Alberto Santos Dumont

All right. Clearly, I (along with the rest of Brazil) have been making a huge deal about this Santos Dumont guy. Who was he? Here is a short biography. I'll skip over the many interesting technical details regarding the development, testing, improvements, and capabilities of his dirigibles, so that this page can be a fairly concise summary of his life.

Introduction

Let's start with the basics. Alberto Santos-Dumont (July 20, 1873 – July 23, 1932) was an important early pioneer of aviation. Although he was born, grew up, and died in Brazil, his contributions to aviation were made while he was living in France.

Santos-Dumont designed, built, and flew the first practical dirigible balloons (i.e. airships). In doing so he became the first person to demonstrate that routine, controlled flight was possible. This "conquest of the air", in particular winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize on October 19, 1901 on a flight that rounded the Eiffel Tower, made him one of the most famous persons in the world during the early 1900s.

In addition to his pioneering work in airships, Santos-Dumont made the first public flight of an airplane in Europe, in Paris in October of 1906. That aircraft, designated 14-Bis, was the first to take off, fly, and land without the use of catapults, high winds, launch rails, or other external assistance. Thus, some consider him to be the "Father of Aviation" as well as the inventor of the airplane.

Childhood

Santos-Dumont was born in Cabangu, a village in the Brazilian city of Palmira, in the state of Minas Gerais (today the town is called Santos Dumont). He grew up as the youngest of eleven children on a coffee plantation owned by his family in the state of São Paulo. His French-born father was an engineer, and made extensive use of the latest labor-saving inventions on his vast property. So successful were these innovations that Santos-Dumont's father gathered a large fortune and became known as the "Coffee King of Brazil."

Santos-Dumont was fascinated by machinery, and while still a young child he learned to drive the steam tractors and locomotive used on his family's plantation. He was also a fan of Jules Verne and had read all his books before his tenth birthday. He wrote in his autobiography that the dream of flying came to him while contemplating the magnificent skies of Brazil in the long, sunny afternoons at the plantation.

According to the custom of wealthy families of the time, after receiving basic instruction at home with private instructors (including his parents), young Alberto was sent out alone to larger cities to do his secondary studies. He studied for a while in "Colégio Culto à Ciência", in Campinas.

In 1891, Alberto's father had an accident while inspecting some machinery. He fell from his horse and became a paraplegic. He decided then to sell the plantation and move to Europe with his wife and his youngest son. At seventeen, Santos-Dumont left the prestigious Escola de Minas in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, for the city Paris in France. The first thing he did there was to buy an automobile. Later, he pursued studies in physics, chemistry, mechanics, and electricity, with the help of a private tutor.

Balloons and Dirigibles

Santos-Dumont described himself as the first "sportsman of the air." He started flying by hiring an experienced balloon pilot and took his first balloon rides as a passenger. He quickly moved on to piloting balloons himself, and shortly thereafter to designing his own balloons. In 1898, Santos-Dumont flew his first balloon design, the Brésil.

After numerous balloon flights, he turned to the design of steerable balloons or dirigible type balloons that could be propelled through the air rather than drifting along with the breeze. Between 1898 and 1905 he built and flew 11 dirigibles. With air traffic control restrictions still decades in the future, he would glide along Paris boulevards at rooftop level in one of his airships, commonly landing in front of a fashionable outdoor cafe for lunch. On one occasion he even flew an airship early one morning to his own apartment at No. 9, Rue Washington, just off Avenue des Champs-Élysées not far from the Arc de Triomphe.

The zenith of his lighter-than-air career came when he won the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize. The challenge called for flying from the Parc Saint Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back in less than thirty minutes. The winner of the prize would need to maintain an average ground speed of at least 22 km/hour (14 mph) to cover the round trip distance of 11 km (6.8 miles) in the allotted time.

After several attempts and trials, Santos-Dumont succeeded on October 19, 1901 using his dirigible Number 6. Immediately after the flight, a controversy broke out around a last minute rule change regarding the precise timing of the flight. There was much public outcry and comment in the press. Finally, after several days of delays by the committee of officials, Santos-Dumont was awarded the prize as well as the prize money of 100,000 francs. In a charitable gesture, he donated half of the prize money to the poor of Paris. The other half was given to his workmen as a bonus.

Santos-Dumont's aviation feats made him a celebrity in Europe and throughout the world. He won several more prizes and became a friend to millionaires, aviation pioneers, and royalty. In 1901 he was considered by many to be the most famous person in the world. In 1904, he went to the United States and was invited to the White House to meet US President Theodore Roosevelt. The public eagerly followed his daring exploits. Parisians affectionately dubbed him le petit Santos. The fashionable folk of the day mimicked various aspects of his style of dress from his high collared shirts to singed Panama hat. He was, and remains to this day, a prominent folk hero in his native Brazil.

