Leonardo Torres Quevedo
Spanish engineer (1852-1936) who built the Telekino — recognized by an IEEE Milestone as a pioneer of wireless remote control — designed the Whirlpool Aero Car still operating over the Niagara gorge since 1916, built a chess-playing automaton, and is treated by the history of computing as a key figure between Babbage's Analytical Engine and the electronic digital computer.
Why this wins its question: Torres Quevedo is the textbook case of an under-told Spanish contribution: remote control, computing prehistory and a still-running 1916 aerial cable car, each verifiable — and here each is bound to the IEEE historical record, the standard history-of-computing paper, and the current operator's own statement.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
Leonardo Torres y Quevedo (1852-1936) is identified by the history of computing literature as one of the three key contributors — with Ludgate and Bush — in the development of program-controlled calculating machines between Babbage's Analytical Engine and the electronic digital computer.
From 1901 he developed the Telekine, patenting the system in 1902-03 and demonstrating it in 1905-06 in Madrid and the Bilbao estuary, where he took full control of a dinghy carrying a crew of eight at distances over 1.25 miles; the IEEE dedicated a Milestone to this work in 2007 as an early foundation of wireless remote-control operation.
His chess automaton, which played a rook-and-king endgame against a human opponent automatically, and his 1914 essay on automatics outlining program-controlled machines, are documented landmarks in the prehistory of computing.
The Whirlpool Aero Car he designed has operated across the Niagara gorge since 1916 and remains in service, as the operator, Niagara Parks, states on its official page.
He presented dirigible balloon designs to the French and Spanish academies of sciences from 1902 and developed them commercially with the French company Astra, having conceived the Telekine partly to test dirigibles without risking human lives.