The Latin American Aviation Historical Society

08/28/2026

The preservation of aviation history across Latin America and the Caribbean remains a fragile undertaking, sustained almost entirely by small groups and individuals who work without institutional backing. A recent example comes from the Dominican Republic, where the Instituto Dominicano de Historia Aeronáutica (INDOHA) has made a public appeal for support to continue its research work.

Its president, Carlos Ortega Vergés, explained that the institute has gathered a substantial body of documents and records on Dominican aviation but faces economic limitations that hinder new projects. INDOHA has no premises of its own and operates from an office provided by the Instituto Dominicano de Aviación Civil (IDAC). The appeal calls on public and private institutions, as well as private individuals, to help strengthen its facilities, preserve the material already collected, and continue documenting the history of Dominican aviation.

In an accompanying column, Ortega Vergés described the heart of the problem in terms that will be familiar to anyone who follows aviation history in the region. Much of that history is not lost but dispersed: photographs kept in homes, documents held in institutional archives, manuals no longer in print, and above all the testimony of the pilots, engineers, mechanics, and workers who lived it. Each time one of them passes without their account being recorded, a part of the collective memory disappears with them.

This is the same reality that led to the founding of LAAHS in 1997, and it reaches well beyond any single country. A weak preservation culture, combined with the constant repetition of errors and misinformation across websites and printed works, continues to put the aviation history of the continent at risk. Efforts like INDOHA deserve recognition and support, because preserving this shared heritage cannot rest on one institution, or one nation, alone.

Sources: El Nuevo Diario (República Dominicana)

https://elnuevodiario.com.do/la-historia-aeronautica-dominicana-una-tarea-de-todos/

https://elnuevodiario.com.do/instituto-de-historia-aeronautica-necesita-apoyo-para-fortalecer-sus-investigaciones/

08/28/2026

The Brazilian Air Force (Força Aérea Brasileira, FAB) has formally activated the Museu Aeroespacial Paulista (MAPA) and inaugurated its first structure, Hangar 01 São Paulo, at the Campo de Marte airfield in the north of São Paulo, next to the Parque de Material Aeronáutico de São Paulo (PAMA-SP). The activation ceremony was held on July 3, 2026, and marks the first phase of what is planned to become one of the country's principal centers for the preservation of aeronautical and aerospace history.

Spread across an area of roughly 100,000 square meters, the completed complex is projected to bring together close to 100 civil and military aircraft. The project is a partnership between the FAB and the Museu Asas de um Sonho, the former TAM collection originally based in São Carlos, with technical support from the Museu Aeroespacial (MUSAL) in Rio de Janeiro through INCAER. It is led by Marcos Amaro, son of TAM founder Rolim Adolfo Amaro, who took over the institution in 2024 and set out to return the collection to public display in a new format.

The loan agreement with Asas de um Sonho covers up to 40 aircraft, the first three of which were delivered in June 2025. Among the pieces transferred from São Carlos are Second World War fighters, including a Supermarine Spitfire and a Messerschmitt Bf 109, complemented by FAB relics and donated jets, with SAAB set to contribute a Draken and a Viggen. Moving the airframes has required a complex road operation carried out at night, with wings temporarily removed so the fuselages can pass beneath bridges.

The inauguration of Hangar 01 opened an immersive exhibition space with flight simulators, aircraft, and an exclusive mural by the artist Mena. Pre-opening activities include the traditional PAMA-SP air show, scheduled for September 2026 at Campo de Marte. The definitive opening of the full complex is planned for 2028, once the military hangars are adapted for cultural use, with the effort supported by the Associação dos Amigos do Museu Aeroespacial Paulista (AMAPA).

(Photo: Vitor Mazzoti / Divulgação)

Sources: VEJA São Paulo, Poder Aéreo, Airway

08/28/2026

The Museo Nacional de Aeronáutica (MNA), based at the historic Base Aérea de Morón in western Greater Buenos Aires, will hold the second edition of its "Hangar 4 Libre" open day on Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20, 2026, from 10:00 to 17:00. The event opens Hangar 4, the workshop where the Grupo Técnico de Restauraciones Aeronáuticas (GTRA) carries out the restoration and preservation of historic Argentine airframes, to the general public.

The centerpiece of this edition is the museum's Lockheed C-130B Hercules TC-60 (C/N 282-3656, ex USAF 61-0969), which visitors will be able to board between 10:30 and 16:00 on both days. Built for the United States Air Force in 1962, the aircraft was transferred to the Fuerza Aérea Argentina in February 1994 and served with the I Brigada Aérea until its retirement in September 2011, with roughly 22,000 flight hours accumulated across both operators. It has been part of the MNA collection since then.

