Could an earlier appointment have mattered?

The carrier outcome is not treated as simple proof that Riccardi lacked ideas. Securing agreement within six months under wartime conditions suggests that an earlier appointment might have produced a carrier program sooner. Wartime procurement nevertheless had to compete with German priorities, leaving Italian requests far down the resource queue. The remaining question is whether Riccardi had enough political determination to force naval aviation forward in that environment, or whether only the less constrained pre-war setting could have converted his interest into results.