The first flight in Gran Canaria

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Memory · Subcategory: Historic sites · Year: 1913 · Authors: Carmelo Castro

The Bleriot XI was the first artefact to fly around the skies over Gran Canaria's capital city on 30th April 1913, and has returned in replica form to the same area of El Rincón, where the original plane left the locals looking on in awe with its first take offs and landings. Artisan Carmelo Castro has built a replica version of the aeroplane [...], by French aviator Leonce Garnier, a wooden structure with steel tubes and an 80 horsepower engine, which reached a maximum speed of 110 kilometres an hour.

According to doctor of Contemporary History, Manuel Ramírez Muñoz, in his work El primer vuelo en Canarias, the Bleriot XI arrived in the Port of La Luz dismantled piece by piece inside the vaults of the Reina Victoria Eugenia vessel. Once assembled, it took off and landed and managed the great feat of flying on eight occasions. Ramírez tells of how, around the turn of last century, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria went head to head to see who could attract the Garnier aviator first. In the end, it was Gran Canaria's capital that managed to joyously bring in the first flight. "Excitement", says Ramírez, "gripped the whole population, growing by the second as the spectacle drew near, especially with the announcement that Garnier, once his performance in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was over, would carry out a raid from there over to Santa Cruz de Tenerife". Although at first talk was of the flight being carried out from Las Rehoyas, in the end the chosen site was "an existent esplanade between the road to Tamaraceite and the beach of Guanarteme". The aviation field needed sorting out, which delayed the celebration of this great feat by one day -it had originally been set on the day of San Pedro Mártir- with four flights.

"The first flight was a test run, around the field, and then the next three had passengers on board, including Jaime Campany -the first Canarian to fly at one hundred metres altitude-, Julio Rodríguez and the military governor, Juan Sierra. Garnier flew over Las Canteras, el Confital, La Isleta and Tamaraceite, while people gathered together as far as the surrounding hills shouting and applauding each take off and landing, baptising the pilot as the king of aviators and emperor of aviators".

28.128646, -15.451674