Ricardo Joao Kirk ( port. Ricardo Kirk ; 1874 , Campus dos Goitacazis , Rio de Janeiro - March 1, 1915 , Santa Catarina ) - a pioneer of Brazilian aviation. The military pilot of the Brazilian army . Captain (posthumously).
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Content
- 1 Biography
- 2 memory
- 3 notes
- 4 References
Biography
In 1874 he entered the military school, in November 1891 - the ensign, in 1891 - the second lieutenant, in November 1893 - the senior lieutenant of the Brazilian army .
Lt. Ricardo Kirk was the first Brazilian army officer to learn how to fly airplanes. Received a license on October 22, 1912 at École d'Aviation d'Etampes in France .
Returning to Brazil, he became the managing technician of the Brazilian flying club, hoping to create favorable conditions for the development of aviation in the country.
Having received permission to purchase aircraft for the Brazilian flying club, R. Kirk went to Europe to purchase two aircraft; April 6, 1914 arrived in Brazil on the ship "Araguaia".
On May 24, 1914, in order to arouse the public’s interest in aviation, he organized a speed racing contest between two aircraft: a French monoplane from Morane-Saulnier , with a wing area of 16 m², equipped with an 80 liter Le Rhône engine. from. (pilot Lieutenant Ricardo Kirk) and the Italian monoplane Bleriot- Sit, with a wing area of 16 m², equipped with an 80 liter Gnome engine. from. (pilot civilian pilot Ernesto Darioli).
The launch was at Alfonsos and the route was designed so that airplanes passed over several parts of the city. Upon returning, landing accuracy was required such that the planes had to finish the flight closer to a circle of six meters in diameter drawn on the field. Due to overheating of the engine of his aircraft, Darioli left the race, and Lieutenant Kirk completed the flight and was declared the winner.
After the start of the peasant uprising in the disputed territories of southern Brazil (1912-1916), Lieutenant Ricardo Kirk was mobilized to conduct air reconnaissance in support of ground army operations. Under the command of R. Kirk, there were three monoplanes in the conflict area, which carried out reconnaissance over enemy positions in order to control artillery fire.
During one of the reconnaissance flights on March 1, 1915, in conditions of poor visibility in the state of Santa Katarina, Kirk's plane fell to the ground as a result of a failure of the mechanism that led to a serious accident. Pilot Kirk is dead.
Memory
At the crash site of Ricardo Kirk in General Carneira (Parana), a monument was installed called the “Aviator Cross”, which is a reinforced concrete structure that symbolizes the plane of a pilot’s plane. March 10, 2002 the command of the Brazilian Army Aviation opened a bronze bust of Ricardo Kirk.
In October 1943, the remains of Lieutenant Kirk were transported to the Mausoleum of Aviators at the San Juan Baptiste Cemetery in Rio de Janeiro .
In 1996, a monument to Ricardo Kirk was unveiled in Taubat .