Emilio Carranza

Who was Emilio Carranza?

Captain Emilio Carranza Rodríguez was a noted Mexican aviator and national hero, nicknamed the "Lindbergh of Mexico". He was killed while returning from a historic goodwill flight from Mexico City to the United States.

He was the great-nephew of President Venustiano Carranza of Mexico and the nephew of famed Mexican aviator Alberto Salinas Carranza. At age 18, he took part against the Yaqui Indians's rebellion in Sonora and helped to put down the de la Huerta rebellion. While in Sonora, he crashed and his face had to be reassembled with platinum screws. At age 22, on May 24–25, 1928, he set the record for the third longest non-stop solo flight by flying 1,875 miles from San Diego, California to Mexico City in 18.5 h.

In the summer of 1928, he became a national hero when he was selected to undertake a goodwill flight from Mexico City to New York City in response to the previous year's flight from New York City to Mexico City undertaken by Charles Lindbergh. Flying his plane The Excelsior, he landed in Washington, D.C on June 12, 1928, where he was congratulated by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge. Flying on to New York, Carranza landed at Roosevelt Field on Long Island and was honored in New York City by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover and New York City mayor Jimmy Walker. Owing to violent weather, he was urged to remain in New York by Charles Lindbergh and others.