On 1 February 1916, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and being attracted to the world of aviation, he asked to be assigned to the Army Air Service to become a pilot.

In April he was transferred to the Military Aviation Technical Directorate of Turin, as head of the Engine and Flight Testing Office of SPAD fighter planes; in the same year he was sent on a mission to China.

[1][2] In 1925 he was promoted to the rank of major, and after a short period spent at the General Staff, he was tasked with carrying out the flight tests of the new Fiat CR.1 fighter at the Turin aeronautical engineering department.

For his contribution in the victory at Genale Doria (in which his aircraft dropped both normal ordnance and poison gas bombs on Ethiopian troops), he was awarded a Silver Medal of Military Valor.

[4][1][2][5][6][7][8] On 12 May 1937 he left for Spain to take command of the Aviazione Legionaria, supporting the Francoist forces during the Spanish Civil War, replacing General Vincenzo Velardi.

Commanding a force of over two hundred bombers and fighters, he provided decisive air support to the Nationalists during the battles of Bilbao, of Santander, of Aragon, of Teruel and of the Ebro.

He however came into conflict with Ettore Muti, who accused him of suffering from a "inferiority complex" towards Hugo Sperrle (commander of the Condor Legion), and with General Gastone Gambara, commander of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie (who wanted more control over the Aviazione Legionaria); as a result, he had to leave his post in November 1938, being replaced by General Giuseppe Maceratini.