Pedro Vives
Pedro Vives Vich was a Spanish military engineer, politician, and aerial observer, who was the main pioneer of Spanish ballooning and aviation, both military and civil. In 1896, Vives was made head of the , and at his suggestion, the army adopted the kite-type ballon and then had it built in Guadalajara. He was the first Spaniard to fly in an airplane in 1909. He served as the first Chief of the Spanish Air Force, which was founded in 1913 at his request.
He was also a publicist, and as such, he directed several technical studies, directed military works, including the First Melillan campaign in 1893. In Africa, he not only participated in war flights, but also created new aerodromes. He later became the military governor of Cartagena in 1922–23, and then as the Development Minister of Spain between 1923 and 1925. He left an enormous and multifaceted technical work for the beginning of Spanish aviation and for the modernization of the public works of the State.
Early and education
Pedro Vives was born in Igualada, Catalonia, on 20 January 1858, as the son of Pedro Vives Ramón and Irene Vich Picornell. He was born into a family of small businessmen, owners of cotton spinning and weaving factories located in Igualada and Manresa. He was known as Pere familiarly, the Catalan version of his name. The Vives family took their three sons, Jaime, Francisco, and Pedro, to a boarding school in Manresa, run by the Jesuits, where they attended high school.When Pedro finished school, he chose to become a military engineer, going to Guadalajara to prepare for the Academy of Engineers, which he entered in 1874. A very diligent student with impeccable conduct, he received his lieutenant's office four years later, in 1878, where he finished his degree as number 1 in his class. His first assignment was at the Las Vascongadas, in the Mining Sappers Regiment.
Military career
First positions and stints in Paris, Cuba, and US
In May 1878, the general director of the Arma gave him a Service Commission for one month to visit the Universal Exhibition in Paris, where his interest in the advances in technology and science of his time led him to identify with its most modern achievements. Upon his return, Vives began his life as a sapper-miner, in the 4th Regiment in the Northern Army, where in addition to commanding troops and other jobs, he carried out fortification work on the Pyrenean and Aragonese borders and later he took care of defense work on the French border in Navarre. He was promoted to captain in 1880 and was assigned to Cartagena, where he stayed for a short time, as he was then assigned to Madrid and later to Barcelona.In 1881, Vives volunteered for Cuba, serving in the Santa Clara Engineer Command, but he only remained there for three years due to being uncomfortable in garrison life. Before returning to Spain in 1884, he requested a six-month leave of absence to move to the United States, with the aim of perfecting his English, and expanding his technical and scientific knowledge in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and other cities; while there, he made his living as an engineer. In this country, he studied mechanical traction in trams, and as a result of this experience he published in the Memorial de Ingenieros an article called "Trams moved by underground cables" which, due to its originality, aroused great expectation among technicians. He also participated in installing the Spanish pavilion at the 1884 Boston International Exposition, of the objectives that the Spanish Artillery contributed to the event.
Military works in Lleida, Cádiz, and Melilla (1884–1895)
After returning to Spain in 1884, Vives was assigned to the Lleida Engineer Command, which was one of the most fruitful stages of his professional activity. He studied the border area with France, focusing his attention on the Val d'Aran, where he intervened in the layout of the road from Viella to the French border, thoroughly studying the possibilities of constructing a tunnel as the only means of saving the Val d'Aran from the total isolation to which he was condemned during the winter. It was an enormous work that everyone considered a utopia; all except Vives, who years later held the position of Undersecretary of Development in the board of directors of General Primo de Rivera, and from that position, he promoted the work of the tunnel, six kilometers long, until it was completely drilled.In 1887, for health reasons, he began to provide his services in the Campo de Gibraltar in the province of Cádiz, where in Tarifa, he designed the fortifications and sites to defend the Strait of Gibraltar. A year later, he was assigned to the Malaga Engineer Command, where he created and developed a military dovecote, which went on to play such an important role in communications with Melilla during the First Melillan campaign in 1893. For his work and participation in this campaign, he was awarded the Cross of Military Merit with a white badge.
