Pedro Zanni
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pedro Leandro Zanni (12 March 1891, Pehuajó – 29 January 1942, Campo de Mayo) was a pioneering Argentinian pilot of the early 20th century who made the then longest west-to-east flight in a non-amphibious aircraft in his circumnavigation attempt of 1924.
Zanni was the son of Italian immigrants Pedro Zanni and Dominga Senini.
On 10 October 1906, Zanni entered the Colegio Militar de la Nación (national military college), graduating 2nd Lieutenant on 2 August 1909. In 1913, he was assigned to the 2nd Mounted Artillery Regiment based in Campo de Mayo, Buenos Aires.
On 28 March the same year, he received pilot's licence no. 17 issued by the Aero Club Argentino. He soon had an accident when his Castaibert IV monoplane fell from a height of 40 metres at El Palomar, Buenos Aires. He suffered only minor injuries. Zanni began his conversion to the Nieuport IV and Breguet airplanes and, on 27 November 1913, obtained military aviator's licence no. 4 in the first class of army aviators, an achievement he shared with 1st Lt Raúl Eugenio Goubat and engineers Jorge Newbery and Alberto Roque Mascías.[1][2][3]
Aviation career
In a Nieuport IV, Zanni took the South American aviation record for distance and speed on 20 July 1914 by connecting El Palomar and Villa Mercedes, San Luis Province, and the next day set a new South American speed record while travelling the 363 kilometres from Pehuajó to El Palomar in 2 hours 10 minutes at an average speed of 163 km per hour. He set a height record of 4000 metres in a Morane-Saulnier monoplane on a flight from El Palomar on 3 November 1915.
Zanni attempted a crossing of the Andes mountain range in a Morane-Saulnier monoplane on 13 February 1917 but engine failure forced an emergency landing at Punta de Vacas in which the plane was destroyed.
In February 1919, Zanni performed the first official aerial transport of correspondence in Argentina, linking El Palomar and Camet, near Mar del Plata. His aeroplane was a Nieuport 28 C1 biplane, registration no. N6339. The same year, he test flew a Blériot SPAD S.VII and made a non-stop round-trip between El Palomar and Junín in an Ansaldo SVA.10 biplane.
A gold aviator's award was made to Zanni for a double Andes crossing in 1920. On 2 March, he had crossed from El Palomar to Mendoza. Fourteen days later, he took off from Los Tamarindos in an Ansaldo SVA.5 biplane, No. 1, made Santiago, Chile, and returned over the Andes to Los Tamarindos.
