AEROMEDIA
The Italian Aerospace Information Web
by Aeromedia - corso Giambone 46/18 - 10135 Torino (Italy)

What is Happened to the Enrico Mattei's de Havilland Dove?

Forty years ago the Turin entrepreneuse Marisa Bottanelli bought the ownership of Aeral, a Malpensa based air-work/aero-taxi operator to transform it in a cargo charter carrier. This task was very demanding due to the huge amount of bureaucracy. The intent was correct because in Italy there were no airlines specialized in freight transport and this market was left to foreign operators flying in "fifth freedom".
It was also necessary to empty the old garage-hangar at Malpensa Airport. Inside it was the old de Havilland D.H. 104 Dove 6 I-ANIC which used to belong to Enrico Mattei, the famous president of ENI. Built in 1957 it could be considered as a historic aircraft.
At that time Aeral had no professional personnel and the activity was given to Luciano Bertolo and Gianni Siccardi, two young students helping Lady Marisa in various ways. It was relatively easy to take away the technical hardware but what could be done with this twin-engined British aircraft?
In 1978 Malpensa Airport had the Vizzola Ticino air-strip and the Caproni plant with their aviation museum (closed at the time) on its borders. It appeared logical at the time to offer the Dove to the museum and in particular to Countess Maria Fede Caproni who instantly accepted this unexpected gift.
Thus on October 25, 1978 the two friends inflated the tyres of the rare bird and fixed it to the tow bar. With a tractor provided by SEA they transferred the aircraft to the other nearby airfield passing through a providential gap in the fence around Malpensa's customs area.
With the receipt document for the Dove in their pocket, Luciano e Gianni returned to Turin satisfied and convinced that the Dove, in due time, would be duly exposed inside the Caproni museum.
Instead, some years later, Caproni Vizzola was closed and the museum inventory was transferred to Trento where in 1992 the new Museo Aeronautico Gianni Caproni was finally inaugurated. The two former Aeral employees (the airline had gone out of business in 1981) soon decided to visit the museum but the Dove was not displayed in the exhibition building. They found it, with flat tyres, in a dusty depot shed located in Rovereto where probably it still languishes awaiting restoration.

In the picture: the De Havilland Dove 6 I-ANIC ready to be transferred from the Malpensa Airport to the Caproni museum of Vizzola Ticino on October 25, 1978. (Aeromedia)

(Aeromedia, October 2018)