1891-????
Emilio Edwards Bello was born in Santiago in 1891, into a
wealthy and influential family with interests in industry and banking.
It was intended that he should study medicine, but while travelling in
Europe in 1908 he met fellow Chilean José Sánchez Besa and they decided
to buy airplanes and learn to fly at the Voisin school.
Their first aviation meeting was the 1909 Grande Semaine of Reims,
where their brand new and untested machine refused to leave the ground.
At the second meeting, in Berlin a month later, Edwards crashed but
escaped almost uninjured. During the Hamburg meeting in November he
crashed into a tree and had to be helped down by the fire brigade,
suffering a deep cut in the lip. The German doctor offered to enlarge
the wound, so that it would look like an impressive duel scar, but
Edwards declined.
After this accident the family ordered him to give up flying and return
home. He then launched into a successful diplomatic career, serving in
different functions in Belgium (at the outbreak of World War 1),
Austria, Britain, USA, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil and finishing as
ambassador in Cuba during the revolution. He spent his last years in
Miami.
Edwards never qualified for a pilot's license.
Emilio Edwards participated in the following air race
meetings:
- Berlin 1909