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The Rhodes-Mandracchio hydrofoil (also known as "Rodi-Porto") was a water-plane and amphibian aircraft system located on the island of Rhodes in Greece.

History
The port of call, which took its name from the port in which it was located (Porto Mandracchio or in Greek Mandraki), was composed of a simple pier for the docking of the means and the operations of boarding. The amalgamation and takeoff took place in the mirror in front of the port while for the entrance and exit from the Mandracchio the hydroplanes were towed by a trailer. The hydrofoil began its activity at the end of the 1920s with the connections of the Mediterranean Air Company along the routes Brindisi-Atene and Castelrosso.
From 1932 to Rhodes, the flights of the British companies on the routes London-Cipro-Palestina and London-Karachi began to stop, while from 1934, with the birth of the Ala Littoria, the Savoia-Marchetti S.66 were used and the route from Brindisi was extended from Rome to Haifa. The governor of Aegean islands Cesare Maria De Vecchi had a Savoy-Marchetti S.55 staff parked at the hydrofoil which remained the main airport of the island until the late 1930s, when the works of Rhodes-Marizza airport were completed.

The Dornier incident

On July 18, 1933, at 15:10, a Dornier Wal with I-AZEE registration code, of the Italian Aero Espresso company, decolled from the Athens-Faliro hydrofoil with destination Rhodes. The crew, following the standard procedures of the time, began to communicate their position by radio every ten minutes but after about half an hour after taking off any of the ground stations managed to establish a radio contact with the hydroplane. At first it was thought of a malfunctioning of the radio equipment or that the plane had entered a zone not composed by the broadcasts but spent the 3 hours necessary to cover the route between Athens and Rhodes was asked confirmation to the radio station of Syra if he had received messages from I-AZEE. Only when the Syra station confirmed that the plane had not seen itself in the heavens of the island was launched the alarm and rescues. The last sighting of the I-AZEE hydroplane had occurred over the skies between the chief Sounion and the island of Makroniso by some ships. The research was vain and the four crew members, including Giorgio Pessi, and two passengers were never found.

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