Pioneer of Spanish aviation
Aerostation Service in Guadalajara (1896–1901)
On 30 September 1896, a Royal Order from the Ministry of War created the Military Aerostation Service, established its headquarters in Guadalajara, and placed it under the command of Commander Pedro Vives Vich, who was called back to the Peninsula to take charge of it in October 1896, thus ending his first performance in Africa and beginning his destination to Guadalajara, where the Park will be located. In December 1896, the Aerostation Park was created in the Henares Maneuver Park, and on 15 January 1897, Vives took charge of the first material that this space would have, the so-called 'Yon system aerostatic train', to transfer it to Guadalajara. The Aerostation Park in Guadalajara was the first military air base in Spain, and began its flight operations in 1900.The first objective that he imposed was the acquisition of the essential material to be able to begin aerostatic activities. Soon the officers, engineers-pilots who carried out the ascensions, built their own aerostats, generating what can be considered an artisanal self-construction industry, but none of the officers assigned to the ballooning unit had flight experience. To obtain the pilot's title and learn how aerial observation was applied in other armies, Commander Vives and Captain Tejera traveled to Paris on 1 June 1897 under an official commission, which also took him to cities in Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands, where he studied the advances of military ballooning in those countries; these official commissions continued during the following years, 1899 and 1900. Upon returning from this trip, he wrote a report that made his superiors decide to implement the kite balloon as a matter of regulation, compared to the other option of the spherical balloon. During his travels through Europe, in Munich specifically, his first ascent in a captive balloon took place, Paris being the city where he carried out his first free ascent, completing the Paris- route. In another of his travels, this one to Bern in 1899, he traveled to Friedrichshafen to visit the facilities of Count Zeppelin, then dedicated to the construction of the LZ1 that would be raised the following year.
Vives continued with his eagerness for organization and established barracks, parks, and the Aerostation Polygon in Guadalajara, and after overcoming the difficulties that arose, on 1 December 1900, with the first kite-type balloon acquired from Germany, he finally carried out the first "free ascension" of Spanish Military Aeronautics. The crew was made up of Pedro Vives Vich and Captain Fernando Giménez Sáenz, they were followed on horseback towards Alcalá de Henares by the lieutenant of the ballooning company Alfredo Kindelán, who later stated that "the event was not an improvisation. Vives, a methodical and consistent man, did not trust improvisation at all. On the contrary, all his actions and decisions were the fruit of a mature and profound study". This impression is confirmed by the Royal Order of 1901, where the pleasure with which the King Alfonso XIII saw the intelligence and industriousness in the planning and development of the aerostatic service is expressed, on the occasion of the approved report of the Services during the year 1900. The ascensions continued and until June 1903, 24 free flights were made on the balloon named Mars, and 5 on Venus. In an ascension made by the Mars balloon on 25 October 1902, the crew members were prepared to test an idea from Vives, which consisted of a ballast bag tied to a 15-meter-long rope that would allow them to cushion the speed of descent, upon touching the ground and suddenly unloading the corresponding weight, which shows that Vives not only had the desire to fly, but also to experiment to provide solutions to the development of air navigation.
In 1903, Vives and his officers studied the possibility of building themselves the types of balloons they had in operation, that is, spherical and captive kite-type balloons, seeking greater economy in the acquisition of material. Thus in 1903, he took responsibility for the construction of balloons, with the first one completed being a kite type, with a little more volume than the German originals to achieve greater lift; it was given the name Alfonso. The next was the spherical Uranus that participated, along with Jupiter and Mars, in the observation of the solar eclipse on 30 August 1905. At his suggestion, the army adopted the kite-type ballon and then had it built in Guadalajara.
International Congresses of Scientific Aeronautics (1902–1906)
At the beginning of 1902, Vives was the first head of the Aviation Army who, with little military hierarchy, since he was only a commander, convinced General Weyler, Minister of War, to create balloon observer officers and managed to have the first course held that year, which must be attended by one officer from each Corps of Engineers. Due to the Spanish Military Air Force being presented as a reality at the European level at the time, Spain was invited to participate in conferences on ballooning that were to be held in Berlin in May 1902, and Vives was appointed to represent the Ministry of War, and such was his participation that he was unanimously appointed member of the International Commission Permanent Scientific Aerostation. He thus took part in different international congresses of Scientific Aeronautics, such as Berlin in 1902, Peterburg in 1904, or Milan in 1906. In September 1902, his Aerostation Company carried out shooting observation experiences from a balloon at the Carabanchel camp for the first time in Spain, and the success achieved was such that the chief general of the Central Shooting School, who expressed his gratitude, stating that he admired "the scientific knowledge, experience, and military correctness that Lieutenant Colonel Vives has been able to instill in the unit he commands".In 1902, Vives received a technical report from Leonardo Torres Quevedo about his airship project, a steerable aerostat of original design, in case it could be of interest to the Army, but Vives' response was skeptical since he considered that up to now none of those that had been built and tested had military application. However, he went to make the Aerostation Park workshops available to the inventor for the construction and testing of the airship. In 1906, tests were carried out with satisfactory results, but despite the success achieved and the enthusiasm of Torres Quevedo, Alfredo Kindelán, and Vives, the airship was never manufactured in Spain. In 1906 he was made vice-president of the International Aeronautical Society.
In the aforementioned congress of Saint Petersburg in 1904, it was agreed that simultaneous balloon ascensions would be carried out in several European cities, to study the influence of an eclipse on the atmosphere. To this end, on the day of the Solar eclipse of August 30, 1905, ascents were made from the Burgos Artillery Park, with Vives as pilot of the Jupiter, accompanied by Professor Berson and Doctor Romeo, who rose with the purpose of carrying out meteorological and spectroscopic observations of great scientific interest.