Why Does South Korea's Air Force Source Transport Aircraft from Coffee Nation?

In 2023, the Defense Acquisition Program Administration selected Brazil's Embraer C-390 as the model for the second phase of its large transport aircraft project. In the first phase, U.S. Lockheed Martin was chosen, and four aircraft were delivered in 2014. Brazil, known as the land of coffee, surpassed the world's largest defense contractor, Lockheed Martin. Though less known, Embraer is the world's third-largest aircraft manufacturer. The starting point of Brazil's rise as an aviation powerhouse lies with Alberto Santos-Dumont. Santos-Dumont's father, a descendant of French immigrants, earned a large fortune through coffee plantations. In 1891, the father, who had suffered serious injuries, went to France with his son for treatment. Santos-Dumont, upon seeing the Eiffel Tower there, became fascinated by the new civilization. As his father's condition worsened, he sold the plantation and converted it into financial assets, then spoke to his son as if leaving a final wish: 'Go to Paris, the most dangerous place for a young man. I hope you won't become a doctor. The future world lies in mechanical engineering. You don't need to worry about making money. I'll give you enough to live comfortably for life.' On October 19, 1901, Paris cheered as a dirigible circled the Eiffel Tower. The pilot was 28-year-old Santos-Dumont. Following his father's wishes, he returned to France and aimed to make flight a practical means of transportation. Although hot air and hydrogen balloons were invented in France in 1783, it was difficult to arrive at a destination at a desired time. In the late 19th century, dirigibles equipped with propellers emerged, enabling directional control. The French Aero Club offered a large prize for a dirigible to make a round trip from the outskirts of Paris to the Eiffel Tower within 30 minutes. Santos-Dumont finally succeeded after several attempts. At the time, he struggled to check the time with a pocket watch during flight and sought help from a close friend—French jeweler Louis Cartier. In 1904, Cartier developed a wristwatch that allowed him to easily check the time while flying. This marked the birth of the early modern wristwatch. Later commercialized under the name *Santos*, the watch remains a core line in Cartier's wristwatch collection. Meanwhile, in the summer of 1903, people were surprised when Santos-Dumont's dirigible landed at a polo match in Paris, where a national competition between the U.S. and Britain was taking place. The pilot who disembarked was a woman—18-year-old American Aida de Acosta. Famous in social circles, she had come to Paris on a trip and became fascinated by Santos-Dumont's flight. Santos-Dumont willingly taught her to pilot, entrusting her with a solo flight, while he followed on a bicycle. Although the game was interrupted when the dirigible suddenly landed, she took off again shortly after and returned. She was the first woman to solo control a powered aircraft. However, dirigibles had the disadvantage of requiring multiple ground crew for takeoff and landing. In the winter of 1903, news of the Wright brothers' flight spread. Unlike dirigibles using hot air or hydrogen balloons, the Wright brothers succeeded in the first powered flight with a *heavier-than-air* aircraft. However, their first airplane took off on rails without wheels. In contrast, Santos-Dumont believed that adding wheels would allow self takeoff and landing on the ground. Shifting from dirigibles, Santos-Dumont embarked on developing his own aircraft and created a wheeled plane. On October 23, 1906, Santos-Dumont flew approximately 60 meters. Without rails, it took off under its own power, and the flight was officially recognized by judges and numerous spectators. Unlike the Wright brothers, who faced patent lawsuits, he did not monopolize his design. By publicly sharing his blueprints, he contributed to the spread of early aircraft manufacturing. By around 1910, due to successive accidents and deteriorating health, Santos-Dumont withdrew from research. Particularly when aircraft were used as weapons in World War I, his depression worsened, leading him to convalesce in Switzerland and elsewhere. Returning to his homeland, Brazil, in 1931, he was deeply shocked when aircraft were again mobilized for combat during the 1932 Brazilian Constitutionalist Revolution. On July 23 of that year, three days after his 59th birthday, he took his own life. The Brazilian government, amid a civil war, declared three days of national mourning in his honor and held a state funeral with honors equivalent to a head of state. He was revered as the *inventor of powered flight* and a figure who elevated Brazil's name globally. After the civil war, in 1936, a new airport opened in Rio de Janeiro bearing Santos-Dumont's name. To commemorate the historic flight of 1906, October 23 was designated as *Aviators' Day*. Today, this date is also Brazil's *Air Force Day*. A scene of Santos-Dumont's flight appeared in the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics. National pride in him led to industry. In 1941, the Brazilian government established an aviation department and adopted aviation as a national strategic industry. Subsequently, universities and research institutions related to aviation were successively established. Based on this accumulated technology and trained personnel, Embraer was born in 1969. Today, Brazil remains the world's largest coffee producer but is also a global aircraft manufacturer. Money earned from coffee gave a boy the dream of flight, and he left Brazil with the dream of aviation. Brazil's coffee raised Santos-Dumont, and he became the seed of Brazil's aviation industry.