160305-0045 - First Flight Japan-Europe

A hero’s welcome at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport for a Japanese pilot and his engineer after completing the first flight from Japan to Europe by two biplanes, September 1925 (Taisho 14). The project was sponsored by Japanese newspaper Asahi Shinbun.

Japanese pilot Hiroshi Abe (安辺浩, left) and his flight engineer Shunichiro Shinohara (篠原春一郎) are holding wreaths while posing with a young Japanese girl in front of their airplane Hatsukaze (初風).

The other plane (東風, Kochikaze) was piloted by Kazuhiko Kawachi (河内一彦). His engineer was Shohei Katagiri (片桐庄平).

The four men flew two French Breguet 19 G.R. aircraft from Tokyo in Japan to Moscow in Russia. They then flew on to Berlin, Paris, London and Rome.

They left from Tokyo’s Yoyogi Parade Ground (代々木練兵場) on July 25 and arrived in Moscow on August 23. The epic flight was completed on October 27.

In 95 days, they traveled 17,403 kilometers. Some 28 days were spent in the air, for a total of 116 hours and 21 minutes of flight.