The Aviation Historian — Issue 21 (October 2017)

50 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 21

T

ODAY ALTITUDE is perhaps the
least well-known of the world record
categories that drove technical
progress and national pride after
the First World War. In the inter-war
years, it was very different. During 1920–33
the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)
saw the limit pushed from 10,093m (33,114ft)
to 13,661m (44,820ft) in nine records; four set
by the USA, three by France and one each by
Britain and Germany. [Established in Paris in
1905, the FAI homologates official records using the
metric system, hence our leading here with the same
— Ed.] The sheer physiological challenges of

breathing at high altitude and defeating freezing

temperatures bestowed an aura of heroism on

pilots who undertook such record flights.

The first Italian assault on the altitude record

saw Renato Donati fly his Caproni Ca.113R

biplane to 14,433m (47,352ft) on March 11,

1934, thus setting a new world record. Less

than three months later, on June 1, the Regia

Aeronautica (Royal Italian Air Force) created

the Reparto Alta Quota (RAQ — High Altitude

Unit), a counterpart to the Reparto Alta Velocità

(RAV — High Speed Unit) created in 1928 to

retake the Schneider Trophy.^1 Established at

Montecelio, the airfield east of Rome home

In 1935 Italian aircraft designers began work on a series of fast high-altitude monoplanes

aimed at recapturing the world altitude record. The AQV was the only one to fly, just before

the war sidelined such records. GREGORY ALEGI traces the development and brief

flying career of one of the few aircraft to be designed and built by the Regia Aeronautica

forgotten

fast &

forgotten

AQV: ITALY’S HIGH-ALTITUDE HOPE