On January 8, 1910 Alberto Braniff took off for the first flight ever in Mexico and LatinAmerica. His plane, the “Voisin”, built by Gabriel Voisin in Paris, took off from the Balbuena plains near Mexico City and flew for 1.5 kms, reaching a velocity of 56 kms an hour and the dizzy height of 25 mts. A year later, Mexican President Francisco I. Madero became the first world’s Chief of State to fly on an airplane.  Charles Lindbergh flew for the first time over Mexican territory on 1927, and it was the beginning of a fond relationship with the country.  In 1929 he agreed to be in command of Cia. Mexicana de Aviación’s inaugural flight on their first international route: Mexico-Tampico-Brownsville (F.A.M.8).

That is how the history of the Mexican aviation took off…

Today, silently, Mexican aerospace industry occupies the world’s first place in manufacture investments, with 33,000 mdd for the period 1990-2009. According to AeroStrategy Consulting, Mexico had the most manufacturing investments of any country of a survey that included, among others, China, USA, India, Russia and Japan. Consequently, it considers Mexico has created a robust aerospace manufacturing cluster over the last decade with more than 186 aerospace firms with exports in excess of 3 billion usd.

Mexico has garnered the most manufacturing investments due to important  (1) access to a low-cost, dependable, and skilled labor force, as evidenced by Mexico’s strong record in the automotive and consumer electronic industries, (2) the completion of the U.S.-Mexico bilateral aviation safety agreement, which lets manufacturers certify and ship components directly from Mexican factories, (3) obvious proximity to U.S. and Canadian aerospace supply chains, facilitating reliable, low-cost ground Transportation and also, (4) Mexico’s elimination of duties for aeronautic components.

On top of that, a month ago was approved the Law that gives birth to the Mexican Space Agency. So, two astronauts having flown in USA Space Shuttle, and a Mexican Space Agency later, it seems Mexico’s flying future is taking off to new heights!!