This book is the first of two volumes of “Historia de los aeropuertos de Madrid”.

The origin of aeronautics in the Spanish capital can be dated to 1783 when Agustín de Betancourt sent up the first Spanish hot-air balloon on 29 November.

From hot-air balloons to the first wood and cloth aeroplanes, the skies of Madrid have been crossed continuously by a variety of craft which mankind has used to fulfil his dream of emulating the birds.

But slowly, aviation stopped being an adventure and became a safe mode of transport, both for passengers and for goods. Soon, it was essential to have some facilities, primitive at first, so that aircraft operations could be undertaken while sheltering the passengers from bad weather. Some clear fields free of obstacles were chosen in the municipality of Barajas and the airport of Madrid-Barajas was opened to traffic on 22 April 1931. Since then, the airport has never ceased to develop and has become Spain's gateway to the outside, bringing undisputable value to the economy, society and to the city of Madrid. Recently, Terminal 4 was inaugurated, which will allow the handling of twice as much traffic as before and will, no doubt, provide its users with comfortable facilities, in keeping with the importance of this aerodrome on the world stage.

During all this time, the airport has gone through various stages, reflecting not only the changes of air transport in our country, but also the history of the people of Madrid; from those astonishing facilities of the '50s that were visited by so many of them, posing in front of would-be photographers with planes in the background as the unmistakable signs of modernity, to the modern and sophisticated facilities of T-4 that may soon also become a celebrated symbol of our capital.