A Flight Plan on the Periphery: Early Peruvian Aviation and the Shadow of U.S. Influence, 1920–50

Did early aviation success allow Peru to confront Western modernity on its own terms, or did it deepen dependence on the United States? Could a country on the “periphery” import aviation technology, training, and infrastructure without sacrificing national autonomy? My paper examines Peru’s complex relationship with the United States and other aviation innovators during early commercial flight. The success of Peruvian pilots in European aviation competitions in 1910 generated great optimism that this new technology could lift the geographically and racially fragmented country out of its perceived backwardness. Economic difficulties and a ghastly number of pilot deaths slowed the project, but by 1928 two companies began transporting passengers and mail from the capital city of Lima to other parts of the country and continent. In the 1920s North American pilots, airplanes, and capital equipped Peruvians to connect to an Atlantic world galvanized by flight. Yet as early as the 1930s the Peruvian congress bristled at United States influence and debated protectionist measures for national airlines. Congress blamed North American hand-me-down planes and parts for Peru’s frightful safety record. Politicians even rushed to dispel the perception that Peruvian pilots were less skilled than North American counterparts.

Peru’s desire to join the modern ranks of the United States and other nations through aviation illuminates a less understood aspect of modernity – that is, why this historical vision has provided a powerful organizing force on the ground. Although it is impossible to deny the heavy footprint of the United States in Peruvian aviation, my research suggests that North American influence was not totalizing. Rather, I attempt to understand the global power dynamics and the historical context in which Peru made important choices about technological modernization through aviation.