First time over the Tibesti


 


    

    The Colonial Air Tour of Italo Balbo

    by Giorgio Baccinelli


    The Air Tour of Southern Libya took place from June 15 to June 28, 1931. This air cruise is little known and was far less significant internationally than Balbo’s Atlantic cruises.

    Its purpose was to fly over the Tibesti mountain range, a mountainous terrain in the center of the Sahara Desert, which had become a contentious subject between Italy and France. The French, taking advantage of the war against the insurgents in Cyrenaica, had made some territorial claims and created several military outposts in Southern Libya, where the inclement weather of the area allowed it.

    The flight left from Ostia and consisted of three S.62bis seaplanes, powered by Isotta Fraschini 750 cv (740 hp) engines.


An S.62 seaplane

 


    The first seaplane was flown by Italo Balbo himself, with Mayor Stefano Cagna. The crew of the second aircraft consisted of Brigadier General Aldo Pellegrini, who was the commander of the Navigazione Aerea in Alto Mare school (high seas air navigation school) with the radio operator Warrant Officer Cesare Bernazzani and Mario Massai, a reporter from the Il Corriere della Sera newspaper. The crew of the third airplane was: Captain Alessandro Miglia, Captain Jacopo Calò and Flight Engineer Gatta.



The crowd in Rhodes, Italian Greece, waiting for the arrival of Italo Balbo's flight



    Upon reaching Tobruk, the aviators left the seaplanes and transferred to three Caproni Ca.101 aircraft, escorted by two IMAM Ro.1 airplanes flown by Colonel Ferruccio Ranza, commander of the Tripolitania Air Force, and Colonel Roberto Lordi, commander of the Cyrenaica Air Force. Ranza carried the reporter Massai, while Lordi carried the filmmaker Mario Craveri.



Refueling the aircraft at the airfield in Cufra 


    The expedition reached the Tibesti on the morning of June 23, 1931. After locating a suitable landing site and establishing a base camp, the aircraft conducted photographic reconnaissance of the mountain range. 


Over the Tibesti


    These were the first airplane flights ever made in that part of Africa.

    After spending the night in the camp at the foot of the Tibesti Mountains, the aviators departed in morning for the return flight. They reached Tripoli on June 27, 1931, after touching several locations in Southern Libya (as shown in the map).

    The expedition officially concluded when the aviators returned to Ostia on June 28, 1931.




    This brief article was originally published in Italian by the online publication L'Italia Coloniale by photo reporter and author Alberto Alpozzi.

    Your comments, as aalways, will be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you,


    L. Pavese


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Chacha and her FIATs

Image
  La Chacha The Chacha above is an emblem used originally by the 2 nd Fighter Regiment of the Fuerza Aèrea Argentina, the Argentine Air Force. It represents an enraged Latin maid, or a housekeeper (she's actually a nanny, I just learned, TN) armed with a broom, who’s about to bring her force to bear on someone who’s intruding into her space. (Whoever has experienced that, knows how terrifying that can be).   Although she looks very fierce and deadly, the Argentines thought that even the Chacha, in a modern confrontation, could have used some force multipliers in the form of a group of fighter aircraft. Attilio Baldini and Sergio Bontti recounts the story of how the Chacha came to adorn the noses of the FIAT G.55 fighters of the Fuerza Aérea Argentina, in this article, originally translated from Spanish into Italian by Silvano Martí, that I took and translated to English from the n. 137 issue of Ali Antiche magazine. I hope you will find it interesting. Your comments, ...
Read more

The Airplanes and Gliders of Adriano Mantelli

Image
             It is not really important if none, or almost none, of Mantelli’s creations enjoyed much commercial success; they were all very interesting from a technical point of view, and the fruits of a wide-ranging activity that only a very competent, passionate and determined person could have realized.         The Airplanes and Gliders of Adriano Mantelli        by Giuseppe Blini In the international and Italian aviation panorama few are the people who sum up in themselves the gifts of an ace fighter pilot, test pilot, record-setting man and designer and builder of aircraft. Several articles have already been written about him. One appeared on the pages of this magazine about thirty years ago. After so long, we thought it would be interesting to bring to the attention of today’s readers Adriano Mantelli’s activity as a designer and builder of aircraft, in parallel with his bri...
Read more

Infierno en el monte tucumano

Image
Come abbiamo visto nella prima parte  , lo E.R.P., il sedicente Esercito Rivoluzionario del Popolo argentino, emanazione del Partito Rivoluzionario del Popolo si proponeva di creare un'enclave territoriale, retta da un governo comunista, dalla quale poi estendere la loro lotta rivoluzionaria all'intera Argentina. Con l'aiuto, speravano, dei governi marxisti di altri paesi; una volta che si fossero assicurati il riconoscimento internazionale del territorio conquistato.  Lo E.R.P. aveva scelto la provincia settentrionale di Tucumán, perché la morfologia impervia della regione rendeva difficile l'accesso ai mezzi delle forze armate argentine, ed era quindi adatta alla guerriglia; ma la scelta aveva anche un valore simbolico, perché nella provincia, nel 1816, fu dichiarata l'indipendenza del paese. Questa è la seconda parte della traduzione del post:  "El Operativo Independencia. La guerra contra la guerrilla subsersiva en Tucumán (1974-1975-1976)".   di Alber...
Read more