Domingo Rosillo del Toro

First flight across the Florida Strait, from Key West to Havana (May 17, 1913), setting a new world distance-over-water record

Domingo Rosillo del Toro was born in Oran, in what was then French Algeria, but built his life and identity as Cuban, becoming one of the first pilots anywhere to hold a license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale after earning it in October 1912. His defining flight came on May 17, 1913: he flew a monoplane from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba, in two hours and thirty minutes — the first time anyone had flown across the Florida Strait, and a new world record for distance flown over open water, beating the previous mark held by the famous French aviator Louis Blériot. The achievement made him a genuine national hero: an estimated 50,000 people turned out to meet him when he landed in Havana. He was recognized as a Captain in the Cuban Armed Forces afterward. His aviation career continued well beyond that single famous flight. Starting in November 1916, he worked in Barcelona, Spain, as a flight instructor, later becoming director of the Escuela Catalana de Aviación, training a generation of Spanish pilots. He returned to Cuba in 1937 to lead the Secretariat of the National Academy of Civil Aviation and Air Reserve, applying his decades of flying and teaching experience to building Cuba's own civil aviation institutions.

Rosillo flew a fragile early monoplane nonstop over open water for more than two hours using only period-accurate navigation instruments, with no ability to land or recover if anything went wrong along the way — real risk with no safety net.

A nonstop over-water flight with no diversion options is a direct, historic example of exactly the kind of careful fuel and route planning still central to any cross-country or overwater flight briefing today.

An estimated 50,000 people turned out to meet him in Havana after his historic flight.He later became a flight instructor in Barcelona, Spain, training a generation of Spanish pilots.

Wikipedia (Spanish); CubaPLUS Magazine

Photo: Florida Keys–Public Libraries (Dewey Riggs Collection) · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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