100 years ago, in 1920, the pilots Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masiero, together with the engineers Gino Cappannini and Roberto Maretto, aboard two SVA biplanes of wood and canvas, made themselves the architects of the first air connection between Europe and the Far East. And right at the "Francesco Baracca" Airport of Centocelle, the starting point of the crews who faced the long journey, on Friday 14 February 2020, the centenary of the Rome Tokyo Raid was celebrated, an undertaking still considered today among the most extraordinary in the history of Aviation.
During the celebrations, in the presence of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, air squad general Alberto Rosso, the president of the Italy / Japan Foundation, ambassador Umberto Vattani, and the Japanese ambassador to Italy Hiroshi Oe, was deposited a laurel wreath to the commemorative monument already existing and restored for the occasion, and it was possible to visit an exhibition dedicated to the Raid.
"A company that was born not as a single company but as a desire to move a formation of airplanes in a structured and organic way. This is why it is important to remember everyone: starting with those who didn't make it, up to Ferrarin, Masiero and their valiant engineers. A demonstration of the fact that the driver is never alone and that it is always teamwork that brings the result. " These are the words of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force after thanking the family members of the crews who arrived in Rome for the event.
"Ceremonies like these - General Rosso continued - they don't just want to remember a past event and interesting characters who are gone today. History must help us understand what was done in other times but which can be an example today. It must help us, stimulate, humbly look at the way difficult problems were solved many years ago, with determination, imagination, determination and a spirit of adventure. Understanding this today helps us look to the future. Today we look towards Space, which is our new frontier, we use new technologies, but the challenges, conceptually, are always the same, as well as the spirit of adventure, the organizational capacity, the grit, the determination, the attachment to values ".
HISTORY
106 days, 18.000 kilometers traveled, 112 hours of flight at an average speed of 160 km / h: these are the numbers of the record flight that earned a welcome from heroes and 42 days of official celebrations in Tokyo.
The authorship of the idea of a flight from Italy to Japan is due to the aviator poet Gabriele D'Annunzio who, in 1919, shared it with Haru-Kichi-Shimoi, Japanese writer and sincere admirer of Italy who at the time taught at the Institute of Oriental Letters in Naples. The project, albeit with some changes to the poet's initial program, was accepted by the General Directorate of Air Force. Since D'Annunzio could not leave because he was barricaded in Fiume, it was established that the feat was carried out by two formations, the first of five SVA 9 reconnaissance fighters, the second of four Caproni bombers of different models, two Ca.450s, one Ca. 600 and a Ca.900 triplane. The departures of the Caproni from Centocelle, staggered between them, began on January 8, 1920 but none of these bombers went beyond Syria. Things went no better for the five SVAs who left on 11 March.
At this point the only possibility of completing the feat was represented by the two SVA 9 which were made to take off on February 14 to act as a relay for the formation of biplanes that would soon follow them. Relay airplanes were supposed to check landing sites, arrange supplies and contact local authorities. It is in this context that Arturo Ferrarin, a pilot from Vicenza who had played in the 82nd and 91st Fighter Squadrons, the glorious Squadron of the Aces.
Ferrarin, asked to be allowed to take off for Japan accompanied by another airplane. On February 14th at 11.00, the adventure began, with the two SVAs taking off from the Centocelle field. The crews consisted of pilots Arturo Ferrarin and Guido Masiero with their respective engineers Gino Cappannini and Roberto Maretto.
The SVA was a wood and canvas airplane, the cockpit was open and the crew was exposed to wind and weather, the radiator was not suitable for high tropical temperatures while the trolley was without wheel fairings, useful in case landing on difficult terrain. There was no radio on board, the speed was kept sensorially and the pilot conducted the navigation only with the aid of a clock and compass.
On May 31, the two SVAs arrived in Tokyo; first Masiero and about an hour after Ferrarin. Waiting for them were two hundred thousand people who flocked to see the first airplanes that arrived in flight from Europe. To celebrate the feat, 42 days of celebrations were decreed in Japan, culminating in the official reception of the Italian aviators at the Imperial Palace. In memory of this record flight, Ferrarin's SVA was placed in the Imperial Weapons Museum in Osaka.
