History of italian airmail

With 95 lots, our spring auction presents an exquisite selection of envelopes and documents which celebrate the greatest Italian aviation pioneers. Alongside world-famous Italian legends such as Umberto Nobile or Italo Balbo, there is a man whose incomparable ingenuity has remained an inspiration right up to the present age of space travel. Prof. Gaetano Arturo Crocco has built more than 30 airships and published over 200 scientific papers. Nevertheless, his name is definitely less well known than the name of other pioneers. He is also one of only two Italians inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame at Alamogordo in New Mexico. We exclusively present museum front pages, letters, patents and even technical airship drawings on this aviation and rocket pioneer Crocco. Please note that a collection can also be found under lot number 8375 of the separate collection catalogue.


Here you can save the catalogue section of the Italian Airmail as PDF file.

General Gaetano Arturo Crocco was a key figure in the development of aerodynamic science in Italy and around the world. He began his research with studies on the stability of airships and completed them in the middle of a project which was to take man into space.

Gaetano Arturo Crocco (b. Neapel, 26th of October 1877; d. Rome, 19th of January 1968) was an Italian officer, scientist and teacher and a pioneer of aviation and rocket propulsion. He graduated in electrical engineering in 1904, published numerous scientific studies during his academic career, filed 30 patents ranging from aerostatics to navigation and from aviation to rockets, and invented about 50 different tools for aviation.

With the polar expedition of 1926, Captain Umberto Nobile and the Norwegian polar explorer Amundsen reached the North Pole with the airship "NORGE". After a 70-hour flight they reached the American continent and landed in Alaska. This unique museum object represents the Italian pioneering spirit and the time of discoveries at the beginning of the 20th century.

Equally unique is a part of the outer skin of the airship "ITALIA / NOBILE" with which Captain Nobile started a research expedition to the Norpol in 1928. On the return flight the airship crashed onto an ice floe, parts of the cabin were torn off. The airship flew on with some crew members and was never found again. Captain Nobile survived with parts of his crew for 49 days in the ice. They managed to send a distress radio signal, which was picked up by a hobby radio operator. During a rescue operation Amundsen crashed his plane and died. Nobile and his crew were finally rescued by another rescue team.

You will also find covers of first flights from the 1930s, a document with personal signature of General Italo Balbo as well as a great rarity of the Italian Airmail in outstanding condition, a document of the North Atlantic flight Crociera 1933 with triptych "SERVIZIO DI STATO" on real flown registered letter "IL PODESTA DI MILANO".

Click here to go directly to the online catalogue.

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