by Edward Hunt
The primary port for the pre-War Austro-Hungarian Empire, Trieste has had a long and profitable role as a major conduit for sea-borne trade. Designated in the mid-18th Century as a ‘free port’, with associated benefits regarding taxes and tariffs, its deep water up to the shore allowed increasingly large traffic through the 18th and 19th centuries, with a wholly new mercantile zone built for this purpose. Today the ‘Old Port’, long dilapidated, is a new center of renovation and development covering the wider area extending from the railway station towards the Barcola coastal area and Miramare.
The rearrangement of national boundaries and forming of new countries after 1918 transferred this much prized possession to the Kingdom of Italy, which continued to use it as a key element of maritime traffic. Despite this change of ownership, the strong inland rail transport links ensured that it retained its connections with Vienna and central Europe. Certainly, for the ambitious new Fascist government of Italy, the combination of trade and shipbuilding was an excellent opportunity. But the city, together with the wider Northern Adriatic, was about to experience a new development generated by the rapid technological progress fostered during the Great War.
Aviation was not new in 1914, though it was in its infancy. The necessity of carrying a military payload and enjoying a long range had meant that aircraft from 1914 to 1918 had become steadily larger. More powerful engines, better (though still limited) onboard communications and an improved understanding of aerodynamics, aerostructures and material science had all become available for entrepreneurs and companies seeking to capitalize on the new concept of civil air transport. Concurrent with this, and of particular importance for coastal cities such as Trieste, had been the maritime element of such progress. Many of the day’s great powers boasted large navies and dispersed colonies, so being able to operate aircraft from water was of significant value.
With the 1920s being very much an era of small, private aviation ventures, the renown Triestino Cosulich family decided to expand their established interest in shipbuilding to cover the growing market opportunity of air transport. In 1921 they grew their naval-focussed Cantiere Navale Triestino (CNT) to explore this new frontier as Cantieri Aeronautici e Navali Triestini (CANT). By 1923 this has become a fully- fledged aircraft design and production facility at the Monfalcone shipyards. Its first operational aircraft, built for the Italian Air Force, was the CANT-6 trimotor biplane flying-boat that used the facilities’ existing skills in hydrodynamics to support the new direction in aeronautics.
However, building a design and development facility from scratch takes time, so as the effort at developing the material skills was underway the family had also widened their role in the new aviation market through the pursuit of a services offering. What soon became the Societa Italiana Servizi Aerei (SISA) aviation scheme was intended to enter the new market before completion of any locally made aircraft, providing both revenue and experience in the sector. Initially operating an old Anglo-French naval flying-boat and offering just a relatively conservative route from Trieste to Slovenia, this was expanded to Croatia to the East and then Venice to the West. A wider role in pilot training was also developed, further diversifying market exposure and coverage.
By 1924 a regular Trieste-Venice route had been established, with the aircraft using the Mole Audace as their terminal. By 1926 and based on the indigenous CANT flying-boat designs an ambitious Trieste-Turin route was available operating along the cities and ports of the Po valley. Towards the end of the 1920s various other routes, including Southern Italy to Albania, were also being explored.
Towards the 1930s a variety of political and economic factors resulted in a gradual conglomeration of Italian transport companies. The state-owned Societa Aerea Mediterranea, under the general direction of the famous Italian aviator Italo Balbo as Air Force undersecretary, absorbed SISA and similar smaller companies. Much of their capabilities were directed towards defense programs both in terms of the services that they provided and platforms that they developed: CANT, now part of the Cantieri Riuniti dell’Adriatico (CRDA), continued to work on flying boats as well as land-based designs.
One undoubted benefit of this process, at least to Italian industry, was the procurement of Dr. Filippo Zappata at that time employed in France. At the personal request of Secretary Balbo, Dr. Zappata become a senior designer at Monfalcone and would bring about some of its most famous designs. One, though largely forgotten, was the immense Z.511 intended for long-range civil routes but used only in small numbers by the Italian state. Indeed, by the late 1930s CANT had become a key supplier to the Italian military of larger aircraft. Trieste and its associated industrial capabilities remained very important, but the civilian market would become increasingly secondary to the demands of the Italian State.
One small, but interesting offshoot of the CANT efforts was its brief flirtation with the Schneider Trophy. The most famous of the 1920-30s air races and combining a glamour and energy similar to modern Formula 1 the events saw spectators numbering up to 200,000. The Adriatic was a key development and testing ground for the Italian entries. Though Macchi became the dominant Italian manufacturer of float-planes – ie aircraft with floats instead of wheels – while CANT focused rather more on the flying-boat design, the CANT 11 was developed to participate in the early 1920s.
Unfortunately for Trieste, this avenue was not pursued and unlike for Venice the racing event was never held off the shores of the city. Nevertheless, participating in a sector involving some of the most beautiful and – for their time – technologically advanced aircraft, CANT belonged to the wider Italian aviation industry at the edge of the development curve. The eventual winner of the Schneider Trophy, the Supermarine S.6B, would in many technical ways become the progenitor of the iconic Spitfire fighter aircraft of World War 2, while the Macchi Mc.72 that arrived too late to challenge the UK, retains the world airspeed record for a seaplane.
CANT was not falling behind, however. Though their focus was not on the fast and exotic, the Monfalcone yards remained a repository of fearsome aeronautical capability. Under Dr. Zappata and his team most of Italy’s high-performance large aircraft were designed and at least in part fabricated in the factory and – despite abysmal production rates – the aircraft themselves were generally regarded as capable. Unfortunately, from 1939, this brought with it the inevitable focus of the Allied military and in the Spring of 1944 the US Air Force visited and largely shut down the production.
Trieste’s role in aircraft development was dealt a severe blow by the war years but was not ended entirely. SISA, with Cosulich management still present, was contracted by the Allied Military Government to provide aviation services. This continued for several years, but the difficult local situation and the costs of operation resulted in its 1949 merger with the contemporary (and also originally) pre-war Avio Linee Italiane (ALI). Though remaining a successful enterprise under Fincantieri, the Monfalcone yards have long since ended their work on aircraft.
However, interest in a fusion of air and sea transport remains strong and regular articles in national media suggest that a renaissance of small to large air-water craft is only a matter of time. There is a logic to this, given the size of the globe’s oceans and percentage of humanity living adjacent to large areas of water. But while something is technically possible, it does not mean that it is economically feasible. Should efficient flying boats reemerge then Trieste is an obvious port for their use, though no one should be holding their breath. Extremely elegant as were their products and a glamorous slice of local history, the great contributions of the Cosulichs, CANT and Monfalcone are are likely some way yet from being renewed.
