08/10/2025
• The Callino takes flight.
Before it became the symbol of speed on four wheels, the Cavallino Rampante was a badge of courage in the sky.
It was painted on the fuselage of Francesco Baracca’s fighter plane — Italy’s greatest World War I ace a prancing black horse that struck fear and admiration in equal measure.
After Baracca’s death in 1918, his mother, Countess Paolina, met a young racing driver named Enzo Ferrari. She told him:
“Ferrari, put my son’s prancing horse on your cars. It will bring you luck.”
That gesture turned an emblem of heroism into a symbol of victory. From the sky, it descended onto the roads of the world, and the Cavallino was reborn in Maranello.
Decades later, in 1989, the circle closed.
To honor Enzo Ferrari’s passing, the Italian Air Force painted one of its F-104 Starfighters, the supersonic spearhead of the 4º Stormo, the same unit that once flew with Baracca in Rosso Corsa. On its tail, once again, the Cavallino Rampante.
A jet built for Mach 2, wearing the red of Maranello.
A tribute to the man who turned courage into speed, and speed into beauty.
Because before Ferrari raced on the ground, it raced in the sky •
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