BIOGRAPHY

CAPTAIN EMILIO CARRANZA Nephew of General Alberto Salinas Carranza Photo Courtesy of Rafael J. Del Vecchio

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      If you search for "Emilio Carranza" using Google, you will find about 1,210 links! (2-7-08) You will be rewarded by visiting many of them, especially if you read Spanish. If you don't, many of them are in English or may be translated directly from the Google entry. Among the more important ones are these:

FLIGHT OF EXCELSIOR by Rafael J. Del Vecchio Nephew of Captain Emilio Carranza   PREFACE      "At barely 22 years of age, Captain Emilio Carranza Rodriguez had become an accomplished aviator. He held the record for the third longest non-stop solo flight which he established on May 24-25, 1928 by flying 1,875 miles in 18.5 hrs from San Diego, California to Mexico City. At the time, the records for the first and second longest non-stop flights were held by Col. Charles Lindbergh for his earlier flights from New York to Paris, and from New York to Mexico City."        This extracted first paragraph, from the homepage of the website, will serve to introduce you to a really remarkable story of this hero of Mexican aviation, often referred to as "Mexico's Lindbergh." I heartily recommend that you read the entire story, which includes comprehensive sub-sections entitled Preface, Biography, Photo Gallery, Documents, Bibliography and Links. This is an extremely important resource for the aviation historian, amateur or professional. The Photo Gallery offers 15 previously unpublished photographs from the family collection and the Links are very helpful. I am sure you will enjoy your visit to this site.

 

Galería de la Fuerza Aérea Mexicana.      Although the original website has vanished from the net, by using the link above you can visit the site which has been archived by the Waybackmachine.org website. In this case, the original photographs are not visible, but you will find brief biographies of 16 of the heroes of Mexican Aviation, including one for Emilio Carranza. The text is all in Spanish, but you can use the Google "language tools" translation program if you need the text in English. To visit the site, just click on the title above.

Captain Emilio Carranza Rodriguez and the 'México Excelsior ' San Diego, CA - late May, 1928 Photo Courtesy of Rafael J. Del Vecchio

Emilio Carranza, Rescató el avión Quetzalcoatl, equipandolo con un motor BMW de 185hp., el cual bautizó con el nombre de "Coahuila" a bordo del cual realizó el vuelo México - Cd. Juárez sin escalas; realizó el vuelo México - Washington a bordo del avión México Excelsior. Emilio Carranza, Rescued the "Quetzalcoatl" airplane, outfitted it with a 185 hp BMW engine, christened it the "Coahuila", and flew it non-stop from Mexico to Ciudad Juarez; he also flew from Mexico - Washington in the México Excelsior airplane. Translation courtesy of Rafael J. Del Vecchio

 

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