Pedro Vives

Pedro Vives Vich (20 January 1858 – 9 March 1938) was a Spanish military engineer, politician, and aerial observer, who was the main pioneer of Spanish ballooning and aviation, both military and civil. In 1896, Vives was made head of the Servicios de Aerostación ("Aerostation Services"), and at his suggestion, the army adopted the kite-type ballon and then had it built in Guadalajara. He was the first Spaniard to fly in an airplane in 1909. He served as the first Chief of the Spanish Air Force, which was founded in 1913 at his request.

He was also a publicist, and as such, he directed several technical studies, directed military works (in the Pyrenees, Lleida, Cuba, Morocco), including the First Melillan campaign in 1893. In Africa, he not only participated in war flights, but also created new aerodromes. He later became the military governor of Cartagena in 1922–23, and then as the Development Minister of Spain between 1923 and 1925. He left an enormous and multifaceted technical work for the beginning of Spanish aviation and for the modernization of the public works of the State.