The Aviation Historian — Issue 21 (October 2017)

54 THE AVIATION HISTORIAN Issue No 21

others, the famous Norge and Italia semi-rigids.

The loss of the Italia in the Arctic in 1928 led

to an inquiry that resulted in the decision to

abandon airship use and construction in Italy. As

a result, the much slimmed-down SCA moved to

Guidonia and found a new role as an in-house

experimental workshop reporting to the DSSE.

The subsequent loss of SCA records makes

progress difficult to follow, but the AQV

emerged from obscurity on June 16, 1939,

when SCA director Tenente Colonnello ingegnere

Luigi Bertagnolio reported to the ministerial

High Altitude Sub-Committee that it would

be ready for flight testing within six weeks.^7

In the ensuing discussion the sub-committee

acknowledged that the “not inconsiderable time”

which had passed “between project definition

and final construction” meant that the aircraft

must be considered “overtaken by technical

evolution”. While a new world record was now

out of the question, the sub-committee believed

the AQV could still be used “for training and

high-altitude experiments in support of the

RAQ”. It was also decided to evaluate the

possibility of increasing range by adding fuel

tanks, but progress remained slow.

When Generale di Squadra Aerea (Lt-Gen)

Mario Bernasconi relinquished DSSE command

on December 1, 1939, his report to Generale

ispettore ingegnere (Lt-Gen, engineering branch)

Cristoforo Ferrari stated that the AQV prototype

had “recently” completed static testing, leading

to the decision to modify the tailplane with the

addition of reinforcing struts. Shortly afterwards

the AQV received military serial MM.422.

A change in direction

The Regia Aeronautica’s interest in high-

altitude flight had by then shifted towards the

development of a stratospheric bomber, so much

so that when the industry proved sceptical

about the design competition, the Service

considered options ranging from purchasing a

Lockheed XC-35 (a pressurised development of

the Lockheed 10 Electra) to instructing SCA to

build the DSSE-designed “Guidonia I” trimotor.^8

To this end, it was apparently proposed to fit

the AQV with a “dynamic high-lift system”

developed at Guidonia, consisting of what

appears to be an active boundary-layer control

ABOVE & RIGHT Less than a handful of photographs

of the completed AQV have been found, including

this pair taken outside the hangar at Guidonia.

Interestingly, the lettering beneath the tailplane reads

“A.Q.V” with no full point after the “V”. Could it be that

the designation included the Roman numeral for “5”,

rather than a V for veloce? This remains speculation.

BALDESSARE CATALANOTTO COLLECTION x 2