All the texts and images in this section are taken from the book "The Histroy of the Aeroclub" by Angelo Moriondo.
Any use of texts and images is not allowed without explicit permission by the author.
1934 - 1949
Index
In 1933, the Aero Club of Italy invited Dr. Robert Kronfeld to present the recently-developed sport of gliding.
Kronfeld, an Austrian Jew, was an aerobatics champion who had perfected all the techniques of gliding and was the author of a number of technical papers about gliders and meteorology for unpowered flight.
Invited to Turin by the then President of the Turin Aero Club, Count Thaon di Revel, Kronfeld presented his glider in a highly appreciated Air Show at Mirafiori.
It was at Mirafiori that Kronfeld met Baron Piero Casana and invited him to participate in an Air Show in the skies over Vienna near the Luxembourg Castle in the presence of the Chancellor Dolfuss. This stimulating experience was the driver for the creation of the Turin Aero Club's "Glider Section" in 1933. Its instigator and first Director was none other than Baron Casana himself.
In July 1939, the first "Turin Sailplane Week" was organised at the "Gino Lisa" airfield at Mirafiori.
When the war ended, the Italian glider fraternity began to reorganise, and in 1946, the Federazione Italiana Volo a Vela (FIVV - Italian Gliding Federation) was constituted. Baron Casana was nominated as its first President. He was succeeded by Vittorio Bonomi.
The year 1948 saw the organization of the second "Turin Sailplane Week" at Aeritalia. This enjoyed considerable success for the large number of entrants both old and young. Among the more famous participants were Mantelli, Vaghi, Galimberti, Lagler and Riccardo Brigliadori (elder brother of Leonardo, who went on to become World Champion in the "Standard" class in 1985).
In 1953, under the patronage of Baron Piero Casana, the Gliding School was opened at Aeritalia. Sailplane flying joined powered flying as a sport with an academic slant.
In fact the Glider Section (following the example of the German "Akaflieg" and the Milan Polytechnic's Gliding Centre) became the initial operative arm for the design activity of the Turin Polytechnic University.
There are many exploits worthy of being remembered in this discipline, starting with those of Alberto Morelli, who in 1957, for the first time in Italy, flew a distance of over 300 km, and of Gianni De Marta and Dario Rasero who in 1963 over Mount Ruitor, in the Aosta Valley, reached an altitude of over 7000 metres for the first time. Outstanding at the individual level of sporting prowess we find Carlo Della Chiesa, Italian Gliding Champion in 1970 with an FK3 and Nino Perotti, who became Italian Standard Class Champion in 1972, 1973, 1979, 1980 and 1981.
In 1962 the Aero Club of Turin organised the first instance of the gliding competition called the "City of Turin Trophy", won by Leonardo Brigliadori. This race, held annually since 1983, has become the classic "first-of-the-season" challenge for Italian gliding, maintaining its fascination right up until today.
