How a flight to combat locusts in Pelotas, in 1947, made August 19 the National Day of Agricultural Aviation and gave the country the second largest and one of the best agricultural aviation on the planet
Pelotas, 1947. Unusually warm winter days in the Southern Cone of the American continent had brought, for the second consecutive year, clouds of locusts even below the 28th parallel of Argentine territory.
A common phenomenon in Argentine lands, recorded since the times of the Spanish colony, mass flocks of locusts hungry for crops (and almost everything that was green along the way) had already given rise in the country, even in the 19th century, a specialized service in your control.
But again the insects had crossed from the Chaco to Santa Fe and entered the province of Corientes, skirting the Rio Grande do Sul border to enter Uruguay. In the previous year, they had taken the same path to invade Gaucho territory from the south and without resistance. This time it would be different.
It was just after four o'clock in the afternoon on August 19th (75 years ago exactly), when the Muniz M-9 biplane, prefix PP-GAP, from the Aeroclube de Pelotas, started to rumble with its 200 hp Havilland Gipsy Six engine.
In command was Clóvis Gularte Candiota, then 26 years old, but one of the most experienced pilots in the region – "son of give wings to Brazil campaign, which equipped air clubs in the 40s and a veteran of World War II patrol flights along the Rio Grande do Sul coast.
Along with him, the agronomist Antônio Leôncio de Andrade Fontelles, head of the local post of the Ministry of Agriculture, was preparing to put into operation a sprayer equipment, which he had ordered from a local tinsmith and had been attached to the plane. The device's design had been copied from foreign publications. And they were about to try a technique that had appeared 26 years earlier in the United States.
The cloud of locusts about which farmers in the region had been alerted ended up being intercepted at the end of the afternoon, near the current Areal neighborhood – in the east zone of the city. Insects were settling in what was then a rural area. After the application, Candiota and Fontelles were unable to immediately confirm whether the operation had worked.
"With what we knew about aviation, and what we didn't know about locusts, the battle seemed pointless. And we were already preparing to endure the natural mockery of our friends, when the tragedy subsided”, has arrived telling the pilot, in a report made 24 years later, at the first agricultural aviation event held in Brazil – promoted in São Paulo by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Despite neighboring Argentina having used planes against locusts since 1926 and Uruguay having formed an aerial brigade against insects in 46, Brazil was still “in the dark” about the tool. At a time when news and technologies often took time to propagate quickly. However, at dawn the following day, the success of the operation in Pelotas was confirmed, with the sight of the locusts completely eliminated in the field.
DEVELOPMENT
Operations continued in the following weeks to protect farmers from insects – the locust plague between 1946 and 47 was one of the biggest in the country’s history. Shortly afterwards, betting on the efficiency of the new tool, Candiota and Fontelles also became partners in the first agricultural aeronautical company in the country, the National Air Service for Agricultural Defense – Sanda. The company provided services and fight against locusts and other pests for the government of Rio Grande do Sul and rural producers.
It lasted until the end of the 50s, when Fontelles went to Rio de Janeiro and Candiota switched from aviation to commerce and social actions. The State of Rio Grande do Sul ended up taking over the agricultural aviation service to serve the producers. The example of what the Ministry of Agriculture did with the campaign against the coffee berry borer, in São Paulo.
In the 1960s, other agricultural aviation companies began to emerge, the sector was organized at the end of the decade, when the legislation of the activity was born and the agricultural pilot and specialization courses for engineers and agricultural technicians to work in the sector appeared. To date, agricultural aviation is the only tool with specific and broad regulation in Brazil. Which, combined with the high technology onboard, makes it one of the safest and most efficient tools in the field. On top of that, today it is also acting strongly in fighting forest fires – protecting both crops and natural reserves against the flames.
Clóvis Candiota died in April 1976 and, in April 1989, he became Patron of Agricultural Aviation. that by Decree-Law 97.699, which also made the 19th of August official as National Agricultural Aviation Day.
Today, the Brazilian aero-agricultural sector is the second largest and one of the best in the world, with more than 2,4 aircraft operating in at least 23 states – in crops such as sugar cane, soy, corn, cotton, coffee, forests commercial and others, in the application of chemical or biological pesticides and fertilizers, in addition to the sowing of pastures. In addition, the sector currently also covers the remote aircraft segment, innovating in technology and increasing safety in the primary sector.
First agricultural air operation was with a national plane
The Muniz biplane used in the first agricultural air operation in Brazil was a domestically manufactured aircraft. The M-9 was a more modern variant of the Muniz M-7, in turn, the first aircraft produced in series in Brazil. The biplanes were designed by the then Army Major Antônio Guedes Muniz. The M-7, the pioneer, had its first flight October 17, 1935.
With good performance and resistance, the Muniz were training devices and were first sold to the Military Aviation School. Afterwards, production began to be directed towards aero clubs. Manufacturing was in charge of the Brazilian Aviation Factory, founded in 1934 by the industrialist Henrique Lage, in Rio de Janeiro.
The company was the first aircraft factory installed in Brazil. It later changed its name to Companhia Nacional de Navegação Aérea (CNNA) and ended its production in 1948. Until 1951 it remained in the maintenance branch, before definitively closing its doors.
Street: SINDAG