Access does not require a prior reservation, but the national identity document (DNI) is mandatory to enter the military installations of the air base. The entrance is at Avenida Eva Perón 2200. General admission is 4,000 Argentine pesos, payable in cash or by QR transfer at the gate, while visitors under 18, retirees and pensioners, holders of the Certificado Único de Discapacidad (CUD), and war veterans enter free of charge.

Sources: El Cronista, Diario La Ciudad, Museo Nacional de Aeronáutica

08/20/2026

The Latin American Aviation Historical Society invites its community to support the Academia de Historia Aeronáutica y del Correo Aéreo de Costa Rica as it celebrates its fourth anniversary. The event runs on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September 2026, from 9 AM to 4 PM, at the facilities of the Instituto de Formación Aeronáutica (IFA) in Lagunilla de Heredia, Costa Rica.

Both days feature an exhibition of real and scale aircraft, aviation photographs, and scale models of airports, along with a series of talks and other activities. On Saturday the program opens at 9:45 AM with a tribute to Captain Rodolfo Marín Conejo, a pilot who flew most of the aircraft operated by LACSA. At 10:00 AM, Rodolfo Méndez Mata presents a talk on the development of aviation in Costa Rica and the signing of the Open Skies agreement between the United States and Costa Rica, followed at 10:45 AM by a talk from José Giralt Amador on the founding of LACSA, Costa Rica's flag carrier, marking its 80th anniversary. On Sunday the aircraft, scale model, and photography exhibition continues from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Founded in 2022, the Academia works to rescue, preserve, and share the history of aviation and airmail in Costa Rica, a mission LAAHS is glad to support.

06/13/2026

New on laahs.com!

The Cessna A-37B Dragonfly is well known for its service in Southeast Asia, but far less attention has been paid to the role the type played in the Panama Canal Zone. A new article on LAAHS documents the operational history of the 605th Special Operations Squadron at Howard Air Force Base, the unit that introduced the Dragonfly to Latin America.

Drawing on quarterly historical reports from the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA), the article covers the squadron's origins, its transition to the A-37B around 1969, and its day-to-day operations at Howard: gunnery training at the Balboa West Gunnery Range, cross-country navigation missions across Latin America, close air support exercises with the 193rd Infantry Brigade, and an innovative naval cooperation mission designated "Savage Sea." It also reconstructs, for the first time in detail, the 1971 Mobile Training Team conducted for the Fuerza Aérea Guatemalteca, which concluded with the first export delivery of the A-37B to a Latin American air force. Seven of the squadron's aircraft have been positively identified by serial number through photographs taken at Howard by Dan Hagedorn in 1971.

Connect to LAAHS to read Combat Dragons in the Canal Zone: The 605th Special Operations Squadron and the A-37B Dragonfly at Howard Air Force Base.

https://www.laahs.com/canal-zone-combat-dragons/

A non-profit organization aimed to research, preserve and disseminate the history of the civilian and military aviation in Latin America.

06/10/2026

On this day, 93 years ago, Captain Mariano Barberán and Lieutenant Joaquín Collar took off from Tablada airfield in Seville, Spain, aboard the Breguet XIX GR "Cuatro Vientos," a specially built long-range biplane loaded with over 5,000 liters of fuel. Their mission: to become the first aviators to cross the Atlantic through its widest central portion, linking Spain directly with Cuba.

After nearly 40 hours of flight, battling gastritis, fuel concerns, and the vast emptiness of the ocean, Collar and Barberán landed at Camagüey, Cuba, on June 11, 1933, with barely 100 liters of fuel remaining, enough for just fifteen more minutes in the air. Their feat proved the viability of a transatlantic air route between Europe and the Caribbean, a vision Barberán had championed as both scientist and aviator. Days later, after a week of celebrations in Havana and repairs to a cracked fuel tank discovered by their mechanic Sergeant Modesto Madariaga, the crew departed for Mexico City on June 20. The "Cuatro Vientos" was last reported near Villa Hermosa, Tabasco, at 11:35 that morning. Neither the aircraft nor its crew were ever found.

Read the full story at

https://www.laahs.com/cuatro-vientos/

06/06/2026

On the night of 6 June 1992, Copa Airlines Flight 201 vanished from radar over the Darién Gap minutes after departure from Panama City. All 47 people on board were killed. The investigation that followed uncovered a chain of failures that began with something as seemingly trivial as a faulty wire.

