Ricardo Kirk was the first Brazilian Army Aviator.

Kirk was born in Campos dos Goytacazes

Campos dos Goytacazes

Campos dos Goytacazes is a municipality and city located in the northern area of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, with a population of 463,545 inhabitants. Its area is 4,031.910 km², which makes it the largest municipality in the state and its elevation is 14 m...

, Rio de Janeiro state

Rio de Janeiro (state)

Rio de Janeiro is one of the 27 states of Brazil.Rio de Janeiro has the second largest economy of Brazil behind only São Paulo state.The state of Rio de Janeiro is located within the Brazilian geopolitical region classified as the Southeast...

, Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. In 1891 he entered the Military Academy and he was promoted to Ensign in November, 1893 and to First-lieutenant in March, 1898 and posthumously to Captain in 1915.

He is considered the Brazilian Army

Brazilian Army

The Brazilian Army is the land arm of the Brazilian Military. The Brazilian Army has fought in several international conflicts, mostly in South America and during the 19th century, such as the Brazilian War of Independence , Argentina-Brazil War , War of the Farrapos , Platine War , Uruguayan War ...

 Aviation Patron.

History

Kirk was the first Brazilian Army officer to learn how to pilot airplanes. He graduated from École d´Aviation d´Étampes (France) on 22 October 1912. When he returned to Brazil, he was one of the founders of the Brazilian Airclub, where he was assigned as Technical Director.

The crash

When the Contestado War

Contestado War

The Contestado War , broadly speaking, was a guerrilla war for land between settlers and landowners, the latter supported by the Brazilian state's police and military forces, that lasted from October 1912 to August 1916....

 broke out on the borders of the states Paraná

Paraná (state)

Paraná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...

 and Santa Catarina

Santa Catarina (state)

Santa Catarina is a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in Latin America. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighbouring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by...

, Lt Ricardo Kirk was convened by General Setembrino de Carvalho to conduct air operations in support of land operations, which meant flying reconnaissance missions.
Three monoplanes were dispatched to the area of conflict under the command of Lieutenant Ricardo Kirk with one of the other airman being the Italian civilian Ernesto Darioli. They were stationed at União da Vitória

União da Vitória

União da Vitória is a city located in the south of the State of Paraná, Brazil. Its population was about 51.858 people in 2006. In the economic area, União da Vitória's GDP is of US$ 115,364,648.65.- History :...

 aviation field. The three aircraft, plus one that had been destroyed in a confrontation between Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 and União da Vitória, were the remainder of the "Brazilian School of Aviation" fleet, which had operated from Afonsos field, Rio de Janeiro, in 1914.

During one of the reconnaissance missions on 1 March 1915 near General Carneiro in the state of Santa Catarina, Kirk had a mechanical failure leading to a serious accident in which Kirk was killed. The weather conditions at the time of the accident were bad and the visibility was poor.

The monument

On the site of the accident, a monument named "The Aviator Cross" was erected. Originally, it consisted only of a wooden cross, made by farmers who had helped the injured airman using sleepers of the Contestado Railroad with the name of Kirk knife carved in the. On 5 October 1980 another monument was inaugurated around the cross by the city of General Carneiro. It consists of a reinforced concrete structure symbolising Kirk's plane. 10 On March 2002 the Command of the Brazilian Army Aviation had a bronze bust of Ricardo Kirk erected at the spot.

In October 1943, the remains of Lieutenant Kirk were moved to the Mausoleum of Aviadores in São João Batista cemetery in Rio de Janeiro. In 1996 they were interred in a monument in his honour, built by the Command of the Army Aviation in Taubaté

Taubaté

Taubaté is a city in the State of São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil. Its strategic geographical location, between the two most important Brazilian cities , being crossed by Presidente Dutra Highway which connects the two megacities, and between high, cold mountains and the Atlantic Ocean has...

.

In the Northeastern corner of Afonsos Field, one of the most important Brazilian Air Force bases, a hill is named in honour of the precursor of the Military Aviation, Ricardo Kirk.

External links

• Biography of Ricardo Kirk