

Flight pioneer Santos-Dumont circa 1900 in Paris - nwatson
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/santos/

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soapdog
I am Brazilian and I get annoyed when people insist the wright brothers
invented the airplane.

Santos Dumont was not only a pioneer who flew his 14 bis in front of all
Paris. He was a true humanist that believed that science and progress were
forces for the good of mankind.

He was not into flying for profit or patents, heck, he even shared the plans
for the demoiselle on popular magazines.

If you never read about this man and his life, I insist that you check out
this program and the books quoted by nwatson. Its a great untold history. I
remember crying when visiting Paris for the first time and seeing the little
plaque about him for I remembered not only his achievements but his tragic
life. There is a colorful story when he gets stuck with his balloon on top of
a tree near the house of Princess Isabel who was the Princess of Brazil and
lived in Paris. She sent her servants to the tree with food and champagne,
Alberto said that he was not going down because he didn't wanted to share that
marvelous champagne with other people =) from that day onwards they became
very good friends, the flyer and the princess.

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nwatson
In reading a recent Hacker News post "The year 2000 illustrated in 1900"
(links to [http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/06/30/france-in-the-
year-...](http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/06/30/france-in-the-
year-2000-1899-1910/)) I was reminded of the Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont,
a flight pioneer who lived in Paris around 1900.

He was the only person to ever have lived the dream of personal unrestricted
urban flight -- he'd fly his personal dirigible balloon all around Paris to
visit friends, stop at restaurants and cafes. He was the real-life inspiration
for much of what you see illustrated at
[http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/06/30/france-in-the-
year-...](http://publicdomainreview.org/2012/06/30/france-in-the-
year-2000-1899-1910/).

Here's a book I've been meaning to read about him:
[http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Madness-Alberto-Santos-Dumont-
In...](http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Madness-Alberto-Santos-Dumont-
Invention/dp/1422394115).

