185 – ENG

In 1915, a native from Hidalgo, engineer Juan Guillermo Villasana (1891-1959), invented the Anáhuac propeller, a contribution that revolutionized the world of aviation by achieving a propeller model that surpassed everything that existed at the time and allowed to reach a flight with greater elevation and stability. 

The initiator of aeronautics in Mexico and founder of Mexican Civil Aviation, Villasana López, designed the first gliders that flew over Pachuca. At 13 years old he had already made a series of airplane models of his own creation.

For the construction of the Anáhuac propeller he used his knowledge in carpentry to create a design made with an assembly of different types of wood, which had a radial exit corner, and a constant cord width at its middle length, giving the planes greater elevation and stability.

Thanks to this invention, the world height record was surpassed in 1919, when an American pilot in Japan reached up to 6,000 meters above sea level, being that at the time they did not go over 2,423 meters. 

The United States and Japan, among other countries, wanted to buy the patent, but the engineer preferred to donate it to the government of Mexico, who gave the friendly nations a copy of it. The Japanese government, through General Gaishi Nagaoka, awarded Villasana the Imperial Medal in 1919