Italian seaplanes at Cagliari
Date
1952
Object type
Material
Dimensions
height (print): 113mm
width (print): 157mm
width (print): 157mm
Subject
Content object
Description
View of four CANT Z.506 Airone seaplanes on a quayside at Elmas Aerodrome, Cagliari, Sardinia. Two of the aircraft are attached to cranes for launch or retrieval from the sea. These planes were used in balloon recovery operations, following cosmic ray detection flights from the aerodrome on Sardinia, May-June 1952.
The expedition’s objectives and results in sending recording equipment into the upper atmosphere to detect cosmic rays were outlined by the physicist Cecil Frank Powell FRS (1903-1969) in his descriptive report: “Memorandum on high altitude balloon flights in the Mediterranean” (Typescript, Bristol, 20 July 1952) from which this image is taken. His account states that air support for the recovery of balloons and instruments “was inadequate because only old machines were available.”
The original caption reads: “Seaplanes of the type available for the recovery of the equipment from the sea, at the base at Elmas aerodrome”.
The expedition’s objectives and results in sending recording equipment into the upper atmosphere to detect cosmic rays were outlined by the physicist Cecil Frank Powell FRS (1903-1969) in his descriptive report: “Memorandum on high altitude balloon flights in the Mediterranean” (Typescript, Bristol, 20 July 1952) from which this image is taken. His account states that air support for the recovery of balloons and instruments “was inadequate because only old machines were available.”
The original caption reads: “Seaplanes of the type available for the recovery of the equipment from the sea, at the base at Elmas aerodrome”.
Associated place