Another neat item courtesy Gregory Alegi in Italy, an air freight parcel label.
Gregory writes: “Air freight label of ALI [Avio Linee Italiane] Flotte Riunite, hence post 1949, used to ship a model train from Rome to Milan. It was a Christmas gift for a well-to-do twelve year-old, who eventually went on to become a very capable aircraft engineer and executive at several large companies. A couple of weeks ago he exhumed the package to show it to his grandchildren …”
“ALI was the old Fiat airline, which resumed operations in 1947. Flotte Riunite (‘United fleets’) points to the fact that in 1949 it absorbed a number of smaller airlines which were having difficulty in the postwar scenario.
“The aircraft itself looks familiar but is probably fictitious. It has a SIAI family air, but with two engines only it could be based on the prewar Fiat APR.2.”
So we have a postwar label featuring something like a pre-war, albeit advanced, airliner design. Only one Fiat APR.2 was built, registered I-VEGA, and that was destroyed during the war, an image of the wreck in North Africa being found here. The artwork, though basic, is nice (but where’s the loading hatch in the aircraft?) and the subtitle lists the Flotte Riunite (United Airlines) of Airone, ALI, SISA, and Transadriatica.
James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer.
And now a PS, a nice post on the slight Fiat G.18 here.
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 