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Mexico’s Aviation EnthusiasmAviation History | 3 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post
In New York, Fierro was aided by old friend Alfredo Miranda and Miranda’s brother Ignacio, vice president of Detroit Aircraft Corporation. They had Anáhuac serviced at Mitchel Field, where Carranza had taken off in 1928. ‘At exactly 3:30 a.m., 21 June, 1930,’ Fierro recalled, ‘I accelerated the engine to its maximum. The plane, very loaded, ran about 800 meters down the runway and slowly, majestically, began the flight. We had scarcely begun to climb when we ran into a thick fog which covered the land like a Turkish bath.’ Subscribe Today
The flight down the Atlantic coast and across the Gulf of Mexico was uneventful, but between Tampico and Pachuca strong headwinds would cost him 40 or 50 mph. Near Pachuca, the sky clouded over and heavy rain began. Bouncing along in turbulence and unable to find a pass over the mountains in the clouds, he throttled back and told Cortés to look for somewhere to land. Then, just as they were descending, he spotted a clearing in the clouds and slipped through it, over the mountains and into the Valley of Mexico.
The rain cleared, and Fierro could see crowded Balbuena Field. Waiting on a reception platform were the president, high officials, diplomats and the press. Moved and excited, Fierro touched down in the only spot clear of people. He had covered 2,250 miles nonstop in approximately 12 hours. Equally excited, President Ortiz Rubio gave him a firm abrazo–then the bad news: ‘These nonstop flights are over. You may not go on south as you planned, because we want to have you alive–though we’re not going to put up any statues of you.’ Fierro told him his flight to Spain was a commitment to the Mexican people, but Ortiz said: ‘Don’t you worry, I’ll take the responsibility of explaining to our nation the reasons I’ve ordered this kind of flight suspended.’ It would be 1949 before Mexican aviators flew the equatorial Atlantic. The three short years that Fierro called ‘the heroic period of Mexican aviation’ had passed into history.
This article was written by Ron Gilliam and originally published in the January 2005 issue of Aviation History.
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3 Comments to “Mexico’s Aviation Enthusiasm”
Than you for this wonderful story! I would also like to know more about another aviator who was also a pioneer in Mexico’s aviation, who built an airplane on his own and flew from Morelia to mexico City in 1937.
By Delia Lara on Jul 1, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Delia Lara,
You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed reading it; I enjoyed writing it.
A bit late, but I just happened to come across (in pages 200-204 of Fernando Jordan’s Mar Roxo de Cortes: Biografia de un golfo; Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, SEP, 1995; ISBN 968-7326-25-5) the Mexican aviation pioneer you asked about.
On 14 May 1936, Miguel Carrillo Aguilar flew a home-built airplane (named “Pinocho”) from Zitacuaro to Morelia, and from Morelia to Mexico City. The astonishing thing was that, according to Jordan, he had built the entire plane himself, “from the propellor to the tail, including the engine,” the first time anything like this had ever been done in Mexico. It took three years, but he designed the plane, supervised the cutting of the wooden parts, assembled the airframe, covered it with fabric, and doped it himself. Zitacuaro had no airfield, so he had to build one to test-fly his plane; he had flown some before, but these were his first solo flights. Actually, he adapted and extensively modified a Ford automobile engine, which took two years of the three on the project. (The three planes of the Baja California series built in Tijuana, you may recall, used American aircraft engines.) ” The historic flight took two hours, with a refueling stop at Morela and a brief stop-over of 30 minutes (at Villa del Carbon) while the wind died down.”
Carrillo afterwards entered the Fuerza Aerea de Mexico, largely on the strength of this amazing achievement and the precocity and solid interest in everything aeronautical it represented. He rose to the rank of Capitan, before becoming restless and disenchanted with the bureaucracy, and left the service around 1942 to move to Cabo San Lucas, BCS, having fallen in love with the desert on an earlier trip. In Baja California Sur, where he was always known by the nickname “Pinocho,” he was regarded as something of an eccentric, but had no difficulty turning his mechanical genius to repairing or rebuilding automobile, truck, boat and aircraft engines, buying and rebuilding scrapped airplanes, etc. He reportedly turned down offers of employment from Douglas Aircraft Company in Los Angeles, California, so far had his fame spread by 1950.
I hope this information helps you; you can probably find out more now that you have the name of the individual.
Best regards,
Ron Gilliam
By Ron Gilliam on Aug 16, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Excelent article Ron.
In regard to Dalia Lara cuestion, I would like to add that the plane that Carrillo built, was a Pietempol Air Camper. And the planes were taken from Popular Mecanic Journal I think 1927.
That plane was not the first ever so built in México, (a particular or private one) in fact Alberto Nájera Mercado made one for himself in 1918. The previous planes were “pioneers” and later made by military authorities.
The real success that Mario Carrillo obtained was in fact the success against odds, advertaising of the time made him a legend.
In addition to this you can see the plane in “Cuartel Colorado” Museum in Guadalajara. México.
There is an article about in mexicanaviationhistory.com
Dear Ron, can you please tell me your bibliographie. I would like to search about books.
Best regards.
By Oscar Ramirez Alvarado on Sep 2, 2009 at 2:42 am