Did you know: Gregorio Zara

Today, March 12, is the 110th birth anniversary of National Scientist Gregorio Zara, one of the country’s pioneer aeronautical engineers. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among his popular inventions were an airplane engine that ran on plain alcohol as fuel, the “solar-sorber” which makes use of solar power for ordinary household needs and the two-way “television-telephone.” He died on Oct. 15, 1978, at the age of 76. He was given a state funeral and buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani.—Schatzi Quodala, Inquirer Research