Post by Pedro J. Abreu

“To produce airplanes, we must first produce engineers.” With that in mind, Casimiro Montenegro Filho goes on a mission to the United States in 1944, taking with him a draft plan for the creation of an aeronautical engineering school. It would be discussed with Professor Richard Harbert Smith, then head of the Department of Aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Montenegro later hired renowned foreign professors and experts from various parts of the world, most of them from the MIT, including Professor Smith himself. But it was not until January 16, 1950 that was officially created the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica - ITA (English: Aeronautics Institute of Technology), an institution of higher education which is consistently ranked as one of the top engineering schools in Brazil and engages in advanced research in aerospace science and technology. I am extremely grateful to have been, both as a student and as a researcher, part of one of the schools that can truly claim to be shaping the future while preparing leaders and fostering technological innovation.