Winners of the Gliding Thophy "Città di Torino"
| Year | Standard Class | 15 metre Class | Open Class |
| 1962 | L. Brigliadori | ||
| 1963 | F. Broggini | ||
| 1965 | G. Di Modica | ||
| 1967 | N. Perotti | ||
| 1969 | A. Orsi (1) | F. Piludu (2) | |
| 1971 | F. Piludu | F. Lamera | |
| 1973 | A. De Orleans | R. Peccolo | |
| 1975 | N. Perotti | F. Lamera | |
| 1979 | N. Perotti | P. Dall'Amico | |
| 1983 | N. Perotti | P. Dall'Amico | |
| 1984 | A. Beozzi | ||
| 1985 | L. Brigliadori | ||
| 1986 | E. Danesy | ||
| 1987 | N. Perotti | ||
| 1988 | G. Marchisio | ||
| 1989 | N. Perotti | ||
| 1990 | G. Marchisio | ||
| 1991 | C. G. Grinza | ||
| 1992 | R. Passardi | ||
| 1993 | A. Beozzi | ||
| 1994 | G. Marchisio | ||
| 1996 | G. Marchisio | ||
| 1997 | S. Ghiorzo | ||
| 1998 | S. Ghiorzo | ||
| 1999 | S. Ghiorzo | ||
| 2000 | L. Monti | ||
| 2001 | S. Ghiorzo | ||
| 2002 | L. Avanzini | G. Marchisio | |
| 2003 | A. Ferrero | G. Galletto | L. Frigerio |
| 2004 | S. Ghiorzo (3) | L. Avanzini | |
| 2005 | V. Pinni | R. Brigliadori | |
| 2007 | E. Tarchini | ||
| 2008 | C. Costa | ||
| 2009 | L. Cavelli (4) | L. De Marchi | |
| 2010 | A. Sironi (4) | ||
| 2011 | L. De Marchi (4) |
Note:
(1) cl. senza handicap
(2) cl. con handicap
(3) cl. mista
(4) cl. open
Among the members of the Glider Section of the Turin Aero Club were the Morelli brothers, Piero and Alberto. Both were University lecturers at the Polytechnic as well as sailplane pilots and designers. Piero in particular, took over the leadership of the sailplane section from Baron Casana in 1950, when Casana was nominated Vice President of the Aero Club by Giovanni Agnelli.
The Morelli brothers were among the major post-war protagonists of sailplane construction and competition flying for many years, not only in Italy.
The first of their gliders was the CVT-1 "Zigolo" (1954) followed by the innovative CVT-2 "Veltro" (1961) and the well-known M-100, winner of the competition set up by the Aero Club of Italy for a single-seater trainer sailplane. This in turn was followed by the M-100S, modified to comply with the regulations for the new "Standard" class published in 1958 by the FAI (International Aeronautical Federation).
More than 200 M-100 gliders were built, as well as another 70 of the M-200 two-seater version. Between 1964 and 1970 two advanced (for the times) prototypes of the futuristic M-300 were built. These, however, still being of wood and metal construction, found themselves up against the explosion in Germany of the revolutionary glass-fibre technology.
Credit must also be given to the significant impulse imparted by Torinese gliding in the '70's and '80's towards the development of Italian organisational capacity to host high level competitions. Thanks to the "Morelli school", Rieti became first the seat of the Italian National Championships, then the European Championships in 1982 and finally the World Championships in 1985.
In April 1944, the airfield at Aeritalia was subjected to a terrible air raid and was hit by more than 250 bombs during the repeated carpet bombing which peppered both the airfield and the adjacent FIAT-Aeritalia aircraft factory.
At the end of the war, the airport (which had by then become the main airport for the city) was completely restored, and on the 5th of May 1947, the 1000 x 60 metres asphalt runway "30" at saw the restart of commercial airline activity with the first post-war Italian flights between Turin and Rome.
Aeritalia's "30" also saw the maiden flights of the first transport aircraft prototypes for the newly-formed "Avio Linee Italiane" immediately after the war, becoming the runway of Turin's main airport up until 1953 when commercial aviation began to operate out of Caselle.
It was also at this runway that the football fans of the "Grande Torino" waited in vain to cheer their heroes on the 4th of May 1949, the day of the Superga tragedy. At 17.05, the FIAT G212 piloted by Pierluigi Meroni, with the entire team, the managers and the staff aboard, crashed into the hilltop just below the Basilica of Superga in poor visibility during the landing approach.
At the end of the war, it was thanks to Dr. Rolandi that the few remaining aircraft of the Aero Club fleet were gathered together and returned to flying condition at the FIAT Airfield at Aeritalia.
In 1948, when the glorious "Gino Lisa" at Mirafiori South was definitively closed first due to the war damage and then due to building speculation, FIAT made the northern part of the Aeritalia airfield available to the Aero Club. Here, the small fleet was accommodated in the hangars of FIAT's "Aircraft Section" at Corso Marche.
This operation took place during the Presidency of Dr. Francesco Balbis (co-founder with his brother-in-law Senator Guglielmone of the Torinese bank "Balbis & Guglielmone").
