Lund and Brussels. The balloons and the equipment were mainly contributed by the Universities of Bristol and Lund, where quite a considerable experience in flights of this nature had already been acquired.[^64] In order to facilitate the recovery of the plates and to avoid the danger of exposing them to the heat of the sun – as the Italian hinterland is mainly mountainous and some areas were quite inaccessible – it was planned to allow the equipment to fall by parachute into the sea after a predetermined time.[^65] As it was believed that the winds at high altitude, above 70000 ft, were from east to west during the summer, two test flights were tried from Naples Airport, but the balloons were drifted in a south-east direction and theequipment fell on land. Cagliari, in Sardinia, was then chosen as the most suitable sea port in Southern Italy, as it is on a relatively small island and the equipment was thus expected to fall in most cases into the sea. The Italian Navy and Airforce played a crucial role, as they supplied the aircraft and the vessels which located, followed and recovered the equipment. They also granted the use of their airport instrumentation and provided part of the other instruments used to follow the flights, such as theodolites, radio-wind transmitters and receivers.

The expedition was only partially a success, mainly because of the uncertain performance of the balloons, which did not always fly at a satisfying stable level. However, 1300 cm$^{3}$ of emulsion were successfully exposed at altitudes