At the head of this
group was Francesco Baracca, son of a wealthy landowner and former
cavalryman. Qualifying as a pilot in 1912, Baracca was already an
accomplished airman by the time Italy entered the war and despite the
fact he was flying older French designed aircraft, he managed to claim
Italy's first aerial victory of the war on 7th April 1916. Baracca's
aircraft carried his personal emblem on the port side of the fuselage, a
black prancing horse, which was the Arms of the Baracca family and in
recognition of his time as a cavalry officer.
Duty and compassion were driving forces in his life and he found it difficult to cope with life away from his Squadron - he would, however, make a point of visiting injured airmen he had engaged in combat, or laying a wreath at the grave of those who perished. As with many of the great aces of WWI, Baracca would not survive the conflict, falling to ground fire whilst strafing enemy trenches on 19th June, 1918. His score of 34 aerial victories earned him the title of Italy's 'Ace of aces' and celebrated national hero, whilst also becoming one of the highest scoring aces of the Great War.
SPAD S.XIII
Designed by The French aircraft company Societe pour l'Aviation et ses Derives (SPAD) as a refinement of the highly-successful SPAD S.VII, the SPAD S.XIII was first flown on April 4th, 1917. Essentially a larger version of its predecessor with a more powerful V-8 Hispano-Suiza engine, the SPAD XIII was a strongly-built wood and fabric biplane. It could reach a top speed of 135 mph-making it 10 mph faster than the new German fighters. It carried two Vickers machine guns, each with 400 rounds of ammunition, and the pilot could fire the guns separately or together.
Corgi "Aviation Archive" die-cast airplanes feature: