Balbo's Italian Air Armada

Thanks for the link. Somehow I always thought’d it be bigger.

Jeez – fly across the Atlantic in that? They were keen. Anyone care to post a short precis about the journey – duration, altitude, that sort of thing?

Anyone have any pics of the one in Sao Paulo? I’ve never seen it.

There’s some on the Seawings website here: http://www.seawings.co.uk/sm55gal.htm

Cheers

Alistair

Thank you for the reply Veltro… with the information on the formation I saw back in 1983.

I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to see the commemorative re-enactment overfly the Lincolnshire coast.

Very sad reading of the tragic loss that subsequently occured in the USA.

Clive.

S.55

In 1983 a formation of Siai Marchetti SF.260 re-enacted the flight to Chicago, which went without a hitch. Unfortunately, one of the planes then crashed during an airshow in the USA, killing the formation leader Floro Finistauri.

I spent many hours with Buzz Kaplan and his Italian representative over about a decade, so I can confirm his interest in the S.55 and the advanced state of his planning. It is a pity it all came to nought.

I checked out the Berman website as suggested.

At http://mysite.verizon.net/cberman/id11.html, the following can be read under the heading “Current Projects”

“I am presently working on a book about the SM55 and have several other items under development.”

The BBC website mentions the reconstruction, but it’s not on Berman’s website. I wish him good luck in raising the money – I believe something in the region of two million US dollars would do the trick for an airworthy machine.

From a purely historical perspective, I would note that Longueil is not in France, but rather in Canada. The 1933 flight never came to or through France. I don’t nitpick for fun, but I am somewhat wary of the one-day experts.

Veltro

Now this has jogged my memory… to a formation I saw in the early 1980s.

It could have been 1983 ????

I was working in Skegness…

In from over the North Sea came a formation of single engine trainer types….which had me puzzled….

Long before the days of Forums..a letter was written to Air Britain ???…and the reply came that perhaps what I had seen was the anniversary re-enactment of the first Balbo…??

Was this info’ correct ????

Clive.

Anyone have any pics of the one in Sao Paulo? I’ve never seen it.

Unfortunately, in Italy we have lost almost all the memories of those atlantic crossing made by Balbo’s team. Those were called the “Trasvolate del Decennale” to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the fascist regime.

With all the bad things that the fascist regime brought to Italy we have erased everything of those years so for example the home base of the “Atlantici” which was the nickname of Balbo’s man that is in Orbetello near Livorno is abandoned and ruined while it could have been a museum

bye

Gianfranco

The American expert who intended to build an S.55 was “Buzz” Kaplan, sadly killed in a Jenny crash two years ago.

Listen to the link – it is very recent and is a different chap altogether – Dr Carl Berman jnr., who’s a science professor at the University of Maryland.

Here’s his website
http://mysite.verizon.net/cberman/index.html

S.55

The American expert who intended to build an S.55 was “Buzz” Kaplan, sadly killed in a Jenny crash two years ago. By then, however, he had shelved the plan in favour of the Sikorsky amphibians seen at various US shows and associated magazine reports.

There is a long-standing ambition to build a full-size reproduction in Italy, airworthy if at all possible. Until then, or actually from September 2006, we can make our pilgrimage to Sao Paulo, where the world’s only surviving S.55 resides.

Veltro

Thanks for this Dave -I’ve always like these ‘planes. There’s some nice plans of them on www.seawings.co.uk

There was also a three engined variant (the name of which escapes me) which made passenger flights in the Med in the 30s.

Cheers

Alistair

Also listen to the follow up episode, no. 4. An expert in the USA is planning to build a flying replica of the Savoia Machetti twin hulled flying boats and recreate that trip!

Whoa!! That’d be interesting to see.