Who Was Alberto Santos-Dumont And What's His Connection With Aviation

In the United States, almost every man, woman and child can tell you who the Wright brothers were. But ask, "Who was Alberto Santos-Dumant" and you're likely to get a lot of empty looks. Ask that same question of anyone in Brazil, however, and they'll tell you right away: He invented the airplane.

It's a common misconception, widely held in Europe just after the turn of the century. Santos-Dumont, an eccentric aviation enthusiast back when there wasn't a whole lot of flying going on, pioneered personal flight. He kept a dirigible tied to a lamppost in front of his Paris apartment. On November 12, 1906, he made the first public powered flight in an aircraft he called the 14-Bis (below). It traveled in controlled flight about 722 feet. Because the Wright brothers flight was conducted in private, many Europeans -- and damned near every single person in his native country of Brazil -- credited Santos-Dumont with making the first flight.

It was only later that the Wright brothers proved to the world they had accomplished the feat three years earlier.

But just try to tell that to a Brazilian. "It's one of the biggest frauds in history," scoffs Wagner Diogo, a taxi driver in Rio de Janeiro, of the Wright's inaugural flight. "No one saw it, and they used a catapult to launch" the airplane. Other Santos-Dumont experts say his truly was the first flight, characterizing the Wright brothers' accomplishment as the first "hop."

Even in Santos-Dumont's home country of France, however, most people acknowledge the Wright brother's due. That says a great deal, when a Frenchman admits an American did something right.

"There's a strong nationalist issue at play here," says Marcos Villares, Santos-Dumont's great grandnephew. "Flight was a very important step in human history, in the history of technology. Every country wants to claim priority."

FMI: www.rudnei.cunha.nom.br/FAB/eng/santos-dumont.html