On this day in aviation history, January 20, 1941, the Brazilian Air Force (Portuguese: Força Aérea Brasileira, FAB) was formally established. Like many air forces around the world, the FAB developed as an outgrowth of the Brazilian Army and the Brazilian Navy, and today it is the largest air force in the Southern Hemisphere and the second largest in all the Americas, second only to the United States Air Force.
Brazil’s first venture into military aviation occurred during the Paraguayan War (1864-1870), when American brothers John and Ezra Allen, who had served as balloonists during the American Civil War as part of the Union Army’s Balloon Corps under Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, traveled to Brazil in 1867 and operated tethered balloons under contract with the Brazilian Army to gather intelligence on the opposing Paraguayan Army.
Though interest in military ballooning died down soon afterwards, the arrival of the airplane some 40 years later revived Brazilian interest in aviation, especially when the Brazilian aeronaut Alberto Santos Dumont, who had set several records in dirigibles of his own design in France, built and flew heavier-than-air flying machines such as the 14-bis, which in 1906 made the first flight of an airplane officially witnessed by an aeronautics recordkeeping body (the Aero Club of France). Santos-Dumont’s flights attracted attention among both civilian and military officials in Brazil to establish schools for aviation, as well seeking advice from foreign sources to help establish a local aviation industry in Brazil.
On October 22, 1912, Ricardo Kirk became the first Brazilian Army officer to learn how to fly, having done so in Étampes, France, before returning to Brazil and helping to establish an Aviation Academy within the Army. In 1914, Kirk and several other early Brazilian aviators took part in a guerilla conflict known as the Contestado War (1912-1916) to conduct reconnaissance flights on rebel forces. During that war, Kirk was also the first Brazilian military aviator to lose his life, having crashed on March 1, 1915, in bad weather and following a mechanical breakdown of his Morane monoplane. Kirk was posthumously promoted to Captain and has been the subject of public memorials in Brazil in the following decades after his death.
By 1916, the Brazilian Navy established a naval air arm, and the Army operated an aviation branch. Aside from a few Brazilian pilots flying with the newly founded Royal Air Force in the UK during WWI, Brazilian military aviation was a largely domestic affair.
By the 1930s, however, it was clear that storm clouds were gathering once more, and Brazil may once again find itself at war with European powers. At the same time, there was demand for the establishment of a ‘Ministry of the Air’, similar to the British Air Ministry, and that the aviation branches of the Army and the Navy should be combined into a single branch, on par with the Royal Air Force in Britain or the French Air Force. Among the supporters of this policy was Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas.
On January 20, 1941, the Ministry of Aeronautics (Ministério da Aeronáutica) was formally established, which would oversee the infrastructure, organization, and regulation of both civil and military aviation. As part of the Ministry’s creation, the personnel, aircraft, and installations of both the Brazilian Army and the Brazilian Navy were combined to become the National Air Forces, which was formally renamed to the Brazilian Air Force five months later on May 22.
The formation of the Brazilian Air Force came not a moment too soon. By this point, German U-boats were threatening Brazilian shipping, and with influence from the United States, Brazil formally declared war on the Axis on August 22, 1942. During the war, FAB patrol aircraft joined American patrol aircraft assigned to bases in Brazil to seek out and destroy German U-boats and protect convoys in the South Atlantic. Brazil also served as a vital staging post for American aircraft flying across the South Atlantic to North Africa and the Mediterranean as part of the South Atlantic Ferry Route, but the Brazilian Air Force would also play a vital yet underappreciated role in the Italian campaign.
When the Americans and the British Commonwealth forces landed in the south of Italy, it was hoped that the subsequent advance up the Italian peninsula would be easy. However, when the Italians surrendered in 1943, the Germans occupying the northern half dug in. As part of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (Força Expedicionária Brasileira, FEB), the 1st Fighter Aviation Group, having received training in the United States, fought in the skies above Italy flying the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter bomber in FAB markings alongside USAAF P-47 units in attacking German refineries, ammunition stockpiles, railway infrastructure, motor convoys, and other targets to disrupt the German defensive strategy during the Italian campaign.
After WWII, the Brazilian Air Force would align itself with NATO, and adopt its first jet aircraft, such as the Gloster Meteor and the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star. Brazil would also be the last country to fly the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress in military service, retiring the last of their B-17s in 1968 after having used them as maritime patrol aircraft, which included monitoring French naval vessels in a dispute from 1961 to 1964 that came to be called the Lobster War. In 1956, Brazil purchased the former WWII British aircraft carrier HMS Vengeance, which was commissioned into the Brazilian Navy as the Minas Gerais. Though by 1965 the Brazilian Navy was able to operate helicopters from the Minas Gerais, the Brazilian Air Force would operate the fixed wing aircraft that flew from the deck of the Minas Gerais, but by the time the Brazilian Navy replaced the Minas Gerais with the former French carrier Foch (renamed São Paulo), the Brazilian Navy was now able to operate fixed wing aircraft such as A-4 Skyhawks from its decks, leaving land-based maritime patrol aircraft to the FAB.
In addition to operating aircraft exported from the United States, the Brazilian Air Force also operated aircraft manufactured in France such as the Mirage III delta-wing interceptor and the Italian-designed Aermacchi MB.326, which was also manufactured locally by Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica (Brazilian Aeronautics Corporation), which has become world-famous as Embraer. Embraer would help the FAB achieve its desires of operating aircraft designed and built in Brazil, and in addition to the business jets and airliners it builds, Embraer has been one of the main providers of aircraft for the Brazilian Air Force, such as the EMB 314 Super Tucano, C-390 Millennium transport aircraft, and the R-99 airborne early warning and control aircraft, as well as license producing the SAAB JAS 39 Gripen multirole aircraft.
Today, the Brazilian Air Force continues to uphold a proud tradition going back to the very origins of powered, heavier-than-air flight, and continues to be a vital partner to its contemporaries such as United States Air Force, and will play a key role in military exercises in Latin America to come.
Today in Aviation History is a series highlighting the achievements, innovations, and milestones that have shaped the skies. All the previous anniversaries are available HERE