In the development of Italian aeronautics four periods can be distinguished :

A first period, covering the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, in which the first idea of the technical possibility of human flight, both on the heavier and on lighter than air principles, was conceived in Italy and the physico–mechanical conditions of animal flight explained. In thfs period are to be met the names of Leonardo da Vinci, Francesco Lana and Alfonso Borelli working on independent lines.

A second period, in which Italy produced a number of distinguished aeronauts, among whom Vincenzo Lunardi and Francesco Zambeccari became well known in England for having carried out in London the first balloon ascents in 1784-85. In this period, which, starting with the discovery of the brothers Montgolfier, does not go farther than the first decades of the 19th century, Italy did not combine with an interest in practical air navigation any actual scientific contribution to its development.