- Ramón Franco
Ramón Franco y Bahamonde, Salgado y Pardo de Andrade (1896 — October 1938), born in the naval station of El Ferrol in North-western
Spain was a Galician pioneer of aviation, a political figure and brother of later dictatorFrancisco Franco . Well before theSpanish Civil War , during the reign of Alfonso XIII both brothers were acclaimed as national heroes inSpain . However, the two had strongly differing political views.They had a less known brother Nicolás. Ramón started his career as an ordinary successful military officer in the infantry, assigned to
Morocco in 1914. In 1920 he joined theSpanish Air Force , participating in activities that earned him international attention. In 1926 he became a national hero when he piloted the "Plus Ultra" on a Trans-Atlantic flight. His co-pilot wasJulio Ruiz de Alda Miqueleiz ; the other crew members were Teniente de Navio (Navy Lieutenant) Juan Manuel Duran and the mechanic Pablo Rada. The "Plus Ultra" departed fromPalos de la Frontera , in Huelva,Spain on January 22 and arrived inBuenos Aires ,Argentina on January 26. It stopped over atGran Canaria ,Cape Verde ,Pernambuco ,Rio de Janeiro andMontevideo . The 10,270 km journey was completed in 59 hours and 39 minutes.The event appeared in most of the major newspapers world wide, though some of them underlining the fact that the airplane itself plus the technical expertise were foreign. Throughout the Spanish-speaking world the Spanish aviators were glamorously acclaimed, particularly in Argentina and Spain where thousands gathered atChristopher Columbus square inMadrid .In 1929 he attempted another trans-
Atlantic flight, this time crashing the airplane to the sea. The crew was rescued days later by anaircraft carrier of the BritishRoyal Navy .During the dictatorship of
Miguel Primo de Rivera he declared himself on several occasions against the regime. He conspired against the Monarchy, inflicted losses on the army and was sent to prison, from where he was able to escape.In October 1930, along with other Republican aviators, he seized some aircraft in the aerodrome of Cuatro Vientos and flew overMadrid with the intention to bomb thePalacio Real , an action that he could not achieve. He fled toPortugal and returned to Spain when theSecond Spanish Republic was proclaimed.Reentering the Army, he was named chief of a main directorate of Aeronautics, a position which he was dismissed shortly afterwards by his participation in an anarchist revolt in
Andalusia .He was elected as a deputy in theCortes forEsquerra Republicana de Catalunya inBarcelona , retiring from the army and focused on politics.When the
Spanish Civil War exploded in July 1936, he was in theUnited States as anair attaché of the SpanishEmbassy .Upon his return to
Spain , in spite of his political ideology (leftist), he joined theNationalist side, where his brother Francisco was one of the main leaders. He was promoted to lieutenant Colonel and was named head of the Aerial Base ofMajorca .This post was badly accepted by other officers, who rejected that Ramón, a
Freemason who had been dismissed, had been promoted over officers with war merits.He died in an accident in October of 1938 when his hydroplane crashed off the coast of the island of
Majorca , while attempting to bomb the republican zone in Valencia. Some conspiracy theories state that his airplane had been sabotaged.External links
* [http://www.aire.org/ea/raids/plusultr.htm El vuelo del Plus Ultra] , in Spanish.
* [http://ferrol.historia.tripod.com/ A picture of Franco at the "Plus Ultra" celebrations in Ferrol and Madrid (1926)]
* [http://www.geocities.com/ferrolhistory/Ferrol_WorldHistory.html Traveller's Guide of Europe: Ferrol c.1919]
* [http://www.histarmar.com.ar/Armada%20Argentina/AviacionNaval/HIDR-DornierWal.htm Dornier Wal] , in Spanish.
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