Antonio Locatelli (19 April 1895 – 27 June 1936) was a pioneering Italian aviator and

National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party ( it, Partito Nazionale Fascista, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian Fascism and as a reorganization of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. Th ...

legislator. He served in Gabriele d'Annunzio's air squadron during the war against Austria and was decorated. After the war he became a deputy to Parliament. In 1924 he attempted a transatlantic flight but was forced down into the seas off Greenland, whence he was rescued. He was killed during the

Second Italo-Ethiopian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression which was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Itali ...

Early life

Locatelli was the son of Samuel Locatelli and Anna Gelfi, a family of modest financial standing in Bergamo, Italy. From 1908 until his graduation in 1913, he attended the Bergamo Industrial Institute. He was a keen mountaineer in his youth, climbing the

Adamello Adamello (in local dialect ''Adamèl'') is a mountain in Lombardy, Italy. With an elevation of , it is the second highest peak of the Adamello-Presanella Alps. It is located in Valcamonica, Lombardy (Province of Brescia). Its glacier, measure ...

Trentino Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...

, with his brother Carlo. He then became chief technician at the Ansaldo di Cornigliano Ligure.

Aviator

Having joined a flying unit of the army, Locatelli was granted his pilot's licence in 1915. He went on to fly 523 sorties during World War I, starting out in reconnaissance and then flying fighters and bombers. He was particularly celebrated in performing solo reconnaissance over Zepellin yards in Friedrichshafen and flying over Vienna on 9 July 1918. He was subsequently downed and captured by the Germans, spending some time at Sigmundsherberg POW camp. In recognition of his valour, he received gold and silver medals and was made a knight of the Military Order of Savoy.

Attempted circumnavigation

Locatelli led Italy's attempt to achieve the first aerial circumnavigation during the 1924 scramble by six nations to achieve the feat. Flying a metal hulled Dornier Do J ''Wal'' flying boat, powered by two Rolls-Royce engines and with a crew of three (Lt. Tullio Crosio, copilot, Lts. Giovanni Branni and Bruno Farcinelli, engineers), he left Pisa, Italy, on 25 July 1924, heading west. Locatelli's attempt came to an end on 21 August when heavy fog forced a landing 120 miles short of Greenland. Damage sustained to the plane's engine-carriers precluded resumption of the flight. Four days earlier, he had met up with the American team led by

Lowell Smith Lowell Herbert Smith (October 8, 1892 – November 4, 1945) was a pioneer American airman who piloted the first airplane to receive a complete mid-air refueling (along with Lt. John P. Richter) on June 27, 1923, and later set an endurance rec ...

, who were to be ultimately successful in setting the record, in Reykjavik, and had intended to accompany them on the circumnavigation. It was this chance meeting which ultimately saved their lives as the Americans raised the alarm when Locatelli failed to arrive in Greenland and the ''USS Richmond'' found them after a search by a flotilla of craft.

Memorials

The following were dedicated to the memory of Antonio Locatelli: * Via Antonio Locatelli and the rationalist style fountain with aviator's bust, Bergamo * the Bergamo Section ''Antonio Locatelli'' of the

Italian Alpine Club The Club Alpino Italiano is the senior Italian alpine club which stages climbing competitions, operates alpine huts, marks and maintains paths, and is active in protecting the Alpine environment. It was founded in Turin in 1863 by the then finan ...

* Antonio Locatelli Primary School, Cavernago * Antonio Locatelli Hut in

Tre Cime di Lavaredo The Tre Cime di Lavaredo (; ), also called the Drei Zinnen (; ), are three distinctive battlement-like peaks, in the Sexten Dolomites of northeastern Italy. They are probably one of the best-known mountain groups in the Alps. The three peaks, ...

Natural Park

References

1895 births 1936 deaths Aviation pioneers Italian aviators Italian male journalists Italian military personnel Knights of the Military Order of Savoy Recipients of the Gold Medal of Military Valor Recipients of the Silver Medal of Military Valor 20th-century Italian journalists 20th-century Italian male writers {{Italy-bio-stub