prewar Portuguese aviation

[Maveric]

Hello friends,
can someone give me a little about the Portuguese aviation history. Was there any aviation pioneers who flew in their own developments. I can hardly imagine that in Portugal were only aircraft built under license.

Thank you for your help.
Maveric

 

[Hawker Nut]

Hi Maveric,

I am afraid there wasn't much work related to local aviation developments in the pre-1939 Portugal, other that licence production of British and French airframes and (mostly) French engines at the state-owned OGMA (Oficinas Gerais de Material Aeronáutico) facilities, in Alverca. Given the rather limited industrial base of the country back then, the regime's rethoric notwithstanding, it is hardly surprising that practically no one outside OGMA ventured into that field. As for OGMA, I guess they did some design work (trainers and probably some army co-operation types) that never got beyond the paper stage. Unfortunately, a large part of their archive is rumoured to have been lost/destroyed in 1967...

On the other hand, though, there was some interesting glider research in the first half of the 1930s, with at least a single flying boat glider designed by ing. Artur Varela Cid being built and tested in Lisbon. I can dig some additional details if you're interested.

HN

 

[Maveric]

Great Hawker Nut, yes I´m very! interested... :

 

[Sintra]

Maveric


How is your Portuguese?
In the EX-OGMA Blog you can find one or two interesting articles about this subject.


http://ex-ogma.blogspot.pt/


The first "aircraft" designed by a Portuguese who actually tried to lift off was the "Gomes da Silva I"

in 1910. The ​

[/size]

 

[Hawker Nut]

The blog contains a lot of interesting information but, hèlas, almost nothing on OGMA's prewar activities nor, for that matter, on post-war projects designed there...

Edit: here's a photo of the glider boat designed by ing. Varela Cid mentioned before, misidentified at the website - www.airlomba.net - where it was originally posted (probably as a clipping from an old magazine), as the "S. Miguel" CS-PXA was a conventional design, also by Varela Cid, built after 1945:

 

[Maveric]

Great find, thanks. Do you have more informations about Cid and the glider (technical data).

 

[Tuizentfloot]

I'm not an expert on Portuguese aviation history, but some details on gliders and amateur construction can be found at http://aeronauticaap.webnode.pt/historia%20da%20avia%C3%A7%C3%A3o%20portuguesa/

 

[Retrofit]

In the book "Spanish & Portuguese Military Aviation" by John Andrade (Midland Counties Publications, 1997), the following is mentioned:
"Joào Pina de Gouveia, who designed his first aircraft in 1911, patented in 1944 a "flying wing" aircraft design which was advanced enough to interest Germany's Air Ministry (Reichsluftfahrtministerium)".
Is there more information available on this Portuguese designer (*) works: Photo of his 1911 aircraft and details of his 1944 patent (and its "RLM connection") ?
Thanks in advance,

(*) Named as "Joào da Mata Pina Gouveia" in the following website: https://funchalnoticias.net/2018/11...ense-que-inventou-o-primeiro-aviao-portugues/