Today: Headlines from 21 April 1925

Today 100 Years Ago

On 21 April 1925 the world woke up to speeches about peace, worries over inflation—and one audacious adventure that promised to shrink the planet. Let’s climb back into the headlines of that exact Tuesday and see how the future of long-distance travel was taking shape.

1. From Lake Bracciano to the Ends of the Earth

Francesco de Pinedo’s Flying-Boat Odyssey Begins
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At daybreak on the glass-still waters of Lake Bracciano, just outside Rome, Italian aviator Francesco de Pinedo taxied his sleek silver-and-red SIAI S.16ter flying boat—affectionately nicknamed Gennariello—toward an audience of naval officers, priests, and curious farmers. At 09:55 a.m. he opened the throttles, skimmed along the lake like a skipping pebble, and lifted into the spring sky.

But this was no Sunday hop. De Pinedo’s plan was nothing short of insane by 1925 standards: a 35 000-mile, 202-day loop from Italy to Australia, up to Japan, then back across Asia and the Mediterranean, using nothing but coastal hop-offs and the occasional calm river as makeshift runways. There was no GPS, no weather radar, and no rescue beacon; just a pile of nautical charts and a sextant strapped to the cockpit coaming.

By dinner time, Gennariello had crossed the Adriatic and touched down in Albania—leg one of what newspapers dubbed “the Marco Polo of the Skies.” The flight would capture the global imagination, proving that oceans could become stepping-stones instead of walls.

1925 vs 2025

• In 1925, the very concept of flying from Europe to Australia felt super-human; in 2025, commercial non-stops do it in 17 hours and point-to-point sub-orbital tests promise 90-minute planet hops.
• De Pinedo burned petrol-rich Avgas by the barrel; today’s experimental long-haul craft sip synthetic SAF or hydrogen and feed real-time data to dozens of satellites.
• Yet the romance endures: adventure influencers still quote de Pinedo’s diary—“The horizon is merely a suggestion.”

Why This Matters

De Pinedo’s take-off wasn’t just a flight; it was a proof-of-concept that the world could knit itself together through persistence and ingenuity. A hundred years on, as we debate sustainable aviation fuel and point-to-point spaceflight corridors, his daring reminds us that the next leap usually begins with one propeller turning on a quiet lake.