Alberto Santos-Dumont (self-stylised as Alberto Santos=Dumont; 20 July 1873 – 23 July 1932) was a Brazilian aeronaut, sportsman, inventor, 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.
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 —"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, and the first of their kind recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
Santos-Dumont is a national hero in Brazil, where it is popularly held that he preceded the Wright brothers in demonstrating a practical aeroplane. 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.
Childhood
Alberto Santos-Dumont was the sixth child of Henrique Dumont, an engineer who graduated from the Central School of Arts and Manufactures in Paris, and Francisca de Paula Santos. The couple had eight children, three sons and five daughters: Henrique dos Santos-Dumont, Maria Rosalina Dumont Vilares, Virgínia Dumont Vilares, , Gabriela, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Sofia, and Francisca. In 1873, the family moved to the small town of Cabangu, in the municipality of João Aires, for Henrique Dumont to work on the construction of the D. Pedro II railroad. The construction work finished when Alberto was 6, and the family moved to São Paulo. Here he began to show signs of his aeronautical interest; according to his parents, at the age of one he used to puncture rubber balloons to see what was inside. He was baptised in Valença at the on 20 February 1877, by Teodoro Teotônio da Silva Carolina.
thumb|upright|Santos-Dumont during his teenager years, 1890s
thumb|left|Santos-Dumont's birthplace and current [[Cabangu Museum]]
thumb|left|Some of Santos-Dumont's relatives: (left to right) Maria Rosalina, Virgínia, Gabriela, Santos-Dumont, Francisca, Amália (sister-in-law), and her husband Henrique.
thumb|upright|Railway in the coffee plantation
In 1879, the Dumonts sold their farm in Valença, Rio de Janeiro, and settled in Sítio do Cascavel, in Ribeirão Preto, where they bought the Arindeúva Farm,
Technology fascinated him. He began building kites and small aeroplanes powered by a propeller driven by twisted rubber springs, Every year, on 24 June he would fill whole fleets of tiny silk balloons over the bonfires of St. John, to watch them climbing into the sky.
Career
Mountaineering, motorsports and ballooning
thumb|upright|Santos-Dumont's [[Brésil (spherical balloon)|first balloon, 1898]]
In 1891, when he was 18, Santos-Dumont visited Europe. In England he spent a few months practising his English, and in France he climbed Mont Blanc. This adventure, at an altitude of almost 5,000 metres, gave him a taste for heights. advising him to focus on learning mechanics, chemistry, and electricity. With that, Alberto left the Ouro Preto Mining Engineering School and returned to France where he took part in motor racing and cycling. Santos-Dumont and other inventors studied the works of Lilienthal and Cayley. He relied on self-education, with Garcia guiding him in his studies. Peter Wykeham describes Garcia as an advisor in his studies. Around this time At 24 years of age, Santos-Dumont left for France, where he hired professional aeronauts to teach him ballooning after reading the book Andrée – Au Pôle Nord en ballon.
On 30 May 1898 he made his first night ascent, By 1900 he had created nine balloons, of which two became famous: the Brazil and the Amérique. In his first experiments he was awarded a prize by the French Aeroclub for his study of atmospheric currents; he reached high altitudes and stayed airborne for more than 22 hours.
No. 1
thumb|upright|Airship No. 1
thumb|upright|Airship No. 2
The first airship designed by Santos-Dumont, the No. 1, was 25 metres long with a volume of 186 cubic metres, made its first takeoff attempt in February 1898,
No. 2
In 1899, Santos-Dumont built a new aircraft, No. 2, with the same length and similar shape, but a larger diameter of 3.8 metres, increasing the volume to 200 cubic metres. It was no longer intended to house No. 3, which had been abandoned, but No. 4, completed on 1 August 1900.
