Carlo Del Prete

Lucca, 1897-Rio de Janeiro, 1928

The Transoceanic Flights and the Decennial Air Cruise

A cadet of the Navy Academy of Leghorn, he fights in the Italo-Turkish war. In WWI, he makes his first flight as an observer with the 1st Squadrilla of seaplanes (December 1917) and distinguishes himself in the Bakar raid (February 1918). As a Navy Lieutenant, in the post-war period he obtains a pilot’s licence for seaplanes (October 1922) and Francesco De Pinedo calls him to accompany him in the Sesto Calende-Melbourne-Rome raid and in the flight across the two Americas (1927): the latter ends after 43,820 km, 279 hours and 40 minutes of flight on board a SIAI S.55 seaplane. He dies in 1928 in an airplane crash on the island of Governador.

Bibliographical references
Cupini, Ranieri | 1979 (a cura di) Le imprese del maggiore pilota Carlo Del Prete. Firenze: Tipolitografia della Scuola di applicazione Aeronautica militare.