1974 memories

Recently, Jean-Luc Beghin, a Belgian Aviation Illustrator (I suggest you to visit his site: http://www.jeanlucbeghin.com/), sent me the following pictures explaining that he was looking for the names of some pilots of the 22° Gruppo of the 51° Stormo of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force, ItAF) who he had the opportunity to meet and invite for dinner at his house, in 1974, while they were deployed to Beauvechain, Belgium, for a Squadron Exchange. While I was unable to recognize them I thought that the pictures below could be of some interest for the F-104 and flight gears enthusiasts as they provide some details on the flight suits, patch and hats worn by the Italian pilots in the mid 70’s.

About David Cenciotti

WebsiteFacebookTwitterLinkedIn instagram

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.