Alberto Santos-Dumont

Alberto Santos-Dumont
Santos-Dumont in 1902
Born(1873-07-20)20 July 1873
Died23 July 1932(1932-07-23) (aged 59)
Guarujá, São Paulo, Brazil
Resting placeSão João Batista cemetery, Rio de Janeiro
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Alberto Santos-Dumont, self-stylised as Alberto Santos=Dumont,[1] (20 July 1873 – 23 July 1932) was a Brazilian aeronaut, sportsman, inventor,[2][3] and one of the few people to have contributed significantly to the early development of both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air aircraft. The heir of a wealthy family of coffee producers, he dedicated himself to aeronautical study and experimentation in Paris, where he spent most of his adult life. He designed, built, and flew the first powered airships and won the Deutsch prize in 1901, when he flew around the Eiffel Tower in his airship No. 6, becoming one of the most famous people in the world in the early 20th century.[4][5]

Santos-Dumont then progressed to powered heavier-than-air machines and on 23 October 1906 flew about 60 metres at a height of two to three metres with the fixed-wing 14-bis (also dubbed the Oiseau de proie—"bird of prey") at the Bagatelle Gamefield in Paris, taking off unassisted by an external launch system. On 12 November in front of a crowd, he flew 220 metres at a height of six metres. These were the first heavier-than-air flights certified by the Aeroclub of France, the first such flights officially witnessed by an aeronautics recordkeeping body,[6][7] and the first of their kind recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.[6][8][9]

Santos-Dumont is a national hero in Brazil, where it is popularly held that he preceded the Wright brothers in demonstrating a practical aeroplane.[10][11] Numerous roads, plazas, schools, monuments, and airports there are dedicated to him, and his name is inscribed on the Tancredo Neves Pantheon of the Fatherland and Freedom. He was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1931 until his suicide in 1932.

  1. ^ Gray, Carroll F. (November 2006). "The 1906 Santos=Dumont No. 14bis". World War I Aeroplanes. 194: 4.
  2. ^ Dória, Luiz Antônio (14 January 2013). "João Gomes, Palmyra…Santos Dumont, a terra do pai do aviação" [João Gomes, Palmyra…Santos Dumont, the land of the father of aviation.]. Relatos de Viagem Etc. (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  3. ^ "História". SantosDumont.gov (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2018.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYTET was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Neves, Daniel. "Alberto Santos Dumont". Brasil Escola (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 25 April 2013. Retrieved 18 August 2012 – via R7.
  6. ^ a b "Les vols du 14bis relatés au fil des éditions du journal l'illustration de 1906" (in French). Archived from the original on 24 March 2007. cette prouesse est le premier vol au monde homologué par l'Aéro-Club de France et la toute jeune Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI)
  7. ^ "Asas da liberdade: A vida e a morte de Santos Dumont" (in Brazilian Portuguese). Archived from the original on 23 July 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  8. ^ "A Century of Sporting Achievements". Archived from the original on 10 October 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2010. A century later, historians consider this flight, which was duly recorded by official observers from the Aéro-Club de France, to be the first aviation sporting performance homologated by the FAI.
  9. ^ "Santos-Dumont: Pionnier de l'aviation, dandy de la Belle Epoque". Archived from the original on 28 November 2006.
  10. ^ "Faster, Higher, Farther". wright-brothers.org. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016.
  11. ^ "Alberto Santos-Dumont, Brazil". smithsonianeducation.org. Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on 25 June 2015.

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