Calle del Aviador Zorita

On 5 March 1954, over the French air base at Brétigny, a pilot from León threw his jet into a dive and broke the sound barrier. Demetrio Zorita Alonso was the first Spaniard to do it, in years when planes were not yet designed to fly that fast. He later admitted it had been easier than he expected. The job killed him: in 1956 he crashed at Torrejón de Ardoz testing a prototype, aged thirty-eight. The street was earlier named Medina Sabuco and then Comandante Zorita. In 2018 the city dropped his military rank and left only the aviator, the merit he is truly remembered for.