Ada Rogato

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Ada Rogato
In 1936.
Born(1910-12-22)22 December 1910
São Paulo, Brazil
Died15 November 1986(1986-11-15) (aged 75)
São Paulo, Brazil
NationalityBrazilian
Other namesAda Rogato
Occupationaviator
Years active1935-1986
Known forFirst woman glider pilot and first woman paratrooper of Brazil. Numerous flight records.

Ada Rogato (22 December 1910 – 15 November 1986) was a pioneering woman aviator from

South American
woman to earn a glider pilot's license and the first Brazilian woman to earn paratrooper certification. She broke the world record for the longest solo flight, was the first to fly across all three of the Americas and held the Brazilian record for the number of parachute jumps. She was also Brazil's first woman agricultural pilot, flying crop dusters for the Biological Institute to eliminate pests which were destroying the country's coffee crop.

Early life

Ada Rogato

South American woman glider pilot.[9][1]

In 1936, Rogato took additional lessons and passed her testing to become an airplane pilot,

Teresa De Marzo[10] and Anésia Pinheiro Machado.[11] She flew as a test pilot for light aircraft built in Brazil[7] and begin flying in air shows. Needing to earn a living, she took a typing course and applied to enter the civil service.[8]

Career

São Carlos, Brazil

In 1940, Rogato began working as a secretary at the

library science to improve her skill and asked to be allowed leave to continue her participation in "Wing Week" activities.[1] The following year, Rogato took a skydiving course, gaining the first Brazilian paratrooper certification[6] and bought a Paulistinha two-seater airplane.[8] Upon receipt of her paratrooper certification, the Aeronautics Ministry asked for Rogato to be allowed a three-month leave to offer training at the Technical School of Aviation.[1] During World War II, she performed volunteer missions, patrolling the Litoral Paulista (coast of São Paulo). For her service, she became the first woman to receive the title of Pilot in Honoris Causa by the Brazilian Air Force.[12] In 1942, Rogato performed a daring night parachute jump. She was the only woman and was accompanied by five men, who jumped from a Focke-Wulf plane into the bay off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The president, Getúlio Vargas was on hand to witness the jump and the parachutists rescue by the two boats waiting at the ready.[7]

When Rogato returned to the Biological Institute, she was assigned to the Animal Health Surveillance Section,

crop duster, spraying the insecticide Gamexame (hexachloro- cyclohexane),[1] while wearing protective gear. The insecticide was later banned as a health hazard, but not before Rogato had her only serious accident,[8] when a malfunction of the spraying apparatus caused her to crash. Rogato was hospitalized for a month[1] and it was later speculated that the exposure to the chemicals may have led to her development of cancer.[8] After her recuperation, Rogato returned to crop-dusting.[1]

In 1950, Rogato took a sabbatical from the Biological Institute and flew at her own expense to participate in airshows in Argentina, Chile and Paraguay.

skydive in the country[13] and won applause when she landed with a Brazilian and Chilean flag.[7] She was awarded a commendation by the Chilean government.[13] She crossed the Andes in her Paulistinha and was awarded an aeronautical merit medal for the accomplishment. She was also given a Cessna 140, which he would use the following year on her record-breaking flight.[8] In 1951, she broke the longest solo flight record when she flew 51,064 miles from Tierra del Fuego to Anchorage, Alaska[9] over a six-month period. Flying south from Rio de Janeiro, she went to Uruguay and then Argentina before crossing the Andes, traversing the west coast of South America, Central America and North America to reach Anchorage.[13] From Anchorage, she flew to the farthest north airport, at Fort Yukon at the Arctic Circle.[14] She then retraced her flight to Seattle and flew to Washington, D.C. and on to Montreal and Ottawa in Canada before heading to the Caribbean to fly through Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Venezuela, all three Guyanas before returning to Brazil. The voyage was billed as a good-neighbor tour and she met with the first ladies of each of the 17 countries through which she flew.[13][6]

In 1952, Rogato became the first civilian pilot to take-off or land a low-powered aircraft, her Cessna, from

the southernmost city in the world at that time.[12] One of the intriguing markers of Rogato's career is that all of her flights were completed as solo voyages in low-powered aircraft (85 horsepower or less engine), which did not have sophisticated instrumentation, or even a radio.[8][13] She held the Brazilian record of parachute jumps with 105 to her credit.[1]

Rogato retired from the civil service in 1980, having attained the position of Sports and Tourism section chief for technical division,[15] but continued to fly until four years before her death. It is said she only stopped flying because she could break no further barriers without a more powerful plane.[12] From 1980 until 1986, Rogato served as the director of the Museum of Aeronautics and Space of São Paulo and also as president of the Santos Dumont Foundation.[7]

Death and legacy

Rogato died on 15 November 1986, in São Paulo and her body was laid in state at the Museum of Aeronautics. She was buried in the Santana Cemetery of São Paulo after a special "squadron of smoke" tribute.

