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Army Aviation
The so-called Corpo Aeronautico had, at date of May 24, 1915, 15 squadriglie (flights) each with about seven planes of foreign models. Each >flight was indicated for kind of plane and successive numbers, so there were a I Farman flight, a I Bleriot flight and so on. Aviation dimensions grow quickly and this system caused confusion, so it was decided to give to any flight an own code number indipendently by plane employed. Meanwhile there was a separation in specialties, so it started to indicate fighter, bomber, etc. flights. There were four specialties: fighter, bomber, recon and observation.Italians made a large employment of aviation, experimenting long range recon and mass bombing, either on stretegical objectives and to direct support to front. Just in summer 1917, a mass of 150 bombers was employed to hit Austrian reserves during the Hermada battle. Austrian bases as Pola were bombed regularly. Italian industry had a large development and produced many good models as the Caproni bomber series, one of the best bombers of the period, or the excellent long range fast recon plane SVA. Italian never developed a their own fighter plane, preferring build on licence French models as Nieuport and SPAD. In 1917, there was just a good number of aces, as Baracca, Scaroni and Piccio. Many of them served in the 91st Fighter Flight called "The Aces Flight" (symbol: a red riffon); another very known unit was the 87th Strategical Recon Flight "Serenissima" (symbol: the San Marco Lion) which made the known "flight over Vienna".Italians kept always air superiority over the front exceed for the six months after Caporetto defeat in which Austrain aviation was reinforced by
german units but at the Piave battle, Italian planes dominated again. Advancing in war, flights were often grouped in gruppi (squadrons) for better employment.At the end of war. Army aviation included 62 flights with a total of 1055 planes.

Navy Aviation
At the eve of war, Italian Navy had 5 hydro stations with less of 30 planes. It had a development similar to army aviation, adding in time flights of bomber, hydro recon, land fighter, hydro fighter, etc. Naval aviation fought for three years in the naval guerrilla described in Navy chapter. A curiosity: Italian Hydro production was largely based on captured austrian models.At the end of war, naval aviation had 46 flights with 638 planes