This work stems from a promise I made to Miss Rosetta Locatelli, sister of the pilot Antonio, in 1975. We were approaching
the end-of-year festivities, and I wanted to deliver to her a copy of Il Nuovo Corriere Filatelico with my article “The
first airmail flight across the Andes,” fresh from the press and also born thanks to the photos taken from the “newspaper
big book,” as she jokingly called it, and the information she kindly provided.
The big book, weighing several kilograms, was a chronological collection of South American press from 1919 that Antonio
Locatelli had brought home after his participation in the Italian Aeronautical Mission in Argentina. But not only that:
it also contained other documents, postal receipts, invitations, lunch menus, postcards, etc.
I realized the valuable information it contained and told Miss Rosetta that I would have liked to consult it to write not only
the history of her brother’s exploits but also of all the other protagonists of the Mission. She told me that, knowing Spanish
well and the newspapers with the most important news, she preferred to do the research herself.
Moreover, it was about retracing the chronicles of Antonio’s exploits and integrating them with those of the other pilots,
with particular reference to the transport of mail and newspapers and the launching of leaflets. To my great joy and amazement,
in the next visit, I found myself facing 82 pages of handwritten notes on the pages of a 1975 agenda written with
her clear and dense handwriting.
But not only that: in addition to the big newspaper book, but she had also consulted her brother’s magazine and diary! A
fantastic and very useful job but based on newspapers that only mentioned Antonio’s exploits and only occasionally the
news about the flights of other members of the Mission, which I had to integrate from other sources.
A heartfelt thanks to Luigino Caliaro for the copies of the Reports of the 350th squadron preserved in the archives of the
Aeronautics Historical Office and to Roberto Gentilli for the precious images.
Fiorenzo Longhi