The Selection and Training of Italian Aviators during the First World War

The subject of this article is not the most famous and celebrated Italian pilots (the “aces”), but the mass of unknown aviators, ordinary people. It is little known that during the Great War, in Italy, peasants, craftsmen, workers and clerks became airplane pilots after a scientific selection made by the first flying simulators. This democratization of flight can also be understood as an aspect of the modernity ushered in by the conflict. The main historical sources are thousands of aviators’ personnel files kept by the Air Force of Rome and their personal writings, now stored in private archives and in popular writing archives or published by aeronautical magazines during the war. This research perspective enables us to de-mythologize the First World War aviators.