Colombian Air Force and in 1954 received The Paul Tissandier Diploma of Merits in Aviation from the French organization, Aeronautics International.[17]

There is a street in Ribeirão Preto named in her honor and a town square in Lapa which bears her name. In 2000, a stamp was issued by the Brazilian Post Office to commemorate her flight over the Andes.[1] In 2011, the Brazilian writer, Lucita Briza, published a biography of Rogato's life, Ada—Mulher, pioneira, aviadora with C&R Editorial.[12] Rogato's medals and her Cessna have been on display at the TAM Museum in São Carlos since 2012.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ The Biological Institute notes that when Rogato was hired she used the name Ada Leda Rogato until 1954 when she removed Leda, stating it was not shown on her birth certificate.[1] This would be born out by press clippings, which repeatedly use "Ada Leda" in the early part of her career.[2][3][4]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rebouças 2012.
  2. ^ a b O Estado de S. Paulo 1936, p. 6.
  3. ^ O Estado de S. Paulo 1949, p. 16.
  4. ^ O Estado de S. Paulo 1951, p. 8.
  5. ^ de Oliveira 2015.
  6. ^ a b c Rodrigues & de Lima 2009, p. 2.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Alarcón Carrasco 2011.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Reis 2013.
  9. ^ a b c d ADESG Nacional 2016.
  10. ^ Duarte 1974, p. 314.
  11. ^ Vidal 1945, p. 267.
  12. ^ a b c d e Godoy 2011.
  13. ^ a b c d e The Ottawa Journal 1951, p. 3.
  14. ^ The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner 1951, p. 1.
  15. ^ Centennial of Women Pilots 2015.
  16. ^ Zwerdling 2016.
  17. ^ Rodrigues & de Lima 2009, pp. 2–3.

Bibliography

  • Alarcón Carrasco, Héctor (20 December 2011). "Ada Rogato: El Cóndor Solitario" [Ada Rogato: The Lonely Condor]. Chile Crónicas (in Spanish). Araucanía Region, Chile. Archived from the original on 25 December 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  • de Oliveira, Abrahão (6 April 2015). "A Primeira Paulistana a Ganhar os Céus—As Conquistas de Ada Rogato" [The First Paulistana to Win the Heavens—The Conquests of Ada Rogato]. São Paulo in Foco (in Portuguese). São Paulo, Brazil. Archived from the original on 25 December 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  • Duarte, Paulo (1974). Memórias (in Portuguese). Vol. 8. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: Editora de Humanismo, Ciência e Tecnologia.
  • Godoy, Roberto (19 July 2011). "Nas nuvens com Ada Rogato: Lucita Briza resgata a memória da pioneira da aviação brasileira" [In the clouds with Ada Rogato: Lucita Briza rescues the memory of the Brazilian aviation pioneer]. São Paulo, Brazil: O Estado de S. Paulo. Archived from the original on 12 January 2012. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  • Rebouças, Márcia Maria (2012). "Ada Rogato: Aviadora 1920-1986" [Ada Rogato: Aviatrix 1920-1986] (in Portuguese). São Paulo, Brazil: Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento. Archived from the original on 8 March 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  • Reis, Ricardo (October 1, 2013). "The flying Brazilian". Up Magazine. Lisbon, Portugal: TAP Portugal. Archived from the original on 13 April 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  • Rodrigues, Luiz Eduardo Miranda José; de Lima, Cristiane Correia (2009). "Mulheres Aviadoras, o Pioneirismo de Ada Rogato e Seus Feitos Históricos na Aviação Brasileira" [Women Aviators, the Pioneering Ada Rogato and Her Historical Mark on Brazilian Aviation] (PDF). Revista Eletrônica AeroDesign (in Portuguese). 1 (1). São Paulo, Brazil: Instituto Federal de Educação. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  • Vidal, Olmio Barros (1945). Precursoras brasileiras (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro, Brasil: A Noite editora.
  • Zwerdling, Robert (8 March 2016). "Brasileiras pioneiras" [Brazilian pioneers]. AERO Magazine (in Portuguese). São Paulo, Brazil: Inner Editora Ltda. Archived from the original on 26 December 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
  • "Hemisphere Hopper from Rio Reaches Ottawa". Ottawa, Ontario, Canada:
    Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  • "Ada Rogato – Brazil". Centennial of Women Pilots. Vancouver, Canada: Institute for Women Of Aviation Worldwide. July 25, 2015. Archived from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  • "A História de Ada Rogato-a primeira mulher a receber a Comenda Nacional de Mérito Aeronáutico, no grau de cavalheiro, a Comenda Asas da Força Aérea Brasileira e o título da FAB de Piloto em Honoris Causa" [The History of Ada Rogato-the first woman to receive the National Commendation of Aeronautical Merit, in the rank of Knight, Wing Commander of the Brazilian Air Force and the title of Pilot in Honoris Causa by the FAB]. ADESG Nacional (in Portuguese). Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Associação dos Diplomados da Escola Superior de Guerra. 2016. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  • "Homenagens a Aviadora Ada Rogato" [Homage to Aviatrix Ada Rogato] (in Portuguese). São Paulo, Brazil: O Estado de S. Paulo. 4 December 1951. p. 6. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  • "Rogato Reaches Vancouver on Flight to Homeland".
    Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  • "Tarde de Aviaçao" [Afternoon of aviation] (in Portuguese). São Paulo, Brazil: O Estado de S. Paulo. 13 March 1949. p. 6. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  • "Terminam Hoje as Commemorações da 'Semana da Asa'" [Today ends the Commemorations of 'Wing Week'] (in Portuguese). São Paulo, Brazil: O Estado de S. Paulo. 25 October 1936. p. 6. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
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