STATEN ISLAND, N.Y, -- In March of 1927, a man dubbed "The Italian Lindbergh" took off from Italy, crossed the Atlantic, flew across the South American rainforest and came to America. Col. Francesco De Pinedo and his crew were on a propaganda/good will flight for Fascist Italy. The airplane was a Savoia Marchetti S-55, a twin hulled, twin engine seaplane with both a pusher and tractor engine. The craft was named Santa Maria.
As the Santa Maria was a seaplane only, it had to land on water. During a refueling stop on Theodore Roosevelt Lake, Ariz., an onlooker carelessly tossed a cigarette into the gasoline coated water causing a fire that totally destroyed the airplane. The 40,000 mile tour was all but doomed.
De Pinedo sent a message to Italian Air Marshal Italo Balbo who in turn contacted his friend, Benito Mussolini. Mussolini ordered the Marchetti factory to produce another identical airplane and had it shiped to Staten Island. The Italian freighter, Duiho, landed at Tompkinsville where the disassembled airplane was off-loaded and trucked to Miller US Army Airfield in New Dorp.
Somehow, the powers that be allowed 75 armed Blackshirt troops to escort the airplane and guard it on this US Army base during the assembly. In the weeks that followed, De Pinedo, his mechanics, the air crew and the 75 troops were a common sight in New Dorp, Rosebank and New Dorp Beach. Many of the men had relatives in the Italian sections of the Island.
After the completion and test flights, De Pinedo resumed his tour and eventually flew the S-55 back across the Atlantic Ocean and on to Italy.
Even that portion of the trip was not without drama. Unpredicted head winds caused the expedition to run out of fuel and land 200 miles short of the mainland. The quality and strength of the airplane were proven by a 200-mile tow behind a freighter in open ocean. After refueling, the Colonel flew back 200 miles and made a U-turn to complete the trip.
Col. De Pinedo was later killed in a single engine Bellanca at Roosevelt Field in a solo Atlantic crossing attempt. The grossly overloaded airplane broke a landing gear on takeoff and nosed into the ground. It did not catch fire; however, the engine was running at full power.
De Pinedo had gone back to shut down he engine when the Staten Island-built Bellanca CH-200 blew up and caused his death.
(Ed Drury is the author of "Staten Island, The Other Cradle of Aviation.")