thumb|upright=1.3|Keel from No. 4
The challenge became known as the Deutsch Prize. The regulations stipulated that an aircraft must be able to fly to the Eiffel Tower, round the monument, and return to the place of ascent in no more than thirty minutes, without stops, a total of 11 kilometres, under the eyes of a commission from the Aeroclub de France convened at least one day in advance. This required a minimum average speed of 22 km/h. made of pine was suspended. Other innovations included the use of piano wire to suspend the gondola, reducing drag, and the use of water ballast tanks. It was powered by a 12 hp, 4-cylinder air-cooled engine driving a propeller, On 13 July 1901, The accident was caused by one of the automatic valves having a weakened spring, which allowed the escape of gas. and workers in Paris who for some reason had "pawned their tools of labor" with help from the City Hall of Paris. following the proposal of Augusto Severo, They discussed patents. having made a single flight in New York; The 11 August 1905 issue of La Vie au Grand Air describes the organisation of the second Coupe des Femmes Aéronautes
Very little of what was required was new. Inventors in other countries had already met or exceeded some of the required goals including 2-axis (pitch and roll) control of gliders. without having had experience with gliders.
Oiseau de Proie I
Santos-Dumont decided not to compete for the prizes with the hybrid, but on 20 July signed up for the tests and over the next three days continued to test the plane tethered to the balloon, to practise steering. Throughout the tests he realised that, although the balloon helped take-off, it made flight difficult as the drag generated was too great.
On 29 July, using a donkey and a system of cables, Santos-Dumont hoisted the Oiseau de Proie to the top of a tower
Oiseau de Proie II
thumb|upright|The flight of the Oiseau de Proie III shown on the cover of [[Le Petit Journal (newspaper)|Le Petit Journal, 25 November]]
On 23 October, Santos-Dumont presented himself at Bagatelle with the Oiseau de Proie II, a modification of the original model. The plane had been varnished to reduce the porosity of the fabric and increase lift. The rear wheel had been removed. In the morning he limited himself to manoeuvring the aircraft across the field, until the propeller shaft broke. It was repaired in the afternoon, and the plane was moved into position for an official attempt. An expectant crowd was present. At 4:45 pm, Santos-Dumont started the engine. The plane lifted off and flew for 60 metres,
The crowd celebrated, ran up to the pilot and carried him off in triumph. The judges had been overcome with emotion and forgot to time and track the flight, and due to this the record was not made official. says that because the Aeroclub Committee was partially present, a new test was scheduled for 12 November. The Wright brothers, after learning of
the 12 November experiment, sent a letter to Captain Ferdinand Ferber asking for "exact news of the Bagatelle experiments," including "a faithful report of the trials and a description of the flying machine, accompanied by a schematic". and his colleagues were already being rewarded, he already seemed to have moved away from the events.
upright|thumb|left|Santos-Dumont in 1916 with another aviation pioneer, the Argentinean [[Eduardo Bradley]]
Santos-Dumont now devoted himself to the study of astronomy, residing in Trouville, near the sea. For this he used several observation devices, with which his neighbours thought he was spying for the Germans. He was arrested on this charge. After the incident was cleared up, the French government apologised. In his speech he showed concern about the efficiency of the aeroplane as a weapon of war, but advocated the creation of a squadron for coastal defence with the words, "Who knows when a European power will threaten an American state?" In 1916, he was the Honorary President of the 1st Pan-American Aronautics Conference in Chile, which aimed to create an Aeronautical Federation with all the Americas, where, while representing the Aeroclub of America, he advocated the peaceful use of the aeroplane. When he returned to Brazil, passing through Paraná, he suggested the creation of the Iguaçu National Park.
