Vigna di Valle Italian Air Force Museum update

February 18, 2009 ItAF Museum, Italian Air Force, Military Aviation
David Cenciotti

On Feb. 15 I visited once again the Italian Air Force Museum, located in Vigna di Valle, on the Bracciano Lake, some 25 chilometers from Rome.

I went there because I wanted to take the pictures I needed to update e complete the page dedicated to the Museum, with plenty of information, that you can find here: Italian Air Force Museum. My aim is not only to collect images of the exhibition and close ups of the displayed aircraft but also to track eventual new additions, movements, works etc. Currently, the Skema hangar that hosts the post-WWII aircraft (and most of jets) is still closed for enlargement and maintenance works. However, I managed to get a few picture of it from the nearby Padiglione “Badoni”. As you can see, the aircraft have been moved, a few are barely visible and many were probably transferred elsewhere.

About David Cenciotti
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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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5 Comments

  1. Sure would like to visit this museum. I was stationed in Naples from 1954-56 with the Marine Detachment. I was an airplane buff and I enjoyed watching the Vampire jets with the IAF was flying at that time. On one of my weekends off, I traveled to Caserta and rented a bicycle and rode around the area of the Volturno River with one of my buddies. We came across two abandoned a/c near a farm house – one was a Bell P-39 and the other a P-38. The area must have been an airfield during WW II. I think that the P-39 may have once been flown by the IAF?? Wonder if the museum has the Vampire and/or the P-39 in it’s colletion.

  2. Hi John,
    unfortunately there’s no P-39 in the Museum’s collection. However there’s a De Havilland DH-113 that is the dual seat version of the DH-100 Vampire.
    Best Regards,
    David

  3. The awesome F-84G “51-69” visibile on the left of the panoramic picture has recently been restored from the 51 Wing personnel.
    No doubt it’s one of the best Italian restoring project.
    Thanks David for the beautiful images.

  4. I was stationed with the 9th Air Rescue Squadron at Wiesbaden, Germany, during the cold war in 1951. Our aircrews would fly in our Grumann SA-16’s to Vigna-di-Valle to practice our rescue pick-ups on the Bracciano Lake. My memory recalls the good times we had there and how well we were treated by the Italian Air Force men stationed there. One thing I vividly recall,is during our lunch break, we ate in the Italian mess hall with the Italians. The meal consisted of steak and spaghetti with plenty of wine to flush it down. We were pretty well tipsy as we manned our Albatrosses for the afternoon practice sessions. I’m not sure if our pilot, Captain Joe Kuhn imbibbed at this time. I doubt if he did as he was a very responsible pilot and later retired from the US Air Force with 32 years service as a full Colonel The Air Rescue newsletter highlighted him in one issue and listed the 37 planes he was qualified to fly. During World War 2 he flew P-38 “Forked Tail Devils” as the Germans called them. Captain Joe was one of the finest men I ever knew. I’ll be 80 on January 16, 2010.

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