Heavier Than Air

Although Santos-Dumont continued to work on dirigibles, his primary interest soon turned to heavier-than-air-craft. By 1905 he had finished designing first airplane, and also a helicopter.

He finally achieved his dream of flying on an airplane in October 23 of 1906, when, piloting the 14 Bis before a large crowd of witnesses, he flew a distance of 60 metres (197 ft) at a height of 2-3 m. This well-documented event was the first flight verified by the Aero-Club De France of a powered heavier-than-air machine in Europe, and the first public demonstration in the world of an aircraft taking off from an ordinary airstrip with a non-detachable landing gear and on its own power (self-propelled) in calm weather, proving to the spectators that a "heavier than air" machine could take off from the ground by its own means. With this accomplishment, he won the Archdeacon Prize founded by the Frenchman Ernest Archdeacon in July of 1906, to be awarded to the first aviator to fly more than 25 meters. On November 12 of the same year, Santos-Dumont succeeded in setting the first world record in aviation by flying 220 meters in less than 22 seconds.

Santos-Dumont made numerous contributions to the field of aircraft control. The most noteworthy one was the use of effective ailerons at the outer wings. Although ailerons had been used in sailplanes before, Dumont pioneered their application for aircraft. He also pushed for and exploited substantial improvements in engine power-to-weight ratio, and other refinements in aircraft construction techniques.

Santos-Dumont's final design was the Demoiselle monoplane (Nos. 19 to 22). This aircraft was employed as Dumont's personal transportation and he willingly let others make use of his design. The fuselage consisted of a specially reinforced bamboo boom, the wings surfaces consisted of silk fabric with piano wires used to hold the wing. The pilot sat beneath the wing, between the main wheels. The Demoiselle was controlled in flight partially by a tail unit that functioned both elevator and rudder and by wing warping. Initially, Santos-Dumont employed a 20hp liquid-cooled Dutheil & Chalmers engine. The engine was later substituted by a 24-hp Antoniette. Santos-Dumont also tested opposed-cylinder engines (he patented a solution for cooling this kind of engine) and water-cooled engines, with power settings ranging from 20 to 40 hp. Difefrent engine placements were tried, in front of the pilot or in the wings' leadign edge, and wings of different dimensions and different structures were used in the different versions of the Demoiselle.

Santos-Dumont used to perform flights with the Demoiselle in Paris and some small trips to nearby places. Flights were continued at various times through 1909, including the first cross-country flights (stopping every 8km, and later every 18km). The Demoiselle that was fitted with two-cylinder engine became rather popular. The French WWI-ace Roland Garros flew it at the Belmont Park, New York, in 1910. The June 1910 edition of Popular Mechanics published drawings of the Demoiselle and affirmed that Santos-Dumont's plane was better than any other that had been built to date, for those who wish to achieve good results with the smallest possible expense and with a minimum of experimenting. American companies sold drawings and parts of Demoiselle for several years thereafter. Clément Bayard, an automotive maker, constructed several units of Demoiselles, which was sold for 50,000 Francs. Santos-Dumont was so enthusiastic about aviation that he released the drawings of Demoiselle for free, hoping that aviation would become mainstream in a new prosperous era for mankind.

The Wristwatch

The wristwatch had already been invented by Patek Philippe, decades earlier, and was often worn by French soldiers, but Santos-Dumont played an important role popularizing its use by men in the early 1900s. Before him they were generally worn only by women, as men favoured pocket watches. As a result, Brazilians consider Santos-Dumont the inventor of the wristwatch.

The story goes that in 1904, while celebrating his winning of the Deutsch Prize at Maxim's Restaurant, Santos-Dumont complained to his friend Louis Cartier about the difficulty of checking his pocket watch to time his performance during flight. Santos-Dumont then asked Cartier to come up with an alternative that would allow him to keep both hands on the controls. Cartier went to work on the problem and the result was a watch with a leather band and a small buckle, to be worn on the wrist.

Santos-Dumont never took off again without his personal Cartier wristwatch, and he used it to check his personal record for a 220 m (722 ft) flight, achieved in twenty-one seconds, on November 12, 1906. The Santos-Dumont watch was officially displayed on October 20, 1979 at the Paris Air Museum next to the 1908 Demoiselle, the last aircraft that he built.

Cartier still today has a collection of wristwatches honouring Santos-Dumont called Santos de Cartier. Publicity for those models includes photographs of Santos-Dumont and his achievements.

Later Life, and Death

Santos-Dumont continued to build and fly airplanes. His final flight as a pilot was made in Demoiselle on January 4, 1910. The flight ended in an accident, but the cause was never completely clear. There were few observers and no reporters on the scene.

