Before Lend-Lease: The South American Defense Aid Program
byWhile the hugely successful World War Two Latin American Lend-Lease program has been very thoroughly investigated, documented and commented upon since the 1970s, an…
Brazil
Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão: Brazilian Aeronautics Pioneer
byThe Brazilian priest, Bartolomeu Lourenço de Gusmão, is considered the pioneer of ballooning, even though he did not build a balloon capable of taking…
Varig: The boom years
byIn the space of fifty-five years, between 1950 and 2005, the population of Brazil grew from about 51 to 187 million inhabitants, an increase…
North American Aviation “Heavyweights” in Latin America
byMy previous article for LAAHS concerned Cuba, a subject that became important and interesting to me late in life, after I started traveling to…
The Vermelinho
byA first shipment of Waco biplanes reached Brazil in 1932, in the form of the small, open cockpit CSO model. This was just in…
The Saga of the Paraguayan and Brazilian Privateers
byTowards the end of the 1950s, a strange four-engined aircraft landed at the Aeropuerto Internacional de Asunción. It was a North American bomber from…
Waco Warplanes of Latin America
byThe Waco company was founded in 1920 as the Weaver Aircraft Company in Lorain, Ohio. The company always sold its products under the Waco…
Curtiss Falcon in Brazil
byIn 1932, South America was the stage for two conflicts with effective use of aviation as a military weapon: the Gran Chaco War, involving…
Book: Curtiss P-40 no Brasil
byExcellent aero-historians Leandro Casella and Rudnei Dias da Cunha, have authored what can be considered -hands down- the definitive book about the Curtiss P-40…
Book: EMB-312 Tucano – Brazil’s Turboprop Success Story
byThe first time I had the chance to see the Embraer EMB-312 Tucano in action was during an impressive aerobatic display that the Brazilian…