Tecnico Industriale Avogadro”, “Istituto Alberghiero Colombatto”, “Liceo Scientifico Einstein”, “Istituto Professionale di Stato per l'Industria e l'Artigianato Plana”, “Istituto Tecnico Commerciale Statale Russell-Moro”, “Istituto Tecnico Statale per Geometri Guarini”, “Istituto Steiner”, “Istituto Professionale per l'Industria e l'Artigianato Zerboni” and the “Istituto Istruzione Superiore Majorana”.

The course was free of charge and consisted of a number of classroom-style lessons on the theory of flight culminating with a flight in an S.208M, an aircraft normally used at Guidonia as a glider tug.

“The promotion of aviation culture” said Angelo Moriondo, president of the Turin Aero Club, “is one of the primary tasks of our organization. In 2005, we signed an agreement with the “Grassi State Aeronautic Institute” of Turin for an early integration between technical instruction and real aviation.”

“In November, 2009” Moriondo added, “Turin's Polytecnic University and our Aero Club signed a five-year open agreement to improve coordination between the two Institutions. This aims to pave the way for new projects in the aeronautical field. Today we are proud that our home airport was chosen for this important promotional activity sponsored by the Italian Air Force”.

The IAF’s Aeronautic Culture Courses, established in the early ‘Fiflties of the past century, are intended as an effort to stimulate interest in aviation in the younger generations. The course held in Turin followed two similar initiatives in L’Aquila and Ferrara, and concluded the 2010 programme which has involved some 1000 schoolgirls and boys in Italy.

In the picture: High school pupils of Turin’s “Istituto Majorana” board a SIAI Marchetti S.208M welcomed by the Commander of IAF’s Gliding Center, Major Pilot Vincenzo Costagliola. (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, May 2010)