The accident, the deadliest in Panamanian aviation history, was documented by PBS NOVA in a compelling episode that follows the investigators from the jungle to the NTSB laboratories in Washington, D.C. The full documentary is embedded in our article.

Connect to LAAHS to read "The Mysterious Crash of Copa Flight 201: A PBS NOVA Documentary."
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https://www.laahs.com/copa-flight-201-documentary/

05/26/2026

On May 9, 2026, the Club Aéreo de Santiago celebrated its 98th anniversary at Aeródromo Eulogio Sánchez (SCTB) with a flyover of more than 30 aircraft. The Escuadrilla de Alta Acrobacia "Halcones" led the formation with four GameBird GB1s, followed by a pair of Beechcraft T-34A Mentors and a combined training formation of Van's RV-9A, Cessna C-172S Skyhawk SP, and Diamond DA-20C1 Eclipse aircraft.

The article by Álvaro Romero traces the Club's history from its founding on May 5, 1928, by Arturo Merino Benítez at the military airfield of El Bosque, through its relocation to the purpose-built Tobalaba aerodrome in 1954. The celebration also featured vintage and classic aircraft including a Mooney M-18C Mite, a Morane-Saulnier MS.885 Rallye, and a Blériot XI replica from the Museo Nacional Aeronáutico y del Espacio de Chile. (Photos: Álvaro Romero.)

Connect to LAAHS to read "98 Years of Wings Over Santiago: The Club Aéreo de Chile Celebrates Nearly a Century of Flight."
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https://www.laahs.com/cas_98_anniversary

04/29/2026

In October 1978, Venezuela launched one of the most audacious military deployments in Cold War Latin America. When Anastasio Somoza threatened to invade Costa Rica, a nation without an army, Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez responded by dispatching BAC Canberras, OV-10E Broncos, and T-2D Buckeyes to Central America under the elegant cover of a "Training and Goodwill Mission." The reality was a fully armed combat operation.

This remarkable article by Arturo Soto Loreto, originally published on the FAV-Club website, reconstructs Operation "Buena Voluntad" through firsthand accounts from the pilots who flew the mission, including the harrowing instrument descent through clouds over the volcanoes near San Jose and the eleven tense days on alert in David, Panama. It also covers the parallel Operation "Chanchera," the C-130 extraction of Eden Pastora's guerrillas from Managua's National Palace.

Read Operation "Buena Voluntad" here 👇
https://www.laahs.com/operation-buena-voluntad/

04/26/2026

The Museo Nacional de Aeronautica (MNA) in Moron, Buenos Aires, has announced a guided tour on Saturday, May 2 at 11:30 AM, featuring Comodoro (R) VGM Luis Longar, a Fuerza Aerea Argentina Bell 212 helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War.

Longar's talk, titled "Mis 85 dias en Malvinas" (My 85 Days in the Falklands), will cover his wartime experiences as a member of the Escuadron Helicopteros Malvinas. Then a lieutenant, Longar was the commander of Bell 212 H-85, one of two Bell 212 IFR helicopters deployed to the islands aboard C-130 Hercules transports at the very start of the conflict in April 1982. Operating initially from Stanley Airport and later from the FAA's Base Aerea Militar Condor at Goose Green, the helicopter squadron carried out search and rescue, casualty evacuation, personnel and supply transport, reconnaissance, and support for the Air Observation Network.

Among Longar's most notable missions was the rescue of Major Carlos Tomba, a Pucara pilot who had been shot down by a Sea Harrier on May 21, 1982, the same day as the British landings at San Carlos. Tomba ejected from his IA-58 Pucara at extremely low altitude and survived, but his location was unknown. Longar and his crew, including copilot Lieutenant Gustavo Brea, found and recovered him in a daring search mission carried out with the last light of that day. That rescue is the reason May 21 was designated as the Dia del Helicopterista (Helicopter Crew Day) in the Argentine Air Force. Longar also participated in the rescue of survivors from the coast guard cutter ARA Rio Iguazu.

Over the course of the war, the Bell 212 crews accumulated some 250 flight hours in the combat zone, rescuing seven downed pilots, recovering a patrol from behind enemy lines, and saving 25 shipwreck survivors from the Rio Iguazu. The squadron operated until June 12, just two days before the ceasefire, when the last Bell 212 crew was evacuated to the mainland aboard a C-130.

The MNA is located at Av. Eva Peron 2200, Moron, Buenos Aires. Admission is free.

An excellent opportunity for anyone in the Buenos Aires area interested in the helicopter operations of the South Atlantic conflict.