aviation_PT

PORTUGUESE AVIATION HISTORY

Portuguese personalities marked the history of aviation

who

João Tordo On the 20th June 1540, a shoemaker called João Torto climbed to the top of the Cathedral of Viseu. here he had built a platform with the purpose of launching himself as his first attempt to fly.

He decided to jump from that place with a system of wings invented and produced by him.

João Torto managed to fly along some meters, but he collided against the St. Mateus Chapel and died 5 days after the attempt, due to the injuries caused by the impact. This adventurous shoemaker was the leading person of the freeflight in Portugal

Bartolomeu de Gusmão (1685-1724)

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Bartolomeu was a pioneer in portuguese aviation because he tried to make the frist air balloon which was cslled the Passarola.

Bartolomeu made one demonstration to the king D. João V and his court: he flew a little with the air balloon to expose his idea. But the Passarola coudn’tt fly because of the Archimedes`law.

__________ Gago Coutinho e Sacadura Cabral

Carlos Viegas Gago Coutinho was born in Belém, Lisbon. He was a Portuguese geographer, cartographer, naval officer, historian and aviator. Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral were the first to cross the South Atlantic Ocean by air, from March to June 1922, from Lisbon, Portugal, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

DID YOU KNOW THAT? The journey started at the Bom Sucesso Naval Air Station in the Tagus, near the Belém Tower in Lisbon, at 16:30 on March 30, 1922, in the Portuguese Naval Aviation aircraft Lusitânia.

The Lusitânia was equipped with an artificial horizon for aeronautical use, a revolutionary invention at the time.

According to the Portuguese Navy Museum, testing the horizon was one of the many reasons for the flight.

HIS LIFE He joined the Navy in 1886 as an aspirant. In 1890, he was promoted to marine guard, in 1891 to second lieutenant, and in 1895 to first lieutenant. In 1907 he was promoted to captain­lieutenant and in 1915 to captain­of­ frigate. In 1920 he became captain of sea­ and­war. In 1922 he was promoted to vice­ admiral, and in 1958 to admiral. During his first Navy years, he did several travels, being the first in the corvette "Afonso de Albuquerque", from 7 December 1888 to 16 January 1891, where he traveled to Mozambique as a member of the Naval Division of Eastern Africa. He did several naval travels the following years, until 31 March 1898, when he did his first commission as a overseas geographer, in Timor.

Inventions/ Contributions

Curiosity in Braga

Dirigible balloon Cipriano Pereira Jardim was the inventor of the dirigible balloon, having thus constructed a dirigible with military purposes (the hydrogen propulsion of an electric motor), in the end of century XIX. __________________

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A plane from the Aéro Club de Braga flew over Central Avenue, doing various acrobatics.

The pilot looped and disappeared to return shortly after, but this time to death.

He had crossed the avenue, and at such a low height, that the wheels touched the leaves of the lime trees, knocking down some.

Like an arrow, he set off for the Congregados, and when everyone thought that he was going against the church of the extinct Convent, he just brushed the tower and left a portion of the wing there.Then, it lost the direction and came without government to crash in the small yard of the neighboring house.

So the plane crashed after it hit the nascent tower, but it did not knock it down. The fire that seized the plane could not master the fire in time to save the pilot.

The memories and consequent stories passed down from generation to generation were betrayed by the lack of the west tower in 1944, remaining the popular myth of the overturning of the tower because of the crash of the light aircraft.

DEATH

IMPORTANT DATES  1\september\1912: The frist flight performed by a pilot Portuguese, Alberto Sanches.  17\october\1909: The frist flight on national soil.  17\may\1884: The frist Portuguese “aeronauta”, rising in a gas flask. Abreu de Oliveira.  12\july\1909: The frist portuguese civil pilot to have the license, (one of the first in the world).Óscar Blank.  7\september\1917: The frist portuguese pilot fling in Africa. Jorge de Sousa.  1922: The frist Atlantic Ctossing.

Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho.  1959: A group of paratrooper nurses is created. They succeeded in saving many soldiers in the war.

To 19 November in 1977, a Boeing 727­200 airplane from the Portuguese company TAP crashed at the end of the Madeira airport runway.

It was the second most serious accident in the history of aviation in Portugal (after the Independent Air Flight 1851) that provoked 131 dead and 33 survivors.

The factors that led to this accident were the adverse weather conditions allied to the length of the track and the human failure.

The creation of "safety margins" led to the first phase of the expansion works of that airport, from 1,600 to 1,800 meters

SOME PORTUGUESE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport

Sá Carneiro Airport

Sá Carneiro Airport is located in the city of Porto, and serves the whole of the North of Portugal. During the last eleven years it won five awards:

History Madeira Airport Cristiano Ronaldo was inaugurated on July 8, 1964 with a 1,600­ meter track.

The island of Madeira gained new connections to the Portuguese continent, since until then the trips were made by boat.

The first landing of an airplane in the island of Madeira occurred in 1957, in an experimental track in Santa Catarina.

In 1972, an expansion began to be considered so that intercontinental flights could be recognized because the airport had a small track to receive airplanes capable of corresponding to the flow of tourists looking for the island of Madeira.

As a consequence of the two major accidents in 1977, there was a need to extend the runway for more safety.

Between 1982 and 1986 the track was increased to 1,800 meters. And later to, on September 15, 2000, the extension of the track to 2 781 meters was inaugurated. This is built partly on slab over the sea, resting on 180 pillars.

 In 2006 the Sá Carneiro Airport was awarded in the category of best Portuguese work in steel.  In 2007 it was awarded as the best in Europe in the category of airports to 5 million passengers.  in 2008 is the first ranked in the ' ranking ' of Northwest Peninsular airports and eighth at European level on passengers, fifth in volume of cargo.  In 2009 is the third ranked in the category of best airport in Europe by passenger 5 million.  In 2016, the Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport had been qualified in third place in the same category.

He is currently the best airport of Portugal and one of the best in Europe.

DEPARTURES