Carlo del Prete

Carlo Del Prete (21 August 1897 – 16 August 1928) was a pioneer aviator from Italy.

Early career

Born in Lucca, Italy, Del Prete joined the Regia Marina (Italy's Royal Navy) and served aboard submarines during World War I. After the war ended in 1918, he became interested in aviation, and in 1922 he qualified as a pilot. He transferred to the Regia Aeronautica (Italy's Royal Air Force) when it was created in 1923 and earned a reputation as a skilled navigator.

Del Prete met fellow aviator Francesco de Pinedo during their navy service together, and the two became friends. Del Prete helped Pinedo prepare for a six-month Rome-Australia-Tokyo-Rome flight Pinedo made with mechanic Ernesto Campanelli in 1925.

Record flights

1927 "Four Continents" flight In 1927, Del Prete joined Pinedo and mechanic Vitale Zacchetti in flying the Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boat Santa Maria under Pinedo's command on the "Four Continents" flight, intended to take them from Italy to Africa and across the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil, followed by several stops in South America and the Caribbean, a tour of the United States and Canada, and a transatlantic flight back to Europe ultimately ending in Rome. Leaving Cagliari, Sardinia, on 13 February 1927, they stopped at Villa Cisneros in Spanish Sahara and Bolama in Portuguese Guinea before attempting to take off from Bolama on 16 February to cross the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil. Sweltering conditions prevented their plane from becoming airborne until they dumped a large quantity of gasoline, forcing them to fly to the Cape Verde Islands instead, where cooler conditions prevailed. On 23 February, they finally made their Atlantic crossing, braving a storm and landing on the ocean near Fernando de Noronha, where the Brazilian Navy protected cruiser met them and towed them into port. The next day, after repairs necessitated by a collision with Almirante Barroso, they flew to Natal, Brazil, to begin the South American phase of the flight.

After stops at various cities in South America including Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Montevideo, Uruguay, and Asunción, Paraguay, the three Italians began a long leg over the dense jungle of Brazil's Mato Grosso region on 16 March 1927. At one point, a Brazilian river boat had to tow the Santa Maria for along the Paraguay River in search of a suitable takeoff area after a refueling stop, but on 20 March they completed their crossing of the Mato Grosso and landed at Manaós, Brazil. It was history's first flight over the Mato Grosso.

After a week of repairs, the three Italian aviators were airborne again, flying back to the point in the Atlantic where they had been taken under tow, and then finishing their transatlantic flight from there. After stops in Portugal and Spain, Pinedo, Del Prete, and Zacchetti completed the "Four Continents" flight on 16 June 1927, landing Santa Maria II in Ostia's harbor outside Rome. Their 29,180-mile (46,989-kilometer) flight had taken 123 days.

1928 distance records On 31 May 1928, Arturo Ferrarin and Del Prete – by then a maggiore (major) in the Regia Aeronautica – began a nonstop flight in the Savoia-Marchetti S.64 involving 51 round trips between Torre Flavia (in Ladispoli) and Anzio that broke three world records. When they finally landed on 3 June, they had covered – a new world distance record over a closed circuit – and stayed aloft for 58 hours 34 minutes – a new world endurance record. Moreover, they also set the world record for average speed over a distance of of .

The following month Ferrarin and Del Prete did indeed cross the Atlantic in the S.64, not to New York, but across the South Atlantic to Brazil. Departing Montecelio on the evening of 3 July 1928, they flew over Sardinia overnight, and then Gibraltar early the next morning. During 4 July their course covered Casablanca and Villa Cisneros, On the morning of 5 July, they were within radio range of Pernambuco. During the flight from Italy, the S.64 had covered in 48 hours, 14 minutes. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale officially recognised this as a flight of – the orthodromic distance between Montecelio and Natal – and a new world straight-line distance record.

Memorial in Rio de Janeiro A monument honoring Del Prete and the Savoia-Marchetti S.64's flight was built in the Praça Carlo del Prete in Laranjeiras, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It consists of a statue of Del Prete and a 1:2 scale bronze model of the aircraft.