projeto Lusitânia 100 Celebrating 100 years since
the 1st South Atlantic Air Crossing.
19222022
1922 2022

The "Lusitânia 100 years" Project

The project aims to disseminate the achievements of Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho, who in 1922, made the 1st Air Crossing of the South Atlantic, between Portugal, Canary Islands, Cape Verde and Brazil.

The 1922 crossing united 4 countries, 3 continents and 2 hemispheres, in a shared language: Portuguese.

The Lusitânia Project 100 is a bridge-project, for all those who Feel and Think in Portuguese, the lusophony: in all the CPLP, and in all the Portuguese Communities of Lusophony in the World.

From Malacca to Hawaii, from Newark to Venezuela, and in any corner of the world, everyone is invited to participate in this project.

The Travessia of 1922 directly involved Portugal, the Canaries, Cape Verde and Brazil; but its echoes reached much further. There are records of numerous activities accompanying the Crossing, in places as far away as Mozambique, or in Goa, India.

The Lusitânia Project 100

The Report of the South Atlantic Air Crossing, made by Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho in 1922, is now Intangible Heritage of Humanity, as decided by UNESCO; but it is also heritage of all the CPLP, and beyond this, of all Lusophony.

As important as the dissemination activities, done in schools, exhibitions, associations, town halls, or in official ceremonies, is the production of reference documents on the Travessia, in all Lusophony and CPLP.

The commemoration of the Crossing has encouraged many entities, as well as individuals, to join in its dissemination.

From the issue of stamps and commemorative coins, transatlantic crossings by a squadron of sailing yachts, construction of flying model aircraft of the Fairey III D, (at an unusual scale: 1/4 of the actual size), to the making of films and video documentaries, and even the construction of a replica (at 1/1 scale), many events have been made, and are recorded for posterity. Many can be found on this page, under the “News” tab.

Inextricably linked to the Travessia, the Port Wine producer “Ramos Pinto” has re-issued a commemorative series of bottles, evocative of the bottle of Port Wine that crossed the entire South Atlantic by air.

This bottle of Port Wine was the first Air Cargo to cross the South Atlantic. And also, this Crossing carried the first Air Mail: a letter from the President of the Portuguese Republic, António José de Almeida, was sent and delivered to the President of the Republic of Brazil, Epitácio Pessoa.

Even though it had suffered two plane crashes, the letter was delivered! And today it is in the archives of the official documents of the Brazilian State.

But not only in Portugal do these events take place: two sister projects, the “Travessia 100” project, in Cape Verde, and the “Santa Cruz 100” project, in Brazil, carry out various dissemination activities, with public events.

Thus, several evocative public events were held in Cape Verde, and in Brazil, in S. Paulo, an important exhibition revealed precious documents about the Travessia, from the Brazilian point of view.

For all these achievements, all the cultural effort associated with the Travessia Centennial is intended to be disseminated

– on the one hand, to all Portuguese speakers, inside or outside the CPLP;

– to the whole world, through a specialized page, which also has an English translation.

The cultural component of the Lusitânia 100 Project is disseminated to the whole world, through this page.

And yet, the commemorative activities and the promotion of the First South Atlantic Air Crossing are not yet exhausted.

The Lusitânia 100 project continues, with different partners, to create new dissemination activities.

They will be activities inspired in the boldness and courage of Sacadura Cabral, and in the scientific genius of Gago Coutinho, and they will be activities revealing the same boldness!

There is still a lot of work to be done, and for that a multidisciplinary, motivated and enterprising team is needed.

All skills are useful and necessary: from administrative support, to writing texts (cultural, technical or scientific), to managing and animating digital content, to preparing cultural events, to various engineering skills (namely mechanical, software and aerospace), to legal support, there is a whole world of skills that are important for this project.

Not forgetting, of course, here what was most important to our heroes:

The ability to dream (with their feet firmly on the ground),

to set in motion a project that many said was “Impossible!”

and to carry it out,

against all the difficulties, that everyone knew existed

and against all the unforeseen events, that nobody knew about.

But they reached the other side of an ocean, united worlds and peoples, and today continue to be an example of courage, decision, personal and intellectual daring, teamwork, bravery, and determination.

Join us as a volunteer from anywhere in the world, inside or outside the CPLP and Lusophony. 

Come and meet a daring world of human and intellectual challenge. Participate in an innovative project. We work in a physical presence, and remotely.

Join the Lusitânia Project 100. Everyone is welcome

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