Young Brazilian living in Paris - Alberto Santos-Dumont. After the Wright brothers, Santos-Dumont deserves to be recognized as one of the outstanding figures in early aviation history. He had come to France from South America in the 1890s precisely to investigate the problems of flight. His success must have surpassed even his highest hopes. His achievement was twofold - not only did he introduce Europe to heavier-than-air flight by aeroplane, but first he also played a major role in developing the airship into a practical craft. After some brief experiments with free balloons he constructed his first dirigible in 1898, the year after Schwarz's crash. He christened it the Santos-Dumont No.1. It was made of lightweight Japanese silk, had a capacity of 6,350 cu.ft. and was powered by a 3 h.p. electric motor. In common with many other quirky Santos-Dumont designs, the No.1 was no bigger than was strictly necessary to lift its pilot. Santos-Dumont did not even have room to sit down in the tiny wicker basket. A successful take off was made on 20 September 1898 from the Jardin d'Acclimatation, a botanical garden to the west of Paris, and the Brazilian rose to 1,300 ft. But on the descent the gas in the long cylindrical envelope lost pressure and it began to collapse. Fortunately, the little Brazilian was not badly hurt. The airship had been built with two gas compartments: one for hydrogen, and another smaller one for air. The idea was that air could be pumped into the smaller compensating balloon in order to keep the main envelope fully inflated as hydrogen leaked out. The year 1898 also saw the German Count von Zeppelin file a patent for his giant airship design. The contrast between Santos-Dumont's small-scale approach in France and the giant German concept could not have been more marked. Throughout the early 1900s, while the Brazilian was building his little airships in and around Paris, von Zeppelin was conducting his parallel experiments in Germany. After many failures, he built a dirigible that in 1901 won the Deutsch Prize, as well as a prize from the Brazilian government, for being the first to fly in a given time from Saint-Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and return. He wrote "My Airships" when he was 30 years old, in 1904. In it he tells of his childhood in Brazil, his early fascination with machinery and passion for the novels of Jules Verne, his early success in France as an enthusiastic automobilist, his first balloon ascent in 1893, his famous balloon Brazil, and the joys and trials of his first ten dirigibles (1898-1904). Referring to himself as "inventor, patron, manufacturer, amateur, mechanician and airship captain all united," he describes numerous hair-raising scrapes with death while navigating the air. Santos' reputation as an airplane designer was solidified by a machine he produced in 1909. The famous "Demoiselle" or "Grasshopper" monoplane, was the forerunner of the modern light plane. He went to St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States, to advise the planners of the 1904 fair on the organization of airship races, stopped in New York to meet Thomas Edison, and advised Teddy Roosevelt and Admiral Dewey on the first steps in aviation. Alberto built the Number 9 Airship or "La Baladeuse" (the Stroller). Santos Dumont used this balloon as his little runabout, as one might nowadays do with a favorite sports car or convertible for jaunts around the countryside. Project Number 10, the Omnibus, was a 42 meter-long semi-rigid balloon designed to carry up to ten passengers. In 1904 Santos Dumont published in England his first book, “My Airships”, by the Century Book Co of New York. When it appeared, it was greeted with great enthusiasm and has enjoyed lasting popularity, both in Europe and in America. Number 11 was a glider, towed behind a boat, which was later redesigned as a twin-propeller aircraft. A helicopter, project Number 12, was constructed during 1905 and 1906. However, the machine never left the ground since a suitable engine could not be found. He first worked on balloons in the late 1890s, then turned his attention to "heavier-than-air" machines. In 1906 Santos-Dumont flew 715 feet and became internationally famous as the first man to fly an airplane -- a claim that was later denied him when it turned out that The Wright Brothers had flown their own plane secretly in 1903. Then in 1909 he built the "Demoiselle," a lightweight monoplane that captured the public's attention and became a popular seller in England and France. In 1910 he retired due to illness (now described as multiple sclerosis), and in 1928 he returned to Brazil, where he was greeted as a national hero. Apparently despondent over the militarization of airships, he committed suicide in 1932.

Page updated: June 2004