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The Adventure of the Dornier 15/16 was an early attempt by the brother of General Franco to cross the Atlantic

An unusual concert is being held on Saturday 21^st June in the Plaza Manuel Floreal Menárquez, outside the Town Hall in Los Alcázares, to commemorate a historic seaplane flight which departed from the air base on the shore of the Mar Menor 96 years ago.

This flight has come to be known as “The Adventure of the Dornier 15/16”, and was an attempt by Ramón Franco, brother of the then future dictator of Spain Francisco, to cross the Atlantic and reach New York from Los Alcázares. On 21^st June 1929 the young aviation pioneer set out with a crew of four hoping to make history, but after 8 days missing they were rescued from the ocean by the British aircraft carrier Eagle.

This was still a time of heroic deeds in the world of aviation – Ramón Franco was already 12 years old when the Wright brothers achieved the first verified flight of any kind - and despite their failure the airmen were eventually welcomed as heroes when they eventually made it to New York.

At the same time, their ambitious flight firmly established Los Alcázares on the map, cementing the growth of a town which was nothing but a few fishermen’s homes before the establishment of the seaplane airbase, the first of its kind in Spain, a few years previously.

In addition, Ramón Franco fell out of favour with the ruling government of the time, led by Miguel Primo de Rivera, when he published a book about the flight entitled “Águilas y garras”: the book was banned due to its criticism of the Spanish Dornier company which manufactured his aircraft, of the Spanish meteorological service and of the Spanish air force, and the author was held in custody on numerous occasions.

At one point he rebelled against the government along with other airmen at the Cuatro Vientos base in Madrid and threatened to launch a bombing raid on the Royal Palace in Madrid, but then fled in exile to Lisbon

His adventurous life came to an end in 1938, during the Spanish Civil War, when his plane crashed during a bombing raid on either Valencia or Barcelona – specific details are not clear.

This commemorative concert on Saturday 21^st June takes place at 20.00 and features the Agrupación Musical Sauces under the baton of Pedro Cánovas performing a little-known pasodoble written in 1929 by Germán Rivacoba, which was discovered years after it was composed in a lost archive.

For more local information contact the tourist offices in Los Alcázares or go to the home page of Los Alcázares Today.

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