Santos Dumont´s Life Story

Since ancient times humanity has dreamed about the art of flying. Brazil was one of the countries that most contributed to this achievement through an industrious man, the Brazilian Alberto Santos Dumont. He was called the Brazilian Leonardo da Vinci. Something no less than real due to his brilliant mind.

He was a great inventor, opened ways to European fashions, pacifist and was accepted and respected abroad. In that time, standing out was France, right in the city of Paris, in the field of La Bagatelle that the aviator and the fatherhood of aviation were (Air)born: The conquest of heavier than the air was accomplished.

But let's go back further in time at the Cabangu farm, Minas Gerais State, on July 20, 1873, the moment when Alberto Santos Dumont was born: Being of a wealthy family - the grandson of Francois Dumont who came to Brazil to dedicate to the trade of precious stones, the young Alberto was allowed to attend the most important fairs in Europe for more than two decades. Gradually he gained international recognition and is remembered as one of the balloons and dirigibles pioneers.

Among the distinctions he was awarded, is that he made the first flight in the history of aviation world (by own means able to take-off) and is the Father of Aviation.

Santos Dumont was very influenced by his father, Henry Dumont, who was born in the town of Diamantina, former Arraial do Tejuco. Henrique Dumont studied engineering in France and came to work as an engineer for public works in Ouro Preto MG. At that time Ouro Preto was the capital of Minas Gerais. There his father got married with Francisca de Santos Dumont, the daughter of a Commander and industrial, Francisco de Paula Santos.

His father had a great entrepreneurial spirit, exploring steamboats on rivers and became engineer for the Central Railroad of Brazil. He moved to the District of João Aires, Rocha Dias Station in the city of Palmira, which after 1932 was named after Santos Dumont.

It is well known by members of our team who had relatives working in the railway that moving from city to city were commom things to happen.

At the end of 1870, Henrique came with his family to Rio de Janeiro and then went to a coffee farm in Sao Paulo, region of Ribeirao Preto City. This fact is very important because he became a leading coffee producer in the State of São Paulo. Due to an unfortunate accident he became paraplegic and went to search for help in Europe.

In the biography of Santos Dumont we see that he was interested in machinery and winged beings.

It was his love for Paris and the technologies that he saw which made his mind to live there. Henrique Dumont his father died in Brazil on 30 August 1892, but Alberto was already emancipated with full resources to continue his studies.

Thus, without any absolute need to work for living, Alberto lived for the progress and that was his aim when he decided to live in Paris.

It is reckoned that he was one of the richest men in his time.

His biography would be very extensive in terms of studies, projects that were developed and inventions such as the wrist-watch, controlled dirigibles, baloons, etc. We only mention that he won the Deutch Prize for circumnavigating the Eiffel Tower on October 19, 1901. With 100 thousand francs and over 26 thousand in accrued interests, he gave half of it to his team and staff and the remainder shared among the Parisian workers.

The 14-BIS

The 14 Bis was the first true airplane to fly in the world.

This means that it was self-propelled or not catapulted. This was done by Santos Dumont, because there were gliders, and for that all previous aircraft, including the Wright brothers were catapulted.

Note: There is a groundless issue caused by the Wright Brothers that they had performed other flights before 1906, but let´s note:

a) Isolated experiments
b) No public
c) Not homologated
d) Catapulted flights

If one calls something that requires aircraft catapults, then the Wright Brothers may have the recognitions they so much envied.

But if we are talking about the first public exhibition of the a machine heavier than air, self-propelled including take-off phase, we are talking about Santos Dumont and his 14 Bis. This is called AIRPLANE and it is usually seen in airports.

Alberto Santos Dumont, performed the first flight of Approved Aviation History on 12 November 1906.

On September 23rd, 1906 he did the first flight test with the assistence from the Aèro-Club de Françe. On October 23rd he flew 60 meters, at apx 2 meters high in 07 seconds, and was awarded with the Taça Archadeacon in La Bagatelle and acclaimed by thousands of people present at the event. He made the first Homologated Flight in Aviation History on November 12th, 1906. He flew 220 metros, at 06 meters high in 21 minutes and 02 seconds winning the Aéro-Club de France Prize, also in La Bagatelle

He was also the inventor of the first popular airplane in the world because his Demoiselle No. 22 by his own initiative, he decided not to patent it but leaving it free for anyone to build. Due to this France, USA, Holland, Germany could build other Demoiselle.

Santos Dumont felt deep sense of guilty when he saw the destruction caused by zeppelins and airplanes during the World War I. All his effort was summarized in a destructive military weapon. He fell into deep depression.

Even in 1928 upon returning to Brazil, he was very shaken upon his arrival by ship, where the seaplane "Santos Dumont", crashed killing all occupants.

In Brazil in the year 1932, there came to pass the São Paulo "Revolução Constitucionalista" against the President Getúlio Vargas. Aircrafts were used to bomb Minas Gerais and São Paulo.

It is in this havoc that Santos Dumont entered into new crisis, leading him to commit suicide by hanging. He was in Guaruja city - SP and even today one can see in the Plaza of Pitangueiras Beach, near the former Club of Orla, a posthumous tribute to this great Brazilian.

Curiosity: The Hat

In June 1903 the aeronaut was calmly promanading on the Seine River whenhe saw a flame coming out of the engine. Santos Dumont used his hat to put it off. Totally deformed and bruised, his panama hat became an amulet and, influenced the fashion in Paris, where they had already adopted the high collar and split hair looking, "la marque de Santos D´umont de l'homme élégant"

"Aircrew! Report to the UFO Sightings your case / incident. All secrecy will be kept and you will be contributing to the investigation of the UFO phenomena."

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