Zoilo H. Garcia  Zoilo Hermogenes García Peña (December 21 1881 - December 11 1916) was a Dominican civil engineer and aviator as well as aviation pioneer. Besides being a prolific engineer credited with building, among other things, the first theater of La Vega, he is best remembered for designing and flying the first Dominican heavier-than-air aircraft in 1911–1912. Zoilo Hermogenes García Peña was born in La Vega to Maria Dolores Peña and Don Zoilo Garcia, a businessman, general in the Dominican forces and for a time governor of La Vega. Besides being a successful entrepreneur and exporter of cocoa and tobacco, his father is remembered for attempting to save the life of Dominican Presidente General Ulises Heureaux. Garcia traveled to Paris to study civil engineering, graduating in 1906 as the first Dominican to do so. He returned to La Vega and in 1908 married Luisa Teresa Fernandez Perez. He built several buildings, among them the first theater of La Vega. Between 1906 and 1911 Garcia created the design for his own airplane, taking inspirations from the original Wright Flyer to Alberto Santos Dumont’s 14bis and the Voisin and Bleriot biplanes. He called his design the ‘"Poliplano"’, or ‘Polyplane’ in English, meaning multi-wings due to its three wings. Garcia attempted to create interest in his design and its potentials with the Dominican government, convincing them to back his project and clearing a landing strip in the Sabana de Ponton area of La Vega on the 17th of January 1911. He acquired partial funding and traveled to Long Island, placing an order for the construction of the Poliplano according to his specifications with the American Aeroplane Supply House, a Long Island airplane manufacturer specializing in Bleriot monoplanes. Construction began on the 4th of February 1911 using equipment and parts used for the Bleriot planes. In July of the same year he began taking flying lessons with the instructor James Lester Weeks and also engaged Weeks as the aviation instructor for the Dominican army. Attempts were made to persuade Garcia to remove the ‘poly’ part of the plane and recognize it as a monoplane. He seemed to have rejected the name change as it is continually referred to as a 'Poliplano'. By August 1911 the manufacturers ran into trouble with Garcia's design, possibly due to a miscalculation in the weight of the Roberts engine.