- Jorge Newbery
Infobox Person
name = Jorge Newbery
image_size = 200px
caption = Newbery in his plane
birth_date = 1875
birth_place =
death_date = 1914
death_place =
occupation =Aviator engineer
spouse =
parents =
children =Jorge Alejandro Newbery (1875-1914), known as Jorge Newbery or, more familiarly, simply as "George", was an Argentine pilot of North American descent. His father, Ralph Newbery (a dentist born in 1848), emigrated from Long Island, New York, to Argentina after the
American Civil War (in which he is said to have taken part in the battle ofGettysburg ) ["The Bradleys of Essex County Revisited" by Saul Montes-Bradley, 2004] ["Más liviano que el aire" byNelson Montes-Bradley ] . Along withAlberto Braniff andJorge Chavez , Jorge Newbery was one of the firstLatin American aircraft pilots. He was also anengineer .On
April 9 ,1909 , Newbery wrote the first newspaper article onaviation in Argentina. Entitled "Aeronáutica", the article was featured in the Buenos Aires "El Nacional ".By that time, Newbery was already a seasoned
aerostat pilot, having flown these balloons four times over the Argentinian landscape. He had not, however, been in or even seen a heavier-than-air craft before he wrote the article.Eduardo Newbery , one of Jorge's siblings, was also a pioneer aviator in Argentina, and a member of the Aero Club Argentino which Jorge helped found. Eduardo perished in his aerostat, thus becoming one of the first two casualties in Argentine aviation history. One month after the death of his brother, onNovember 24 , Jorge married Sara Escalante.Newbery had been elected second vice-president of the Aero Club Argentino after he decided to join it to help it come out of the financial crisis it was facing, but Eduardo's
death became an emotional issue and Jorge resigned shortly thereafter, though he would remain an ordinary member of the Club.Newbery flew an
aerostat round-trip for the first time onJanuary 24 ,1909 , making his second round-trip flight onApril 2 . Ironically, onApril 27 , just eighteen days after publication of the aforementioned article, he was elected president of the same Aero Club Argentino which he had previously served as second vice-president. Newbery accepted, with the hope of turning around the club's dire situation.Newbery had promised both his mother and his wife that he would not attempt to fly again after his brother's aerial death. The article that he wrote in 1909 showed his family that he had broken that promise, resulting in his
divorce from Escalante, with whom he had at least one child.He took part in the
Exposición Internacional del Centenario (1910) in Buenos Aires by making balloon ascents over the exhibition so that visitors could view the surrounding area of Palermo and the river.By 1910, engine-propelled aircraft began to arrive in Argentina, and Newbery was first in line to fly them. In 1912, Argentina became the first country in
Latin American to promote a militarizedair force , the culmination of an effort in which Newbery was one of the driving forces.Jorge Newbery died as a result of an airplane crash on March 1, 1914, in the Argentine province of Mendoza. His name is still widely recognized in Argentina, where the second largest
airport , theAeroparque Jorge Newbery inBuenos Aires , is named after him.Notes
External links
* [http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/apjinternational/apj-s/4trimestre98/domin.htm Some information on Newbery's life (in Spanish)]
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