Mexico City, Mexico.- What Cuban has not heard the saying “flew like matias perez”? Who was this man and how much truth is there in his story?
Matías Pérez, although he was Portuguese, lived in Havana where he founded an awning and canopy workshop on Neptuno street called “El Rey de los Toldos”, although his passion was hot air balloons.
For this reason, he was traveling as a companion to the French pilot Eugene Godard, one of the pioneers in this type of travel and from whom he learned how to drive the means of transport. He accompanied him on several of his ascents as an assistant, where he was in charge of checking the gas, the instruments and launching two small balloons to find out the direction of the wind. Meanwhile, the French piloted.
After learning from Godard, the Portuguese decided to buy him a balloon and go flying on his own.
In fact, on June 12, 1856, he made his first solo trip in his balloon with excellent weather conditions and without mishaps. Historical texts mention that Pérez took off from the Campo de Marte, today Parque de la Fraternidad, and that many Havanans came out to see the show.
Everything was going well, but the balloon began to descend very fast. What happened? “The rope that opened the balloon valve had gotten stuck, and Pérez had to climb up the ropes that held the gondola. He opened the mouth of the balloon and kept it that way with his arms so that the air could penetrate and slow down the descent speed ”, he explains. Pedro Rioseco. The ship landed unexpectedly, but the flight was a success if we compare it with the following
Seventeen days later, Pérez tried again, despite the fact that the conditions were not favorable and he knew it. Shortly after rising, the wind dragged the Portuguese pilot out to sea and he was lost to the sight of the spectators. Matías Pérez was never heard from again.
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