Viglino

A firsthand account, accompanied by photographs, of the experiences of a World War I flight trainee during the earliest days of military aviation. Memoirs of Lt. Camillo Viglino has received critical acclaim, and has been reviewed in magazines such as Canadian History Review and on websites such as www.worldwar1.com.

Camillo Viglino came from a very patriarchal, upper-class family that strongly opposed his decision to volunteer for flight training. Viglino’s strong religious upbringing is evidenced by his allusion to divine intervention in the daily lives of the young student pilots contained in his memoirs. Unfortunately, his career as a military pilot was a very brief one, as the reader will discover on reading his memoirs.

Viglino went on to obtain degrees in Law, Literature, and Philosophy, and became a professor at the Collegio Melleria Rosmini in Domodossola, where he had studied as a youth. He became a prolific writer, authoring numerous articles on religious subjects, personal experiences, and childrens’ school texts. Finally he became the Editor of the Rivista Rosminiana, a Catholic newspaper published in Intra.

In 1930, he married Ida Ferraris. Their first child, Vittorio, was born in 1931. In 1934, Viglino appended his memoirs with a number of surprisingly intuitive reflections on the future of aviation, the automobile, space travel, and other inventions of the 20th century. They are included in the book and demonstrate his foresight, his idealism, and the tenor of the times.

Sadly, after having survived his daredevil exploits in aviation, Viglino succumbed to pneumonia and died in 1935 at the early age of 43. His wife was carrying their second child, Camilla, at the time.