50th Anniversary of the 1st Aerial Crossing of the South Atlantic, 1972

The first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic was made by the Portuguese naval aviators Carlos Viegas Gago Coutinho, GCTE, GCC (1869–1959) and Artur de Sacadura Freire Cabral, GCTE (1881–1924) to mark the centennial of Brazil’s indepen­dence. Coutinho and Cabral flew in stages from Lisbon, Portugal, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using three differ­ent Fairey IIID biplanes, and covered 8,383 km from 30 March to 17 June 1922.