Macchi M.18

The Macchi M.18 is the seaplane Benito Mussolini pilots on his return from Rome to Milan in August 1922. In the open cockpit, the aircraft carries him across a country still marked by the fires of fascist violence; from above, its flight becomes a vantage point for reading political defeat as a landscape conquered.

Configuration and Performance

The aircraft is identified as the summer version of the Macchi M.18, with an open cockpit and an Isotta Fraschini Asso engine rated at 150 horsepower. Its stated range is 621 miles and its maximum speed 116 mph. These specifications give the scene a precise mechanical frame: Mussolini is not merely a passenger but the pilot at the controls.

The Flight to Milan

On August 13, 1922, Mussolini returns to Milan from Rome by plane. He intends to keep a promise to Margherita Sarfatti: to become the first European head of state to travel by plane while piloting it himself. The account also says that he flew over Italy on August 12, the day before the dated return journey, as smoke from fires remained visible across Tuscany, Emilia, and the lower Po Valley.

View from Above

The open cockpit makes the flight a bodily experience as well as a political display. Air whistles past and is swallowed by the engine’s roar; goggles cloud Mussolini’s gaze, while the hills and slopes below seem to him like the still body of a beaten adversary. From this height, the ground appears beautiful even as it bears the evidence of destruction. The plane’s perspective thus joins the exhilaration of flight to Mussolini’s vision of socialism as defeated and unable to rise again.