RESOURCES

Ricardo Ponzelli & Wife - 1910 from the Associazione di Cultura Aeronautica delle Marche website Association of Aeronautical Culture of Marche Courtesy of Lucio Lucci,.the president of ACAM, 11-28-05

 

ONLINE RESOURCES - 1      If you search for "Ricardo Ponzelli", using the Google search engine, (11-30-05), you will find about 28 links. Most of them are in Spanish and refer to his role in the development of aviation in Argentina. Fortunately, machine-translations are available for most of them. However, you will find that many of them only repeat the basic storhy of his attempt to fly and quite a few are dead links..

Historia de Globos y Aviones en el Gran Buenos Aires Por Martín A. Cagliani Artículo publicado en la revista Circulo de la Historia, Nº 45, diciembre 1999. Bajo el título "De globos y aviones".      This article, written in Spanish by Martin A. Cagliani, is a treasure trove of information about the development of aviation in the Greater Buenos Aires area. It offers the following paragraph relative to Ricardo Ponzelli.      " El 16 de enero llegaría el italiano Ricardo Ponzelli. La primera tentativa de volar un avión, la realizó el italiano Ricardo Ponzelli el 30 de enero de 1910, en la localidad de Hurlingam, terrenos de Campo de Mayo. En su primera corrida, advirtió que el avión se inclinaba hacia la izquierda. Puso una plomada en el ala opuesta y retoma la carrera, anduvo unos 120 metros y consiguió elevarse diez metros, pero enseguida, el avión fue tomado por una ráfaga de viento y cayó a tierra golpeándose contra un poste.      A rough translation into English is as follows:      On January 16, 1910, the Italian Ricardo Ponzelli arrived in Buenos Aires. He made the first attempt to fly an airplane on January 30, 1910, in the vicinity of Hurlingam, in the fields of Campo de Mayo. In his first attempt, he noticed that the airplane inclined towards the left. He put a lead weight on the opposite wing and tried again. This time he was able to fly about 120 meters and was able to rise about ten meters. Immediately however, the airplane was struck by a gust of wind and fell to earth, crashing against a post.      You can access the entire version in Spanish by clicking on the title above.

 

AERODROMO DE LONGCHAMPS Se conmemoró el primer vuelo de la aviación Sudamericana "The First Flight of South American Aviation is Commemorated".      This article in Spanish, which is found on the website of Diario LA UNION, reports the celebration in February, 2004, of the First Flights in South America. The attempt which was made by Ricardo Ponzelli is well documented, but the bulk of the article features the story of the Frenchman Henri Bregui who did manage to fly his Voisin successfully. You will find a wealth of details about the meeting and of the celebration. You can access the page in the original Spanish version by clicking on the title above. If you need an English version, it may be obtained directly from the listing in Google..

 

ONLINE RESOURCES - 2      It was my friend Giovanni Giorgetti who alerted me to this very valuable website which you will find cited immediately below. In fact, it was he who gained permission from its president, Lucio Lucci, for us to use selected materials from the site for this page. If you read Italian, you will be well rewarded by visiting the homepage of the site and taking advantage of its many offerings. If not, I suggest that you use the BabelFish program to obtain an English version.

PONZELLI RICARDO      This page on the Associazione di Cultura Aeronautica delle Marche website offer, in Italian, a very comprehensive biography of Ponzelli, well illustrated with three photographs. You can access the page in Italian by clicking on the title above.      You can produce an English version of the homepage by clicking on: English Version      From that point, you can follow the links to access the Ponzelli page, as well as to sample some of the other features of the site, such as Who We Are, Historical Events, Biographies of Pilots, Balloonists and Technicians, Aeronautical Facilities such as Airports, and many more.. Admittedly, the machine-translated version is a bit difficult to follow, but it is possible to gain a lot of information with just a little extra effort.

 

RECOMMENDED READING

EROI E PIONIERI DELL'ALA Dizionario Biografico dell'Aeronautica Italiana "Biographical dictionary of the Italian Air Force"   by Enea Grossi   Product Details Cloth: 122 pages; Publisher; Milano Arti Grafiche Fratelli Magnani - 1934

 

by MARIO COBIANCHI EDITORIALE AERONAUTICO - ROMA - VIA RIPENSE 1 OFFICIO DEPENDENTE DAL MINISTERO DELL' AERONAUTICO 1943 from Pionieri Dell' Aviazione In Italia

 

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