Still wearing a lapel miniature of his red-star wings, he is one of a handful of living fliers who were present when World War I met World War II in Spanish skies.īravo's war began in July 1936, when much of the Spanish army, led by a junta of generals, rebelled against a newly elected popular front government, a volatile coalition of liberals, communists, workers, anarchists, and separatists. Affable and a bit frail at 91, he likes an arm to hang onto while the cameras flash, but it's no stretch to imagine him in this muscular little airplane. The veteran ace absorbs the attention with the ease of a rock star. As he often does on such occasions, José Bravo poses for photographs beside the olive-drab Mosca, which wears his old aircraft number, CM-249, and the seis doble-the double-six domino tile-painted on its vertical stabilizer. On this fine autumn Saturday, both man and machine are here. Later that day the watch will be presented to the airplane's most famous pilot, José María Bravo Fernández-Hermosa. The timepiece is named Mosca, for a Russian-built fighter that flew in the Spanish Civil War 70 years ago. At the Cuatro Vientos airport on the outskirts of Madrid, a small party has gathered at the Infante de Orleans foundation's aviation museum to celebrate a new design by a local watchmaker.
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