Spanish Air and Space Force
air and space warfare branch of Spain's armed forces
The Spanish Air and Space Force (Spanish: Ejército del Aire y del Espacio, lit. 'Army of the Air and Space') is the aerial and space warfare branch of the Spanish Armed Forces. It is part of the Ministry of Defence and is one of the three constitutionally recognized military branches.
The Spanish Air Force traces its origins to 28 February 1913, when King Alfonso XIII issued a royal decree creating the "Military Aeronautical Service" within the Spanish Army. This service functioned as the air branch of the Armed Forces until the Spanish Civil War, when it split into two factions. After the war, the current Air Force was created. In June 2022, it was renamed as "Air and Space Force" to reflect the new space capabilities this branch has acquired in recent years.
History
Early stages
Hot air balloons have been used with military purposes in Spain as far back as 1896. In 1905, with the help of Alfredo Kindelán, Leonardo Torres Quevedo directed the construction of the first Spanish dirigible in the Army Military Aerostatics Service, created in 1896 and located in Guadalajara. The new airship was completed successfully in 1908 and, named 'Torres Quevedo', made numerous test and exhibition flights.
The Spanish Army's air arm, however, took off formally in 1909 when Colonel Pedro Vives and Captain Alfredo Kindelán made an official trip to different European cities to check the potential of introducing airships and airplanes in the Spanish Armed Forces.
“Spanish Air and Space Force” enters the record as air and space warfare branch of Spain's armed forces. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Spanish, Space and Force can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Spanish Air and Space Force” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.