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A question on the Brazilian Air Force Academy crest


CDWells
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I picked of a patch for the Academy last year and I was about part of the inscription. I know the Latin is a quote from Virgil's "The Aenead" (and very appropriate) and the two years refer to the year the air services were authorized and the Air Force proper was founded. Can anyone what the two bits between the years and the Latin are? I've never seen anything like them and can't find anything.

 "19 X 1901" and "23 X 1906" aren't turning up anything online. Can anyone enlighten me? It's been confounding me for months.

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Dune Panther

As I well know what it is like to be confounded for months about a particular detail, I will take a crack at answering this. Although I know very little of anything Brazilian and do not speak the language (but I do know how to conduct certain military research subjects).

 

I believe that "19 X 1901" and "23 X 1906" concern when pioneering events of Brazilian aviation took place, the "X" in the dates being the Roman numeral ten and indicating the month of October in both of them (numerous different countries have used Roman numerals in their date configurations over the years so this is not necessarily unusual to see). 

 

"19 X 1901" appears to reference when Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont made a historic airship flight in Paris on 19 October 1901.[1]

 

"23 X 1906" appears to refer to an event in the operational history of a biplane known as a 14-bis, designed and built by Santos-Dumont. On 23 October 1906 and during trials of the aircraft in France, the 14-bis piloted by Santos-Dumont made a flight of over 50 m (160 ft) at an altitude of 3–5 m (10–16+1⁄2 ft).[2]

 

This is likely what these numerals as dates indicate. I have also added an image of what I believe is the crest in question below.

 

Hope this helps. Cheers!

 

[1] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alberto-Santos-Dumont (see the third paragraph).

 

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos-Dumont_14-bis (see the "Operational History" section).

 

Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Air_Force_Academy

 

1a1 BAFA Crest.JPG

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Oh, the image didn't upload. Sorry.

Thank you so, so much. It was driving me mad. Every time I cycled through my research projects, that one mocked me! I'd never seen a date written that way, even though I thought it could be one. You don't know how happy I am right now. That makes so much sense. I'm calling it done and thanks so much again!

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Dune Panther
On 6/24/2022 at 9:27 AM, CDWells said:

Oh, the image didn't upload. Sorry.

Thank you so, so much. It was driving me mad. Every time I cycled through my research projects, that one mocked me! I'd never seen a date written that way, even though I thought it could be one. You don't know how happy I am right now. That makes so much sense. I'm calling it done and thanks so much again!

 

No problem, I am still getting used to how things work here myself (like adding images). Glad I was able to help! Incidentally, the first time saw dates expressed like that was in handwritten WWII German documents that I was trying to figure out. The learning process with all of this never ends.   

 

On 6/24/2022 at 11:47 AM, Proud Kraut said:

Great research Dune Panther!

 

Many thanks!

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