Santos-Dumont fell seriously ill a few months later. He experienced double vision and vertigo that made it impossible for him to drive, much less fly. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He abruptly dismissed his staff and closed his workshop. His illness soon led to a deepening depression.

In 1911, Santos-Dumont moved from Paris to the French seaside village of Bénerville where he took up astronomy as a hobby. Some of the local folk, who knew little of his great fame and exploits in Paris just a few years earlier, mistook his German-made telescope and unusual accent as signs (almost certainly false) that he was a German spy who was tracking French naval activity. These suspicions eventually led to Santos-Dumont having his rooms searched by the French military police. Upset by ignominy of the charge, as well as depressed from his illness, he burned all of his papers, plans, and notes. Thus, there is little direct information available about his designs today.

In 1922, he was asked to host the official dinner that celebrated Charles Lindbergh's solo trans-Atlantic flight. His illness prevented him from being able to do this.

In 1928 he left France to go back to his country of birth, never to return to Europe. His return to Brazil was marred by tragedy. A dozen members of the Brazilian scientific community boarded a seaplane with the intention of paying a flying welcome to the returning aviator on Cap Arcona. Instead, the seaplane crashed with the loss of all on board. The loss deepened Santos-Dumont's growing despondency.

In Brazil, Santos-Dumont bought a small lot on the side of a hill in the city of Petrópolis, in the mountains near Rio de Janeiro, and built a small house there filled with imaginative mechanical gadgetry. The house included an astronomical observatory, innovative (for the time) showers in the bathrooms, and stairs where each step alternates between being on the right or left side (so that each foot has a specific step, making it harder to trip and forcing you to always start "on the right foot").

Santos-Dumont — seriously ill, and said to be depressed over his multiple sclerosis and the use of aircraft in warfare — is believed to have committed suicide by hanging himself in the city of Guarujá in São Paulo, on July 23, 1932. He was buried in the Cemitério São João Batista in Rio de Janeiro. There are many monuments to his work and his house in Petropolis, Brazil is now a museum. He never married nor had any known children.

Private Life

Some controversy exists over Santos-Dumont's private life, in particular his sexual orientation. Although he was an active member of the Paris social scene, there are no reports, public or private, of his having been romatically involved with anyone. This has led some to speculate that Santos-Dumont was a homosexual. However, historians have noted that any affair, with either a man or a woman, would have been impossible to keep a secret given Santos-Dumont's notoriety in his time. This lack of any evidence of romantic entanglements have led some to speculate that he was asexual.

Historians have noted that both Wright brothers also had personal lives apparently devoid of any overt sexual activity. However, no comparable suggestions of possible homosexuality have been made about them.

Santos-Dumont did seem to have a particular affection for a married Cuban/American woman named Aída de Acosta. He allowed her to fly his No. 9 airship (thus she likely became the first woman to pilot a powered aircraft) and he kept a picture of her on his desk until his death.

In Conclusion

It is hard to overstate the status Santos Dumont has in the minds and hearts of Brazilians. Considered to be "the father of aviation", the person who "invented the airplane", he is a source of great pride for most Brazilians. The evidence of his charity, his numerous clever inventions, the fact that his style allowed him to succeed in the Paris social scene, and his heart-breaking depression over the use of aircraft in warfare, all contribute to his being one of Brazil's most beloved national heroes. Rio's domestic airport, several educational institutions (many of them with extensive international relationships), and countless small businesses, are named after him. Even a ship in the US Navy and a crater on the moon carry his name. In the minds and writings of anyone who cares about how people first figured out how to fly, Santos Dumont and his important contributions will never be forgotten.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If you did, or if you have any comments, suggestions, questions, corrections, etc, then please please email me.

Valeu!

- Bernardo

PS: Two very good, very reasonable, and quite short articles about Santos Dumont, the 14-Bis,
and the "controversy" over the 14-Bis versus the Wright Flyer, can be found here and here.
The first is written by an American aviation historian, the second by a Brazilian one.

PPS: I wrote the Wikipedia articles about the 14-Bis and about the 14-Bis-vs-Wright-Flyer controversy.
I use that material in those respective articles. Similarly, I use some material from Wikipedia (which
I did not write but which is free for anyone to use under the GNU License) in my Santos Dumont article.

PPPS: The above image is the official logo of the Brazilian "Centennial of Flight" celebrations, events, and websites.
I did not create the logo, but it is in the public domain, and is freely distributed by Brazilian governmental agencies
to any website that recognizes the importance of Santos Dumont's flights. See www.santosdumont.14bis.mil.br

PPPPS: Photos of Santos Dumont and his aircraft are out of copyright, dating from 1900-1910.