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José Ortiz-Echagüe (August 2, 1886; Guadalajara - September 7, 1980; Madrid) was a Spanish entrepreneur, industrial and military engineer, pilot and photographer, founder of Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) and Honorary lifetime President of SEAT (Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo). He was also nominated Gentilhombre de cámara con ejercicio (Gentleman of the Bedchamber) during the reign of the King of Spain Alfonso XIII. ==Biography== José Ortiz-Echagüe was the third child of the military engineer Antonio Ortiz and his wife Dolores Echagüe. The couple had two daughters and five sons, one of whom died young as a military aspirant. At his birth, José's father was a professor at the Academy of Military Engineers in Guadalajara. When the father, three years later, was appointed chief of the military garrison in Logroño, the capital of La Rioja, the family moved to Logroño, where José grew up and went to school. He used to consider himself a 'riojano'.〔José Antonio Vidal-Quadras: (Ortiz-Echagüe y Navarra ). ''Príncipe de Viana'', 54. Jahrgang, Nr. 198, 1993, S. 51-71〕 His three-year older brother, Antonio Ortiz-Echagüe, wanted to be a painter, even though in the family of the father and the mother there had been no known artists but several militaries. Antonio was therefore sent to Paris, and over the years he became an internationally known portrait painter of the early twentieth century. His work is found in an entire dedicated room in the Museo San Telmo in San Sebastián, where their parents lived after the retirement of their father. In the beginning José Ortiz-Echagüe had aimed for himself to turn to painting too. He discovered the art of photography at the age of 12, when he received as a present his first photographic camera from an uncle who was military attaché in Paris: it was a Kodak camera with which he took his first photographs and began to develop his artistic talent. In 1903, he made a photo in La Rioja during the sermon in a village church ('Sermon en la aldea'), for which he received the first prize in the following year at an exhibition in Vitoria. Already in 1904, the Spanish photo magazine 'Graphos Ilustrado' published a report on his photos. But being the son of an Andalusian military engineer and in order to respect his father's will since their finances did not allow to send a second son to Paris, in 1903 he joined the Academy of Military engineers in Guadalajara. Thereupon his training and graduation, he served in the Balloon unit during the Spanish-Moroccan War in North Africa. He acquired his aerostat and aircraft pilot license in 1911, being the third Spanish man awarded to it. Another distinction came in 1914, as he flew - along with Captain Herrera - first over the Strait of Gibraltar. In 1916 he married his wife Carmen Rubio in Madrid. The marriage resulted in eight children, three of whom are still alive today. Between 1909 and 1916 while he had moved to the Spanish Protectorate of Morocco, he started his photographic documentary passion, which he continued on his return to Spain. In his photo images he captured not only landscapes and monuments but also human beings as well as their rituals. As an entrepreneur and an engineer he is renowned for his work in the field of aviation and automobile industry. The beginning of his activity in the aircraft manufacturing business was marked in 1913 during his attempt to fly with a Morane-Saulnier from Paris to Madrid. When the plane caught fire, Ortiz-Echagüe not only managed to rescue himself as well as the engine undamaged, but he also brought it to Morocco and - in the middle of a military operation - used this for the construction of a new aircraft. After his final return from North Africa he founded in 1923 the aircraft manufacturer 'Construcciones Aeronáuticas S.A.' (C.A. S.A.) in Seville (licensed manufacturer by Bücker, Dornier, Heinkel, Junkers; today its successor EADS CASA is a partner in the construction of Airbus aircraft as a branch of EADS).〔(Airbus Military History ) About José Ortiz-Echagüe〕 Later, in 1950, he established the first assembly line Spanish car maker 'Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo S.A.' (S.E.A.T. S.A.) becoming its first ever President to be eventually appointed its Executive President until 1976, a year when he was named Honorary lifetime President of this car company (since 1986 SEAT has been a subsidiary of the Volkswagen group). Being a pioneer throughout his life, in 1959, once again he was flying at the age of 72 years as a co-pilot in a F-100 Sabre of the United States Air Force, which - as happened at that time with all U.S. combat aircraft in Europe - had been repaired at the CASA factory. He was by then the oldest person to fly at supersonic speed. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「José Ortiz-Echagüe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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