Ramón Franco

Ramón Franco y Bahamonde Salgado Pardo de Andrade (1896 — October 1938), born in Ferrol (Galicia), was a Spanish pioneer of aviation, a political figure and brother of later Generalísimo Francisco Franco.

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 the Spanish Air Force, participating in activities that earned him international attention. In 1926 he was the pilot who led the crew that made the trans-Atlantic flight following the route Palos de Moguer (mainland Spain) - Puerto de la Luz (Gran Canaria) - Porto Praia (Cape Verde) - Fernando de Noronha (Brazil) - Pernambuco - Rio de Janeiro - Montevideo (Uruguay) - Buenos Aires (Argentina) in the hydroplane Plus Ultra, making him a national hero. 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. As a consequence of that, a news commentator working for Spanish National Radio, at the time, said on air: "the fry-pan is German, the oil is Italian, but the pairs of eggs are totally Spanish made". Throughout the Spanish-speaking world the Spanish aviators were glamorously acclaimed, particularly in Argentina and Spain where thousands gathered at Christopher Columbus square in Madrid.

In 1929 he attempted another trans-Atlantic flight, this time crashing the airplane to the sea. The crew was rescued days later by an aircraft carrier of the British Royal Navy.

During the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera he declared himself in several occasions against the regime. He dedicated himself to conspire against the Monarchy, inflicted losses on the army and was reduced 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 over Madrid with the intention to bomb the Palacio Real, an action that he could not realize. He fled to Portugal and returned to Spain when the Second 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 the Cortes for Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya in Barcelona, retiring from the army and focused on politics.

When the Spanish Civil War exploded in July 1936, he was in the United States as an air attaché of the Spanish Embassy. When he returned to Spain, in spite of his political ideology, he joined the Nationalist 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 of Majorca. 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 was killed 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.

External links

• El vuelo del Plus Ultra, in Spanish.
• A picture of Franco at the "Plus Ultra" celebrations in Ferrol and Madrid (1926)
• Traveller's Guide of Europe: El Ferrol c.1919
• Dornier Wal, in Spanish.