"Above, always above"
Jorge Chávez

"-The man will not fly even in a thousand years..."
Wilbur Wright

17 Dec. 1903 / 17 Dec. 2003

100 years have passed since the man complied with its dream, carrying out a controlled flight in a machine heavier that the air.

From immemorial times the man dreamed imitating the birds.
The legend said that Dédalo build its wings to escape the labyrinth, its son Icaro, astonish with what he saw and in its eagerness to fly, goes high to touch the sun, but the sun melted the wax that held its wings and he fell into the sea.

The path of the man for conquering the skies had started on 21 of June 1783, when the brothers José and Esteban Montgolfier got its balloon of heated air to be raised from the main square of Annonay, at the basket Jean François Pilatre de Rozier and François Laurent, they were the first aeronauts recognized by the history.

Among between l894 and 1896 the recognized and unfortunate one Otto Lilienthal had carried out with succes numerous flights in devices of its invention, in 1896 it suffers a fatal accident, but leaving a very important base of knowledge and technical details, explained in its book "The flight of the birds considered as base of the aviation" (1899).

On 17 of December 1903, on the beach of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orwillle Wright, two bicycles builders, comply with its goal, Orville manages to take off of the ground and to keep during 60 secs. on board the Flyer, a propeller biplane, with a gas engine of only 12 HP, covered in a flight 36,5 meters in 12 seconds.

BEGINNINGS OF THE AVIATION IN OUR COUNTRY

The first man to cross the Argentinian sky with a device of this type was the French Lartet, on 19 of October 1856, at the end of the day the balloon crashes against a home, Lartet is unharmed. After subsequent negative experiences Lartet decides to go back to its country.

Many foreigners passed with its balloons(en 1864, Wells, on the Post of May obtains to rise and to originate from safe way), accidents, emergency landings, etc, but the conquest of our native sky, is produced in 1907, with the arrival of the famous "Pampero", bought by Aaron de Anchorena and Jorge Alejandro Newbery. The rise, programmed for the 24, is put off for the following day, and finally on 25 of Dec 1907, going out of the Sociedad Sportiva Argentina(actual Argentinian Polo field) are dragged up to the coast of Uruguay, it was the first air cross of the Rio de La Plata.
In another opportunity, Newbery, in a flight of 13 hours it obtains the world record of height and time, covering the distance from 541 kms. landing in the city of Bagué(Brasil).

(Jorge Newbery beside Araon de Anchorena on the Pampero)

In 1908, Newbery and Anchorena found the Aero Club Argentino, in this year the balloon Pampero would disappear in its last journey with Eduardo Newbery and the Sergeant Eduardo Romero. The accident moves Jorge away from the activity for a short period of time.
In 1910 he obtains its "brevet" of Piloto Aviador. For this year the French Paul Castaibert had ready its Castaibert 1, only 25 HP.
In 1912, it carries out a very important paper being one of the artifices of the creation of the Military School of Aviation, for decree of the president Roque Saens Peña.
In 1914, being prepared for the cross of the Andes, it achieves the world record of height, managing to arrive at the 6225 meters. Time late, the device in which it was doing one demonstration aerial is precipitated to earth, taken one of the biggest pilot that our country has given. With only 39 years, Jorge Alejandro Newbery died in "Tamarindos", Mendoza. The Argentina Nation in reconocimieno to its work grants it the bonds of Precursor, Fundador y Benemérito de su Aeronáutica Civil y Militar and lately, Padre de la Patria Aeroespacial.

On 24 of June 1916 E. Bradley and captain Zuloaga cross the Andes, from Santiago de Chile finishing in the Valle de Uspallata, the duration of the flight was of little but of 3 hours and arrived at the 8100 m. It was the first crossing of the Andes.

Already in 1924 the Oldest Pedro Zanni in the "city of Buenos Aires" carries out its attempt to turn round the world, but after fliyng over 17.000 kmts, due to technical damages and a fortunate accident it is seen obliged to abandoning the raid.

In 1926, two desumbran deeds the Nation, would be the Ultra Plus, hydroplane Dromier, flawn by Ramón Franco, the first in to join Spain and Argentina, the other one would be in charge of Bernardo Duggan, Eduardo Olivero and Ernesto Campanelf, with the intention of joining New York with Buenos Aires, a damage force them to land on water in Brazil and finally on 13 of August the Savoia 59, "Buenos Aires", land on the Rio de La Plata.

In the decade of the 40 the project Pulqui would place us among the 5 first nations that developed a reaction airplane, although the project grew and was arrived second stage of development up to one with the Pulqui II, for political questions the project was forgotten.

But late, in 1962 it would be Miguel Fitzgerald the one who amazed us with its non-stop flight from New York-Good to Buenos Aires. On board a Cessna Centurion 210 (single-engine airplane)with auxiliary tanks of fuel landed in Uruguay due to a heavy storm over Buenos Aires.
But late in 1964 he flew to Malvinas, planted the Argentinian flag and delivered a proclamation claiming the Argentinian sovereignty on the Islands, took off first than the authorities could arrest him. At "Aeroparque" a crowd waited it, was such an effect that it caused that the then President of the Nation Arturo Illia had to nullify the sanction imposed by the FFAA.

In 1982, it would be the war of Malvinas the one that showed the courage and the value of our pilots, resumibles in the lines that the "Ace" of the Second War Pierre Clostermann wrote to them:

"To you, Argentinian youngsters, pilot colleagues of combat, wanted to express all my admiration to you.
To the most perfected electronics, the anti-aircraft missiles and to the ships, the most dangerous goals that exist, you faced with success.
In spite of the most terrible atmospheric conditions that can be found in the planet, with a reservation of a few minutes of fuel in the tanks, to the extreme limit of the range of your devices, you have take off in the middle of the storm in your Mirage, your Etendard, your A-4, your Pucará, with blue and white flags. In spite of the devices of antiaircraft defense and of the missiles of powerful warships, warned with a lot of anticipation by its radars and the North American satellites, you have lashed out without hesitating. The pilots, never in the history of the wars since 1914, had to confront such a terrifying conjunction of mortal obstacles, nor still those of the RAF on London in 1940 or those of the Luftwaffe in 1945.
Your value not only has been dazzling to the Argentinian people but those that in the world are proud that you are our pilot brothers are many.
I tell the fathers and to the mothers, to the brothers and to the sisters, to the wifes and to the children of the Argentinian pilots, which went to the death with the most fantastic and most astonishing courage, that they honor Argentina and the Latin world.
Ah! The truth costs only for the spilled blood and the world believes only in the causes whose witnesses are made kill for them."

Although the history of our aviation covers a lot but that these facts to which it is mentioned briefly, we wanted to do a review of those that we belive were the outstanding facts about our aviation, remember that from the insecurity of the cockpits of these fragile devices or in the modern machines that flew on the lonely islands of the south, a same spirit unites us.

In these periods of space conquests, spaceships, satellites, our humble tribute to those big of the aviation, and to its flying devices that furrowed the skies of our homeland, imitating the birds, in an almost incomprehensible desire for selfimprovement, risking its life and giving it all for the same feeling of freedom that still today persists in us, those who from very far follow its steps...

Aeroclub Dolores