In the era of the pioneers, aviation was defined as “pure and romantic”; the airplane continued to be a major attraction; no one believed in the airplane as a weapon of war. It was only at the outbreak of the Italo-Turkish war in Libya that aviation became an instrument of struggle, forging ahead in a few years, until it became a decisive weapon in the last world war.
In fact, not a few lessons have been learned, at an operational level, from the experience gained in this first use of the air forces; experience that was decisive in convincing the high military and political commands of the need to include “soldiers of the air” (aerosters, dirigibles, airmen) in the Libyan expeditionary force.
