LORD OF THE DISTANCES
On November 7, 1925, a single-engine flying boat touched down on Rome’s historic Tiber River to tumultuous acclaim. At the controls were pilot Francesco de Pinedo and mechanic/copilot Ernesto Campanelli. In 370 flying hours they had just completed an incredible 35,000-mile, three-phase aerial odyssey halfway across the world, from Italy to Australia, Japan and back.
Born into an aristocratic Neapolitan family in 1890, the Marquis Francesco de Pinedo was a naval academy graduate who saw action in destroyers during the 1911-12 Italo-Turkish War, which witnessed the first use of airplanes in combat, by the Italians. In 1917, after pilot training, de
