BC-2 accelerated slowly down the soggy runway but lifted off smoothly. Fierro headed northeast over the great pre-Aztec pyramids of Teotihuacan, slowly gaining the altitude needed to exit the Valley of Mexico. As the first rays of the rising sun lightened the horizon, he passed eastward between Mount Perote and Orizaba’s smoking crater, visible from both Mexico City and Veracruz. Turning southeast over Veracruz, he followed the coast as far as Fronteras, then cut 160 miles across the Gulf of Mexico to the Yucatán Peninsula. He felt relieved when he finally spotted Campeche’s ancient battlements; it was the first time he had been out of sight of land for an hour and a half.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Aviation History magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

Fierro passed Progreso–the last Mexican telegraph station on his route–eight hours into the flight, and followed Yucatán’s north coast, to where Cancún’s great hotels would later rise; then he started across the Yucatán Channel. Again out of sight of land, he scanned the surface of the sea for anything that might help him in an emergency and found he was completely alone. He later recalled that the scene impressed him with the infinite smallness of man on earth, but gradually a sense of calm enveloped him, and he studied the shoals and submarine channels far below, thinking he could see how Yucatán and Cuba had once been joined.

Two hours out he spotted a low cloud curtain on the horizon. It was over land–Cape San José. Elated, he turned toward it. He was still two hours from Havana, but felt he had already made it. Then strong headwinds buffeted the plane and black storm clouds gathered. He accelerated the engine to maximum rpm. Finally, dead ahead under heavy rain, he made out El Morro castle and knew he had nearly reached his goal. He circled Columbia Field three times to make sure he was landing into the wind and touched down 11 hours 49 minutes after taking off from Mexico City. Of the 220 gallons of gasoline he had loaded, 50 remained.

As news of Fierro’s arrival spread, cheering throngs lined Havana’s streets from the airport. He craved sleep but had to appear with the Mexican ambassador on the embassy balcony to greet crowds yelling ‘Viva México!‘ The following days were filled with receptions, decorations from the president and the geographical society, official tours and formal calls on the Cuban military and civil aviation chiefs to deliver honorary messages from their Mexican counterparts.

Before Fierro could take off for Central America, the weather once again deteriorated. He passed the days poring over maps and weather studies, fine-tuning his flight plan. Then an audacious idea struck him: Rather than returning directly from Central America, he would fly the Atlantic to Europe, like Lindbergh. BC-2 could carry enough gasoline to cross the equatorial Atlantic between Brazil and French West Africa, which the French fliers Dieudonné Costes and Joseph Lebrix had done the year before. Then he could follow the African coast to Madrid, capital of the mother country, an achievement of special significance for Mexico.

On August 20, fair weather was finally forecast. Fierro took off at 9 the next morning with an aerial escort as far as Pinar del Río. In the middle of the Yucatán Channel, however, the weather worsened. He managed to cross British Honduras (now Belize) into Guatemala before hurricane-force winds over the mountains drove him back, and he put down near Belize city, landing on the beach, as there was no airfield.

Fierro had no idea what to expect, as British Honduras–a colony–was not on his itinerary of Latin American republics and he had no visa or landing permit. A huge English-speaking black policeman in a blue uniform and white pith helmet took the bewildered flier into custody and drove him into town on what Fierro thought of as the ‘wrong side of the road.’ The British governor turned out to be friendly and helpful, and overlooked the irregularity of Fierro’s arrival. Ordering a guard put on BC-2, he had Fierro taken to a workshop, where two mechanics welded wheel spokes broken in the beach landing. Meanwhile, the Mexican consul cabled Mexico City word of Fierro’s safe arrival and expected departure time for Guatemala.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to