Cesare Sabelli and Giuseppe Bellanca for the record

    

    

    An Attempted Transatlantic Flight

    by Gianclaudio Polidori

    

    Cesare Sabelli, born in 1896 in Montepulciano (Siena, Italy) to upper middle-class parents, after having completed his education joined the Italian Royal Army as non-commission infantry officer. Posted initially to the 9th Army Regiment, he applied and was assigned later to the Corpo Aeronautica Militare (Air Force Corps).

    In the Battaglione Aviatori (Aviators Battalion) Sabelli earned his pilot brevet and soon after he began serving at San Giusto (Pisa), and later in Busto Arsizio and Malpensa.

    During the First World War, he served honorably, earning several Italian as well as Allied decorations. He had the opportunity to meet various important people of that era and collaborated with Fiorello La Guardia. After his discharge from the Army in 1920, Sabelli moved to the United States, where he started a very profitable real estate business.

    In the United States Sabelli maintain his passion for flight and in his sporting and commercial activities he met and frequented many famous people, among whom there were famous entertainers of the era like Beniamino Gigli, Ugo Veniero d’Annunzio (the son of Gabriele), Rodolfo Valentino; and, of course, he remained close to his old friend Fiorello La Guardia.

    Having the ability and the money, Sabelli began to think about attempting a non-stop flight between New York City and Rome. He provided $ 75000 of his own money; $ 20000 were given by the Hearst Corporation in exchange for the exclusive on the story and $33000 more were given by the Italian American Dr. Leon M. Pisculli, who was a gynecologist but wanted to study the effect of long flights on the human body.

And so, Sabelli asked another Italian American, Giuseppe Bellanca, to build him a suitable aircraft.

Bellanca quickly produced a single engine, four-seat, high-wing aircraft that was described by the press as a monoplane but was truly a sesquiplane with a W configured lower wing. Only one example was built of the airplane, designated Model K, which was christened “Roma,” and received the registration NX-4864.

The Bellanca Model K Roma at Old Orchard Beach, Maine shows its peculiarly Bellanca sesquiplane wing-strut configuration

    On board there should have been the two pilots Cesare Sabelli and Roger Q. Williams, who was an American aviation pioneer and later the protagonist of many long-range flight attempts, assisted by the navigator and radio operator Piero Bonelli with Dr. Leon Pisculli busy recording his physiological observations. It was apparently Dr. Pisculli’s idea of installing in the cabin a sort of little pump to spray cold water on the face of the pilots to prevent them from falling asleep.

Cesare Sabelli and Roger Q. Williams wave from the cockpit of the Roma

    On September 28, 1928 (sixteen months after Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic crossing, TN), the Roma took from Old Orchard Beach, Maine and soon after Bonelli sent a greetings radio message to Guglielmo Marconi who was in London. It seems that that was the first transcontinental radio message from an aircraft in flight.

    But after only about one-hundred kilometers flown on the Atlantic Ocean, due to engine troubles Cesare Sabelli was forced to turn back and the attempt failed.

After some bureaucratic problems, the Bellanca Model K was repaired and was subsequently purchased by some Argentine pilots who wanted to attempt record flights in South America. Their flights were also unsuccessful due to recurring engine problems.

    This short article was originally published in Italian on the n.140 issue of the Italian Magazine Ali Antiche, and it was translated by me and posted here with their permission. 

    Ali Antiche is a magazine published by G.A.V.S., the Gruppo Amici dei Velivoli Storici (the friends of historic aircraft), an Italian organization dedicated to the restoration of historically significant aircraft.

    Your comment will be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Leonardo Pavese