In the book O Que Eu Vi, O Que Nós Veremos, Santos-Dumont transcribed his letters of 1917 to the President of the Republic of Brazil, stressing the need to build military airfields for the Army and the Navy. He also pointed out that Brazil was falling behind Europe, the United States and even Argentina and Chile. In 1918 he wrote his second work, O que eu vi, o que nós veremos in this house. In 1919 he got the United States Minister in Brazil to contact the Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt, as a way to "lobby" for more aeronautical cooperation between Brazil and the US. On 14 May he made his last balloon ascent. On 21 August, he started the construction of his parents' tomb, where a replica of the Icarus of Saint Cloud offered by the French Government was placed, and he carried out the transfer of his parents' remains on 23 October. In July, he was hospitalised in Switzerland.]]
thumb|Hearse that transported the body of Santos-Dumont in [[Guarujá, São Paulo]]
On 28 October 1930, Santos-Dumont was hospitalised in France, and on 14 April 1931 he wrote his first will. He would never return to France.
thumb|Burial of Santos-Dumont
In July 1932, the state of São Paulo rose up in the Constitutionalist revolution against the revolutionary government of Getúlio Vargas. On the 14th, Santos-Dumont wrote a letter in favour of "...constitutional order in the country..." Coroners Roberto Catunda and Angelo Esmolari, who signed his death certificate, recorded the death as a heart attack. The chambermaids who found his body reported that he had hanged himself with his tie. and that the idea that he committed suicide due to the military use of the aeroplane would be a legend of the getulista period, as the government sought to mythologise him; the suicide could weaken this. The real cause may have been depression and bipolar disorder. The order of the governor Pedro de Toledo, following Santos-Dumont's death, was: "There will be no investigation, Santos Dumont did not commit suicide".
Santos-Dumont left no suicide note and had no descendants. His body was buried in São João Batista Cemetery, in Rio de Janeiro, on 21 December 1932, during a storm, After keeping this a secret for twelve years, he wanted to return it to the Santos-Dumont family, who refused it. The doctor then donated the heart to the Brazilian government after a request from Panair do Brasil. The heart is on display at the Air Force Museum in Campo dos Afonsos, Rio de Janeiro, inside a sphere carried by Icarus, designed by Paulo da Rocha Gomide. The design of the Demoiselle allegedly influenced the aircraft that Blériot used in his crossing.
The Aéro-Club de France honoured him with two monuments: the first, in 1910, erected on the Bagatelle Gamefield, where he had flown with the Oiseau de Proie, and the second, in 1913, in Saint-Cloud, to commemorate the flight of airship No. 6 in 1901. On the unveiling of the Saint-Cloud monument – a statue of Icarus
On 31 July 1932 state decree No. 10,447 changed the name of the town of Palmira, in Minas Gerais, to Santos-Dumont. Santos-Dumont's birthplace in Cabangu, Minas Gerais, was made into the Cabangu Museum by state decree (MG) No. 5,057, on 18 July 1956. Law No. 3636, of 22 September 1959, made him an honorary air marshal.
On 18 October 2005, the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) signed an agreement to carry out the Missão Centenário, which took Brazilian astronaut Marcos César Pontes to the International Space Station. The mission is a tribute to the centennial of Santos-Dumont's flight on the 14-bis, on 23 October 1906. The Soyuz TMA-8 spacecraft launched on 30 March 2006, from the Baikonur Launch Centre (Kazakhstan). On 26 July 2006 his name was included in the Steel Book of National Heroes in the Panteão da Pátria, in Brasília, granting him the status of National Hero.
Cultural representations
thumb|A postcard of the Santos-Dumont 14-bis
In 1902 the poet composed the song "A Conquista do Ar" in honour of Santos-Dumont's achievements,
Over a century later, Cartier produced a series of watches named after him, celebrating the partnership between him and the brand. As a publicity piece, an award-winning film was made by France's Quad Productions entitled "L'Odyssée de Cartier".
In 1956, the Brazilian Post Office released a series of stamps commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the first flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft. In 1973, they released a series of stamps to celebrate Santos-Dumont's centenary. On 23 October 2006, they launched a commemorative stamp for the centenary of the flight of the 14-bis. In the same month, the Brazilian Central Bank issued a coin commemorating Santos-Dumont's invention. He was depicted on the cruzeiro and cruzeiro novo banknotes.
