Portuguese naval aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral complete the first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic.

The Portuguese Naval Aviation constituted the air component of the Portuguese Navy, from 1917 to 1957. The Portuguese Air Force maritime patrol units and the Navy's Helicopter Squadron are the present successors of the former Portuguese Naval Aviation.

Carlos Viegas Gago Coutinho, GCTE, GCC, generally known simply as Gago Coutinho, was a Portuguese geographer, cartographer, naval officer, historian and aviator. An aviation pioneer, Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral were the first to cross the South Atlantic Ocean by air, in a journey from March to June 1922, started in Lisbon, Portugal, and finished in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using a seaplane variant of the British reconnaissance biplane Fairey III.

Artur de Sacadura Freire Cabral, GCTE, known simply as Sacadura Cabral, was a Portuguese aviation pioneer. He, together with fellow aviator Gago Coutinho, conducted the first flight across the South Atlantic Ocean in 1922, and also the first using only astronomical navigation, from Lisbon, Portugal, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic was made by the Portuguese naval aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral in 1922, to mark the centennial of Brazil's independence. Coutinho and Cabral flew in stages from Lisbon, Portugal, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using three different Fairey III biplanes, and covered a distance of 8,383 kilometres (5,209 mi) between 30 March and 17 June. Although the North Atlantic had already been traversed in a non-stop flight by John Alcock and Arthur Brown in 1919, Coutinho and Cabral's flight remains notable as a milestone in transatlantic aviation, and for its use of new technologies such as the artificial horizon.