Benvenuto Fiat G91!

Only days before the festivities around the 100th anniversary of the Aeronautica Militare (AMI, Italian Air Force) an icon of Italian aviation returned to the skies. On 14 June 2023, Fiat G91 I-AMIC made its made its first post restoration flight from Piacenza Air Base.

The jet was flown by a retired general, Maurizio Lodovisi. As reported by Scramble on 24 March 2022 the Fiat is a G91R model which was flown by the AMI with serial MM6305 (c/n 169).

The restoration is a great success for the Piacenza based Volafenice Foundation, owned by Renzo Catellani. He had acquired the airframe back in 2009. The foundation started the project in 2021 with the ultimate goal of returning the G91 to airworthiness.

Fortunately the people behind Volafenice had both the dedication and the experience to perform the job: they had previously restored two Aermacchi MB326s to airworthiness.

The maiden flight of the restored I-AMIC was the first flight of a G91 in Italy in more than 30 years. During its AMI career MM6305 had the standard Italian camouflage but that was removed during the restoration. It has now been finished in the colours of Frecce Tricolori, Italy’s national aerobatic display team that used the G91PAN version of the jet.

Without any doubt the Fiat G91 will be one of the eyecatchers during the airshow at Pratica di Mare air base on 17 and 18 June.

Photo: still from Youtube footage by Vintage Aviation News