Ozires Silva, engineer and a pioneer in the Brazilian aviation industry as well as the leader of the group of visionaries who created Embraer. The company recently released an animated short film to celebrate the Brazilian aviation legend 90th birthday.
The 14-minute-long 3D film reveals Ozires Silva's life starting with his childhood alongside his inseparable friend nicknamed Zico and progressing to his career as a military pilot and aeronautic engineer at Brazilian Air Force, where his dream of designing an aircraft materializes. In 1969 Mr Silva led the team that founded Embraer.
The story starts in the early 1940s, when the two boys used to meet on a park bench in Bauru city, in the Midwest of São Paulo State, to talk about aviation and try to understand why Brazil did not manufacture its own aircraft. Later in life, the boys decide to apply for the Brazilian Air Force with the goal of becoming pilots and studying in an aeronautical engineering school.
The short 3D film enables audiences to relive Mr Silva’s life story entwined with funny and attractive approaches. The film applies concepts of classic cinema with audiovisual aesthetics. The short film shows characters and scenarios modelled with textures and colours researched and captured from that time real records, creating a realistic and humanized atmosphere.
The Full film with English subtitles
Ozires Silva was born on January 8, 1931, in Bauru, State of São Paulo, Brazil. In 1948 he joined Aeronautic School, linked to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), in Rio de Janeiro, where he received his military license four years later. He moved to São José dos Campos, State of São Paulo, to join the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA) in 1959, graduating in Aeronautical Engineering in 1962. After graduation, he started to lead the Department of Aircraft at the Institute of Research and Development (IPD), linked to the then Technical Centre of Aeronautics (CTA).
In 1965 he started the IPD-6504 project, which would later become the Bandeirante aircraft. Mr Silva promoted, alongside a group of visionaries, the creation of Embraer in 1969, becoming the company's superintendent director until 1986, when he accepted the offer to take the command of the Brazilian oil company Petrobras. After two years as Minister of Infrastructure and Communications for Brazilian President Fernando Collor, Ozires Silva returned to Embraer in 1992 and chaired the company until its privatization, in December 1994.
Mr Silva assumed the presidency of Varig airline in 2000, remaining in the position for two years. In 2003, he created Pele Nova Biotecnologia, whose mission was focused on the development of therapeutic and demo cosmetic innovations based on the biodiversity of Brazil. In the last few decades, Mr Silva has become an active voice in favour of education, writing several books and articles on the subject. He currently is the chairman of the Strategic Council of Ânima Educação, Chancellor of the University São Judas and Patron of the courses of Engineering and Aviation of the Ânima Ecosystem.