In 2015, author Arthur Japin published the historical novel De gevleugelde (O Homem com Asas, in Brazil), about the aviator's life and death, and the extraction of his heart.
thumb|left|Santos-Dumont and the 14-bis represented in the [[2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony]]
During the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games at the Maracanã Stadium, a replica of Santos-Dumont's 14-bis, was built in the stadium and, with the help of steel cables, flew over the runway, "taking off" for a flight over the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Santos-Dumont has been portrayed as a character in film, television, and theatre, played by in Marcel Camus' Les faucheurs de marguerites (1974); by in the miniseries Um Só Coração (2004); by Daniel de Oliveira in the short film (2006); by Ricardo Napoleão in Denise Stoklos' play "Mais Pesado que o Ar – Santos Dumont" (1996); and by Henri Lalli in the play Santos-Dumont (since 2003). Fernanda Montenegro played a transsexual descendant of Santos-Dumont in the soap opera Zazá (1997). TV Brasil produced the programme , with a character named Betinho, depicting Santos-Dumont as a child.
On 10 November 2019, HBO released the miniseries Santos-Dumont across Latin America. The production follows the aviator's steps from childhood in his family's coffee fields Minas Gerais and São Paulo (where the family settled), to the sophisticated salons and aeroclubs in Paris, where Santos-Dumont made his historic flight in the 14-bis in 1906. Actor João Pedro Zappa played the inventor.
Personal life
Sexuality
Santos-Dumont never married and was rather shy, and his sexuality has long been debated, including by his biographers.
Researcher Henrique Lins de Barros, from the Brazilian Center for Physics Research, rejects the thesis that the Brazilian inventor was homosexual, arguing that he was just a man concerned with his appearance. According to Barros, "The French refinement sounded like homosexual affectation to American journalists, who described him as effeminate. (...) Hoffman did not understand the customs and values of the time and saw everything with the distorted view that was held at that time in the United States." Also, in his article "Alberto Santos-Dumont: Pioneiro da Aviação," Barros notes that Santos-Dumont had a media-heralded engagement to Edna Powers, Santos-Dumont was listed in the list of the "100 VIP homosexuals of Brazil," formulated by anthropologist Luiz Mott, rekindling the discussion about Santos-Dumont's sexuality. Santos-Dumont's family has denied that he was homosexual. Santos-Dumont allegedly had a homo-affective affair with Georges Goursat in 1901.
Yolanda Penteado, in her autobiography Tudo em cor de rosa, says: "(...) I met Alberto Santos-Dumont, a brother of my uncle Henrique. Seu Alberto, as we called him, came every day for dinner and stayed over, saying it was to see the moon come out. In Flamengo the full moon nights were really beautiful. He was a restless person. I thought it was funny that he gave me so much attention. And Aunt Amalia would say: "Alberto, you are getting dizzy dating this girl". Alberto, in fact, used to court me, bring me chocolates, flowers, take me for walks. The people who knew him best said that when he saw me he became electric".
Mental health
Santos-Dumont is traditionally described as having developed multiple sclerosis. However, this diagnosis is disputed by other researchers:
Henrique Lins de Barros questions this diagnosis: "I think it difficult to believe in this hypothesis of multiple sclerosis... How could anyone suffering from a degenerative disease like multiple sclerosis ski in Saint Moritz in the 1910s and play tennis in the 1920s, as he did?" Marcos Villares Filho, great-grandnephew of Santos-Dumont, says that he probably had a profound depression.
The original diagnosis came after consulting a doctor due to symptoms such as dizziness and double vision. Later, this diagnosis was challenged by other doctors, who believed that the aviator was already suffering from psychiatric manifestations. The symptoms reported for the original diagnosis would be only two related to multiple sclerosis.
From biographies of Santos-Dumont, Elie Cheniaux of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro concludes that Santos-Dumont likely suffered from bipolar disorder or manic syndrome, with his latest bizarre inventions being able to demonstrate the "loss of critical ability",
- "O Homem Mecânico": published in Portuguese in the work "Os Balões de Santos-Dumont", 2010.
;Non published
- "L'Homme Mécanique", typescript from 1929.