Air Force Staff, Ministry of Aeronautics

Originally the Ministry of Aeronautics built from 1929 - 31 by the architect Roberto Marino.

In 1912, after the Italo-Turkish war, an aeronautical inspectorate was set up at the Ministry of War, then the direction of the aeronautical services.

The Orlando Government established a "General Commissariat for Aeronautics" at the Ministry of Arms and Ammunition and on 1 November 1917 the deputy Eugenio Chiesa was appointed commissioner.

In December 1917 the General Directorate of Aviation was established, entrusted to Colonel Giulio Douhet who soon broke with the Church and left in April 1918. On November 24, 1918, the services of the police station returned to the ministry of war. On 30 June 1919 the general direction of the aeronautics was transferred to the ministry of maritime and rail transport.

In his first cabinet, the head of government Benito Mussolini on January 24, 1923, established a General Commissariat for Aeronautics, with both military and civil functions, with the Prime Minister himself as commissioner and Deputy Commissioner Aldo Finzi, who prepared the legislative measures for the establishment of the Arma and the autonomous ministry. He appointed two general directors: Giulio Douhet, who had become major general, for the Air Force, and Lieutenant Colonel Arturo Mercanti for the Civil Aviation.

Then came the establishment of a new armed force, the Regia Aeronautica with the Royal decree March 28, 1923 n. 645: it was entrusted with all the military air forces of the Kingdom and the colonies, both of the Royal Army and of the Royal Navy.

On May 14, 1925 the post of deputy commissioner for aeronautics was abolished and the post of undersecretary of state for aeronautics was created, to which General Alberto Bonzani was appointed.

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The Central Library A.M. is framed, from an ordering point of view, in the Historical Office of the General Office for Communication and is located in the area of ??the Ministry of Defense-Aeronautics in Viale dell’University n. 4, Rome.
The book heritage consists of about 33,000 volumes relating to various sectors of interest: Armed Forces, History, Geopolitics, Law, Science, Economics, Fiction, Atlases and Encyclopedias.

The list of available books can be consulted in full online and cyclically updated. The volumes included in SBN can be consulted through the National Library Service. A large section of the library is dedicated to the history of the Air Force and contains a qualified collection of technical-military specialist works also in foreign languages.

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Timetables*:

from Tuesday to Thursday from 9:00 to 16:00;
on Fridays from 9:00 to 11:00.
The entrance to the staff library not on duty at Palazzo A.M. or external to the Administration (only for consultation, loan not possible) is subject, according to the times shown above, to the booking:

• telephone: 06-49865724; 06-49865879;
• by e-mail: massimiliano.barlattani (at) aeronautica.difesa.it

The library does not currently participate in the interlibrary loan service.

Map: Air Force Staff, Ministry of Aeronautics