Félix Rigau Carrera

1894–1954 · Puerto Rican

Military and civil aviation

LatinoPilotsMilitary AviationManufacturing

WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW THEM

First Puerto Rican pilot; first Hispanic fighter pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps; established Puerto Rico's first airmail route

THEIR STORY

Félix Rigau Carrera earned a mechanical engineering degree from the Colegio de Agricultura y Artes Mecánicas — now the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez — before turning to aviation. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1914 and joined the aviation section of the Army Signal Corps, becoming the first Puerto Rican pilot in history. He later transferred into the U.S. Marine Corps, where he flew as a fighter pilot during World War I, becoming the first Hispanic fighter pilot in Marine Corps history. His nickname, "El Águila de Sabana Grande" (The Eagle of Sabana Grande), stuck for the rest of his life and beyond — it remains a lasting cultural reference in Puerto Rico today. He bought his own Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" biplane, funded by money pooled together from his four siblings, and used it through the 1920s and 30s to pioneer Puerto Rico's earliest passenger and airmail routes, building real civil aviation infrastructure on the island essentially from nothing. He later settled in Virginia, running a concrete business and a funeral home, and served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II. He was posthumously inducted into the Puerto Rico Veterans Hall of Fame in 2020. American Legion Post 36 in Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico, is named in his honor.

WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DID

As a civil aviation pioneer, Rigau Carrera didn't just fly — he organized and flew Puerto Rico's earliest scheduled air routes, the same kind of route-planning and logistics work behind any commercial airline network today, just at the very first, most improvised stage.

DID YOU KNOW?

He bought his own airplane with money pooled together from his four siblings.His nickname, "El Águila de Sabana Grande," remains a lasting cultural reference in Puerto Rico today.