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Of the 55,000-km route, 40,000 km was flown along the coastlines,
8,000 was on the open sea and 7,000 over land |
Reader Yosh3 has called our attention to the map above. According to Mr 曾令毅 [
here], it was an exploratory inter-continental flight piloted by Italian Air Force Commander Francesco de Pinedo and accompanying machinist NCO Ernesto Companelli. They arrived in Tamsui from the Philippines on September 18, 1925, on the Savoia S-16, and after re-fueling and some maintenance work, departed on the 21st for Shanghai and then Kagoshima. This 55,000-km journey started from Rome on April 21 that eventually covered India, Australia, China, and Japan.
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| The seaplane arriving in Sydney |
For more on this epic flight, see Yosh3's comments here:
http://danshuihistory.blogspot.com/2014/08/rising-sun-petroleum.html#comment-form
Hi EyeDoc,
回覆刪除On this weekend, I checked old governmental documents in National Archives of Japan.
台湾総督府 had got very angry with 2 Italian aviators, because of their illegal flight route thru 基隆 where Japan had military harbor and fortress, they were military secrets.
Taiwan officials let them stop at Tansui immediately, and asked Ministry of foreign affairs at Tokyo to cancel their aviation furthermore.
I think this is the reason they stop at Tansui.
But I couldn't find any answer letter from Tokyo, in spite of this deficit, Taiwan officials allowed 2 Italians to leave Tansui to Shanghai.
There was a big political game concerning limitation of arms at that time.
USA dispatch 12 destroyers to Manila.So, Japan had avoided to add small trouble into the game.
廣川先生's mother would have know what was happen at 公会堂.
It seems the flight plan of the Italians was approved in May, 1925, after much discussion between 外務省, 陸軍省, 海軍省, and 臺灣軍司令部. The Savoia S-16 was a military plane, so the mission of Commander de Pinedo might not be entirely commercial, or at least that was the suspicion. He was therefore directed to fly to Kirun, then west to Taoyuan and follow the coastline to Tamsui. Not allowed to enter Keelung area.
回覆刪除Agreed, Hirokawa's mother would have known.