One hundred years of the ‘Plus Ultra’, the primary transatlantic crossing in an airplane and the good feat of Spanish aeronautics | EUROtoday

A drawing with the portraits of the 4 Spanish aviators subsequent to the seaplane and the caravels of Columbus summoned the Cariocas, with placing precision, in the future firstly of 1926: “The Plus Ultra You must arrive in Rio between five and six in the afternoon. Interest in the daring raid is growing everywhere.” When the aircraft appeared over Guanabara Bay on February 4 with one of the engines damaged, so many ships gathered to witness the spectacle that the Plus Ultra He had enormous difficulties landing, according to the story compiled by historian Rostand Medeiros. Already on the ground, a crowd was waiting excitedly.

As published Morning Leaf, The Spanish Chamber of Commerce had asked its partners to make it easier for compatriots and their descendants to attend the reception. Women were encouraged to put flowers in their hair, “preferably carnations.” Thousands of Cariocas, with flags and a music band, obtained in Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of Brazil, the protagonists of the best feat of Spanish aeronautics. Never earlier than had an plane accomplished the transatlantic crossing.

He Plus Ultraa twin-engine Dornier Wal seaplane with cutting-edge technology from a century ago, was modified to increase its power with two 450-horsepower engines. He took off from Palos de la Frontera—like Columbus centuries before—heading southwest, toward the South Atlantic. Completing the 10,270 kilometers of the interoceanic crossing required seven stages: Palos-Las Palmas-Porto Praia (Cape Verde)- Fernando de Noronha (Brazil)-Recife-Río-Montevideo-Buenos Aires. In total, 59 hours and 40 minutes at an average speed of 172 kilometers per hour (on this route, commercial flights now go at 900 kilometers per hour).

To commemorate that feat, a team of Spanish soldiers returns, with an acrobatic display of the hummingbird helicopters by the ASPA patrol, to the skies of Rio (this Wednesday over Ipanema beach), Montevideo (February 1) and Buenos Aires (February 4). This Tuesday at the rehearsal, the hummingbirds drew the Spanish flag in front of Christ the Redeemer.

Commander Ramón Franco Bahamonde, 29 years old, the little brother of the future dictator, who served for a time in the Republican ranks, piloted the mission and the Plus Ultra. Both he and the co-pilot, Captain Julio Ruiz de Alda, were out in the open, feeling the wind on their faces. Also on board, lieutenant Juan Manuel Durán and the mechanic, soldier Pablo Rada, whom a group of workers wanted to come and greet personally at the official farewell ceremony in Huelva. The interest of the press—and the Spanish authorities—was such that a veteran journalist, Emilio Herrero, from United Press, snuck onto the plane, with the pilot’s endorsement, and shared the experience of flying with them to the Canary Islands. Thanks to the reporter there are photos of that section.

The feat exalted its protagonists “as archetypes of the trendy hero, who mixed audacity and braveness with technical mastery” and “impressed an curiosity in science and engineering in a complete technology,” explains Major General Juan Sanz, head of the historical and cultural service of the Air and Space Army, in an interview via video call from Rio. The crossing demonstrated that “the crossing through the South Atlantic was viable in terms of safety and efficiency for interoceanic crossings.” That was a time of fierce competition between countries in the field of aviation, like the space race many decades later.

He Plus Ultra He completed the complex and celebrated mission a year before the most famous flight of that time, the New York-Paris flight that Charles Lindbergh made solo and non-stop. A shorter route than the Spanish one and with less adverse weather conditions than those of the South Atlantic, due to tropical currents.

The expedition of Franco and his men had clear political and diplomatic objectives beyond the desire to explore new technological frontiers. With the Plus UltraSpain “wanted to break records, like other countries,” says General Sanz. But there were great interests beyond science. After the loss of the colonies of Cuba and the Philippines in 1898 and the Annual disaster in 1921, the country regained its breath in the 1920s. “The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera used the Plus Ultra to obtain international prestige and try to obtain a permanent position on the council in the League of Nations”, the seed of the UN, in addition to “strengthening ties with Latin America and promoting trade with the former colonies.”

With 2,305 kilometers, the longest and most delicate stage was the one that linked Cape Verde and the paradisiacal island of Fernando de Noronha (Brazil). To lighten the seaplane as much as possible and optimize fuel, Durán, the aviator and navigator, made that section in one of the two military ships that accompanied the aircraft. They suffered dramatic moments, such as the breakage of the rear propeller, precisely in that section, which had to be repaired in mid-flight.

The expedition was reported by the press of the time with a colonial perspective and all the epic that extraordinary adventures deserve. “Reliving the glories of Columbus, the Plus Ultra took flight yesterday morning,” the full-page headline Brazilian newspaperwhich dedicated the entire eight columns and two photos—something rare at the time—to a series of chronicles about the event. They recount the enthusiasm of those who saw the aircraft, and the frustration in cities where they could not glimpse it.

The airmen were decorated by authorities on both sides of the Atlantic and mobbed by excited crowds. “To journey one kilometer from the port to the lodge, it took us three hours. We obtained quite a lot of blows…”, recalled the co-pilot. In the best style groupiethey even ripped off buttons from their uniforms.

Being celebrated as heroes was the counterpart to the vicissitudes of a carefully planned trip. The pilot studied in depth the transatlantic crossing made by two Portuguese aviators in 1922, on the occasion of the centenary of Brazil’s independence. That pioneering journey was hampered by a series of incidents that forced the Portuguese to change aircraft three times. That is why the Spanish feat is not to cross the Atlantic, but to do it in a single plane and much faster.

Franco the aviator had a peculiar career that was cut short by an accident. The military uprising of his older brother, Francisco Franco, in 1936, caught him as air attaché at the Embassy in Washington. He officially requested to join the Republican ranks. But the murder of Ruiz de Alda, his co-pilot, at the hands of anarchists shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War led him to join the national side.

The flight of Plus Ultra It marked the beginning of the golden era of Spanish aviation, which included other raids in 1926 to the former colonies of the Philippines and Equatorial Guinea and other great aerial adventures throughout the decade. It also laid the foundation for interoceanic commercial aviation. Only four years later, a crowd of Brazilians in Recife received with amazement the German zeppelin that inaugurated the first route between Europe and Latin America. The passengers—about twenty wealthy clients—enjoyed luxury hotel services.

Captain Ruiz de Alda was amazed by the reception in Brazil, an affection that he expected in Latin American countries, but here he did not take for granted. This Brazilian interest in aerial feats has a name of its own: Alberto Santos Dumont, the Brazilian whom his country claims as the true father of world aviation because he was the first pilot who managed to take off and fly a few meters with the sole impulse of an engine, without the help of ramps. A feat achieved in Paris in 1906, although the Wright brothers took the glory after having invented the flying machine in 1903.

Rio de Janeiro celebrates pioneers to at the present time. Landing or taking off from the Santos Dumont airport affords a priceless view of Pão de Açúcar, Guanabara Bay and the charming neighborhood of Urca, the place subsequent to a navy fortress, Ramón Franco has a avenue.