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Lieutenant Colonel Cosimo Rennella Barbatto was an Ecuadorian World War I flying ace of Italian heritage. He was credited with seven confirmed aerial victories flying for Italian aviation during the war; however, his pioneering civil aviation activities both before and immediately following the war were probably even more important than his martial career. ==Pre-World War I activities== He was born in Italy as Cosimo Rennella on 15 February 1890, but in 1892, the toddler accompanied his family when they emigrated to Guayaquil, Ecuador. While there, his name was Latinized into Cosimo Rennella Barbatto by appending his mother's maiden name, though he was usually called "Cosme". In 1909, he volunteered to serve in the Patria I Battalion in military operations against Peru.〔Franks et al 1997, p. 155.〕 In 1911, Rennella persuaded a local sportsman's club, the ''Club Guayas de Tiro Aviacion'' (Guayas Shooting and Aviation Club), to sponsor his pilot's training; his aim was to be the first flier in Ecuador. The club underwrote Rennella's journey to Pau, France to learn to fly. There the young tyro became a pilot using French Blériot military airplanes.〔Hagedorn pp. 63-64.〕 He finally qualified for his civil pilot's license at Turin's Chiribiri flying school on 24 August 1912. Following that, he accompanied a pair of Nieuportish monoplanes back across the Atlantic to Panama.〔 By the time Rennella and his two traveling companions returned to Central America with an airplane, the first flight in Ecuador, which was by Chilean Lieutenant Eduardo Molina Lavín, had taken place in their absence. Rennella's new airplane was a knockoff of a French Nieuport, built by Navaro and Valgoi of Torino, Italy. On 15 December 1912, having been forbidden to fly across the Isthmus of Panama by U. S. officials, he flew an unauthorized flight in this plane over Panama City, leafletting the town with fliers thanking the populace for their support of his flight, in may have been the first aerial pamphlet drop in history.〔 In the middle of January 1913, he was welcomed home in Ecuador. Once there, he accepted the obligation of returning to Italy for more training while he supervised the manufacture of a Chiribiri monoplane for his Club sponsors. He brought this plane, dubbed Patria No. I, back to Ecuador.〔 He used his time in Italy to somehow qualify for an Italian military pilot's license, which was granted at Turin on 25 July 1913. Rennella was back in Ecuador by 29 September 1913.〔 On 8 October 1913, at Guayaquil, Cosimo Rennella became the first Ecuadorian citizen to fly in his own nation. A follow-up exhibition scheduled for the 19th dwindled away amid controversy over potential gate receipts.〔 Rennella may have briefly served in the Ecuadorian military before barnstorming in Peru, Chile, and Mexico; he founded a flying school in the latter.〔 Italy's 24 May 1915 entry into World War I sparked his July return to Italy, where he begged the War Ministry to allow him to volunteer to fly for them.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cosimo Rennella」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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