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Number 31 Winter 2011

• Flying to Ceuta, by Javier Ronda. Heliport traffic has become consolidated in Ceuta, 15 years after the first flight link of this kind was made with the Spanish mainland. Although initially a military airfield was used for this service, currently and for seven years now, there are new modern facilities and daily flight links with the Málaga-Costa del Sol airport and the new heliport in Algeciras. Having become a true alternative to travelling by sea, several helicopters a day fly over the skies of Ceuta. Together with the mythical hydroplanes which were used at the beginning of the last century as a means of transport, they are the only man-made birds that have criss-crossed the heavens in a city which has no airport.
• The magic and the achievements of the hot air balloon, by Juan Manuel Riesgo. The desire to fly has been a constant feature in man's history. The first flying artefacts and devices were soon followed by hot air balloons. Father Gusmao or Guzmán, the Montgolfier brothers, the physicist Jacques Charles, the Spaniard Agustín de Betancourt or the multitalented Lunardi, are some the names that feature in the early achievements of the hot air balloon. To these we must add some more recent fliers like the famous Emilio Herrera or the adventurers González Green and Feliú. It is to all of the aforementioned and others too, that this article is dedicated which narrates the milestones in the history of hot air ballooning.
• The Little Prince was born in the Sahara Desert, by Carlos Saldaña Fernández. It is difficult to believe that The Little Prince, one of the most widely read books in French, translated into 180 languages, was dreamed up during the days when Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was lost in the Sahara after undergoing an accident when he was flying his mail plane, but upon reading some paragraphs, this suspicion is confirmed. After all, The Little Prince is the story of a pilot who has had an accident in the desert. When it came to be written, many other of Saint-Exupéry's real life adventures were also included: The times he was rescued on land and at sea, and those when it was him who had rescued fallen colleagues.
• Spotters, planes caught by the camera lens, by Victoria Hinojosa. The attraction and fascination that aviation has aroused since its most early beginnings has evolved towards new forms of expression. The most recent, but increasing more widespread, is that practised by spotters, true plane-lovers who spend their free time at airports watching aircraft, logging registration numbers, recording manoeuvres and, above all, taking camera shots of everything to do with the world of aviation.
• The brushes of aviation, by Carmen de Cima. Some plastic artists have combined their passion for painting with an unlimited admiration for a particular motif or activity, be it dance, portraits, the sea, the races or the world of aviation. This articles recalls and is dedicated to those artists fascinated by flight and by the whole atmosphere around it, be it the sight of an aircraft crossing the skies, an aerial view from above the clouds or the scene of a pilot training.
• Contemporary art in the heart of the Trail of el Cid, by Diego Arribas. In the interior of the province of Teruel, there where one recalls the adventures of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar in the Cantar del Mío Cid, we find the Salvador Victoria Museum Foundation of Contemporary Art. Located in Rubielos de Mora, the wealth of its assets and the presence of some of the most prestigious artists' names comes as a surprise to those who come and visit this privileged natural and cultural spot.
• Interview with Juan Navarro Baldeweg: “I like to take paths as yet to be explored”, by Félix Santos.
• The airport age. The tours of the future, by Felipe Benítez Reyes.
• Illustrations -originals by Adrián Navarro.