The undated postcard, measuring 90 x 140 mm, was produced by Vittorio Emanuele Boeri for the Scuola di Pilotaggio (Pilot School) ‘E. Breda’ in Milan. This pilot school was named after the engineer and industrialist Ernesto Breda (1852–1918), whose Milan-based metalworking company produced (among other things) locomotives, agricultural machinery, weapons and ammunition, and airplanes. The school no longer exists.

The postcard depicts a group of eagles, symbolizing the Roman empire, taking flight from a cliff face and soaring towards distant fasces, silhouetted by the sun (either setting or rising). The Latin phrase Per aspera ad astra is printed in quotation marks under the illustration. The illustration is signed by F. Carminiani, an otherwise unknown artist who created several propaganda postcards during the ventennio fascista (Arrasich 1999: 47; Manfren 2019: 178n335).

Per aspera ad astra is a common Latin phrase. This and other variants are especially prevalent among air force mottoes. The phrase also seems to have been a personal favourite of Benito Mussolini, appearing in his own handwriting along with his portrait on several postcards, and notably on a medallion by Dora Ohlfsen depicting Mussolini’s profile (Lamers 2022: 208).