Alberto Santos Dumont

[ian.whalley]

Can anyone suggest a good biography or autobiography of Alberto Santos Dumont?

I was surprised to read that he was the first to fly in Europe and that his aircraft had a relatively conventional undercarriage rather than the skids and catapault mechanism employed by the Wright Brothers.

I was also surprised to read that we owe the invention of the wrist watch to Santos Dumont and his friend Cartier.

Quite an interesting character from what I have read so far. Also a sad end to a brilliant life.:)

[Lynxman]

Santos-Dumont: A Study in Obsession by Peter Wykeham. Published by Putnam and Company in 1962. A good read and available secondhand through AbeBooks and also Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight by Paul Hoffman, ISBN 1841153699 (http://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9781841153698/872042791), also via AbeBooks. The second you should be able to get for just over £2.00 including postage, the first about £8.00. Finally Man Flies: The Story of Alberto Santos-Dumont, Master of the Balloon by Nancy Winters, ISBN 0880016361, also about £8.00.

[ian.whalley]

Thank you Lynxman. Your help is greatly appreciated.

I will start hunting for the books that you have mentioned.:)

[Noyade]

Fake photo?

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/2257/800pxsantosnov121906.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/844/800pxsantosnov121906.jpg/)
http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/2537/shoppedc.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/651/shoppedc.jpg/)

[ian.whalley]

If it is a fake, it is pretty impressive trickery for days long before photoshop.

I can't see any indication on the photo (even though it is of poor quality ) of cutting and pasting.

What do others think?

[blaireau]

I'm not so sure. One of the women in a white dress appears to be holding a mobile phone.

[ian.whalley]

For those interested in books on/about Santos Dumont, I have found reference to his autobiography titled "My Airships" published in 1904.

I also found it interesting that when he was awarded the Deutsch Price he gave it away to his workmen and the poor.

He also refused to patent his inventions hoping that the magic of flight would eventually be available to most of the population of the world. Quite a contrast to the Wright Brothers.

Truly an amazing man.:)

[tail wheel]

Looks like the same aircraft in this painting, superimposed on the photo above?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Wk000002.jpg

Is that a pusher prop, or is the pilot facing the wrong way?

[onetrack]

I believe that the first photo above is a fake, and the description of how it was faked is correct. The "14-Bis" never achieved a height greater than 15' in its record-making flight, and the faked photo shows the aircraft at a height greater than 15'.

The painting is typical of the era, an "artists impression" of the scene.

The 14-Bis was a pusher type aircraft, and it had absolutely minimal control surfaces, thus making it extremely unpredictable when airborne.

History of Airplanes - Santos-Dumont 14-Bis (http://acepilots.com/airplanes/purpose/civilian/santos-dumont-14-bis/)

[longer ron]

I have always thought that the angle of the foreplane box gave the game away...ie looks to be at the correct angle for being parked on the ground !
Also the a/c's position in relation to the crowd/trees is slightly wrong...
The photo in the above link looks more genuine.

[werewolf]

Santos-Dumont : Dailymotion - Santos Dumont, inventeur de l'avion moderne - une vidéo Sports & Extreme (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xaw4ac_santos-dumont-inventeur-de-l-avion_sport)