* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
At the entrance to Reus Airport we can see this Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star plane as an allegorical monument in the world of aviation, so linked to the history of this town and the work of the Reus architect Antoni Gaudí, with some towers of the Sagrada Family from Barcelona in the middle of the clouds.
Aviation and modernism come together in this monument, which I have portrayed in La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos, to welcome all tourists and people arriving by plane to Reus and the Costa Daurada.
It is a two-seat training jet aircraft built in the United States from the late 1950s (produced from 1948 to 1959) and belonged to the Air Force as a result of US aid at that time.
It is a reminder of what was once the now defunct Reus Air Base, which had that same plane, already retired from service at that time, as a monument in its central square.
Those of us who did military service in aviation at this base, as is my case, still have memories of this aircraft. Specifically, I drew this plane to make the Christmas card for the Reus Air Base in 1992 when I was doing what was then called “military service”.
We have a part of aviation history in our city of Reus very close to us.
