Balbo's seas and skies

After being shown in Orbetello, Montreal, Chicago and Buttrio, the exhibition “Balbo's seas and skies. From Orbetello to Chicago, New York and Tobruk” is being held in Trento at the Gianni Caproni aeronautical museum, extended until 31 March 2016.

It’s devoted to the greatest historical undertaking in the history of the world civilian aviation.

Italo Balbo (Quartesana di Ferrara, 6 June 1896 – Tobruk, Lybia, 28 June 1940) gained popularity in America after leading twenty-four seaplanes to Chicago in 1933. He flew for the first time on the arctic route, still in use by scheduled flights between Europe and United States. It was the most significant achievement in the history of civil aviation and a worldwide revolution, changing from solo air raids to massive cruises.

The transatlantic flight was organized by Balbo to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Italian Royal Air Force and as propaganda for the Century of Progress, the World’s Fair held in Chicago.

The exhibition is a journey between air and sea, in which relics of the Gianni Caproni Museum of Aeronautics are displayed.

Moreover it shows fifteen mixed media panels realized by the famous Italian artist Nani Tedeschi together with texts by journalist and writer Alberto Guarnieri, who imagined Italo Balbo speaking from the afterlife.

Source: www.muse.it