The most famous was the 1930 flight of twelve Savoia-Marchetti S.55 flying boats from Orbetello Airfield to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil between 17 December 1930 and 15 January 1931.

The flight had seven legs; Orbetello — Amsterdam — Derry — Reykjavík — Cartwright, Labrador — Shediac — Montreal ending on Lake Michigan near Burnham Park.

At Orbetello the 86th transitioned from the A-36 Apache to the P-47 Thunderbolt and was redesignated a Fighter Group from its former Fighter-Bomber designation.

As part of the invasion of southern France (Operation Dragoon), the 439th Troop Carrier Group flew three squadrons of C-47s on the base where Army paratroopers had assembled and were flown to their drop zones in southern France during the invasion.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Air Force Historical Research Agency