Casimiro Montenegro Filho
Casimiro Montenegro Filho was a Brazilian army and air force officer. He reached the rank of Marechal-do-ar, the highest rank of the Brazilian Air Force rank system.
Born in Fortaleza, Montenegro joined Realengo Military School in 1923, and in 1928 became an Aspirant in the Brazilian army's first class of aviators for its new Military Aviation Arm. He later served under Eduardo Gomes, another future Marshal of the Air.
In 1943, while a lieutenant-colonel, he proposed the creation of the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica - ITA - and the Centro Técnico de Aeronáutica - CTA, later Centro Técnico Aeroespacial - CTA and Comando-Geral de Tecnologia Aeroespacial - CTA, nowadays the :pt:Departamento de ciência e tecnologia aeroespacial|Departamento de Ciência e Tecnologia Aeroespacial - DCTA.
Two years later, that proposal was translated into a plan, with the collaboration of MIT Professor Richard Harbert Smith, who became, in the sequence, the first rector of ITA. Montenegro died in Petrópolis at the age of 95.
