Compass Omi-Nistri Type “A” for Caproni 300 Series and CANT Z Italian Royal Air Force, circa 1940

Compass Type "A", produced by Omi-Nistri of Rome, around 1940, installed on the Caproni 300 Series, CANT Z. and Savoia Marchetti 79 and 81 bombers, supplied to the Italian Royal Air Force, during the Second World War.

It is complete with the tilting support which, operated manually using the 2 front chromed levers, allows the adjustment of the inclination of the compass. The original base is still present, with Regia Aeronautica acceptance stamps, necessary for fixing the compass to the dashboard.

All course setting mechanisms work perfectly.

The Omi-Nistri Roma Ottica Meccanica Italiana company of the Nistri brothers based in Rome began its activity during the First World War and specialized in the construction of photographic equipment for the Air Force to be used in aerial reconnaissance (planimetric and perspective equipment) and in shooting schools (photo machine guns).

The anonymous company Ottico Meccanica Italiana e Rilevamenti Aerofotogrammetrici was founded as early as 1924, but it was only in 1937-38 that its headquarters were built in the San Paolo area for the production of precision optical instruments for the Air Force.

Around 1938, OMI established itself on international markets for the export of aeronautical material and in the years of the Second World War, the company took on strategic importance, given its mainly military production. At the end of the Second World War, OMI, like other Italian industries producing military equipment, found itself in the position of having to forcibly change its reference market.