The Consul General of Chicago, Enrico Granara has issued an invitation to a slide lecture by Prof. Carlo Barbieri on Italo Balbo and his daring transatlantic flight from Orbetello, Italy to Chicago in 1933 with a squadron of twenty-four Italian hydroplanes.

[RAA NOTE: Italy built on earlier achievements and became a significant power in the world of aviation during the 1930s. Italy had a well-developed aviation industry that numbered some 18 companies, along with other firms that built engines. The planebuilders included Fiat, which later became renowned for its motorcars.

Leaders in the industry included the firm of Savoia-Marchetti, which had been formed in 1915. It took its name from Umberto Savoia, a founder of the company and one of Italy's earliest aviators, having taken his first flying lesson from Wilbur Wright, and from the chief designer Alessandro Marchetti, who came to the company with a design for a high-speed biplane.Marchetti had joined that company in 1922, in the same year that Mussolini seized power. He quickly showed his technical strength as his first design, the SM-51 racing seaplane, set a speed record of 174 miles per hour (280 kilometers per hour).

In 1925 he introduced the first version of the SM-55. This was a long-range flying boat with twin hulls like those of a catamaran. The arrangement made the plane stable in heavy seas—and provided ample room between the hulls for mines or torpedoes.

Of all the large transport aircraft built during the period between the two world wars, few were more aesthetically appealing than those produced by the Italian firm of Savoia-Marchetti.  And of all the Savoia-Marchetti models, none was more aerodynamically sound--or more effective--than the S-55 flying boat.

Moreover, the S-55 set records for reliability and endurance that were unsurpassed for its day.The design of the S-55 was not orthodox by any standards.  It had twin hulls in which passengers were carried, while its pilot and copilot occupied an open cockpit in the thick center sections of its high wing. It was powered by two engines mounted one behind the others on a superstructure above the wing and canted sharply at an upward angle. Two wire-braced booms connected the triple-finned tail structure to the twin hulls and wing.

The SM-55 became one of the airplanes that crossed the Atlantic before Lindbergh's flight in May 1927. This happened in February of 1927, when Francesco de Pinedo took one named Santa Maria to Pernambuco, Brazil, with stops along the way in Morocco and Dakar, on Africa's west coast. In contrast to Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, the Santa Maria could land safely on the water. It came equipped with a seawater distiller, a life raft, and fishing equipment.Four months later they arrive back in Italy, having flown nearly 30,000 miles in 193 flying hours and having made just over 50 stops--including Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and New York City.

Mussolini's air marshal, General Italo Balbo, soon was flying the Atlantic not with single airplanes but with entire fleets. Again these were SM-55s, which could refuel en route in the Azores. In 1930, Balbo led 12 of them on a 6,500-mile (10,461-kilometer) flight from Rome to Rio de Janeiro.

But the most Spectacular flight of the S-55 took place in 1933--ten years after the airplane was first constructed. On July 1, 1933 General Italo Balbo, the air minister of Italy, led a flight of 24  S-55s from Orbetello, Italy, to the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, in just over 48 hours...and they completed the ENTIRE FLIGHT both OVER AND BACK in a tight V formation!!!!!!!!

Even today pilots frequently refer to a large formation of aircraft as a Balbo.

In the course of its career, the SM-55 held 14 world records for speed, altitude, load, and distance. It also proved rugged enough to survive being towed for 200 miles (322 kilometers) across open sea to the Azores, when one of them had to set down in mid-ocean.

See a photo of this unusual plane at  Savoia-Marchetti S.55
<< http://www.biic.de/aviation-museum/planes/country/italy/planes/20.htm >> ]

This lecture will take place on Tuesday, May 20 at 5:30 p.m. at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura  Chicago, 500 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1450.

President of the International Committee for the Commemoration of Italian Naval and Aeronautical achievements, Prof. Barbieri will discuss the event that captured the world's attention, bringing to the forefront technological accomplishments of Italian aeronautics at that time, and commemorated by Chicago's Balbo Drive.

This lecture is presented in conjunction with a traveling photographic exhibition that documents Balbo's endeavor.

We hope you will join us in paying homage to this important historical event