Alberto Santos-Dumont

Santos Dumont's first balloon, 1898

In 1891, at the age of 18, Santos-Dumont took a sightseeing trip to Europe.[44] In England he spent a few months perfecting his English, and in France he climbed Mont Blanc.[45] This adventure, at an altitude of almost 5,000 metres, got him used to high heights.[4] The following year, his father emancipated him on 12 February 1892,[46] due to his accident,[47] advising the young Alberto to focus on studies in mechanics, chemistry, and electricity.[48][upper-alpha 6] With this Alberto returned to France where he entered motor racing and cycling.[50] He also began technical-scientific studies with a professor of Spanish origin named Garcia.[51][upper-alpha 7] In 1894 he traveled to the United States, visiting New York, Chicago, and Boston.[55] That same year[upper-alpha 8] he went on to study at Merchant Venturers’ Technical College, but never graduated.[upper-alpha 9] Agenor Barbosa described Santos-Dumont of this period as a "student of little diligence, or rather, not at all studious for 'theories', but of admirable practical and mechanical talent and, since then, revealing himself in everything, of inventive genius",[58][upper-alpha 10] but who was later described by Agnor as someone focused on aviation from when "...'explosion engines' began to succeed."[36]

In 1897, already independent and heir to an immense fortune[upper-alpha 11] with which it invested in the development of his projects,[62][upper-alpha 12] applied in the stock market[64] and allowed him to work without being accountable to any investor[61][upper-alpha 13] – was 24 years old – Santos-Dumont left for France, where he hired professional aeronauts who taught him the art of balloon piloting after reading the book "Andrée – Au Pôle Nord en ballon", about the polar expedition of Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition.[66][upper-alpha 14] On 23 March 1898, he made his first ascent in a Lachambre & Machuron balloon at a cost of 400 francs,[upper-alpha 15] describing that: "I will never forget the genuine pleasure of my first balloon ascent".[66] That year, even before he was known as a balloonist, he began to be quoted by the media due to his involvement in motor racing.[69]

On 30 May 1898, he made his first night ascent,[46] and the following month he started working as a captain, taking a group of passengers in a rented balloon.[70] It is known that by 1900 he had created nine balloons, of which two became famous: the "Brazil" and the "Amérique".[4] The first one premiered on 4 July 1898,[71] was the smallest aircraft ever built until then – inflated with hydrogen, it covered a mere 113 metres in a silk envelope[upper-alpha 16] of 6 metres in diameter,[73] weighing 27.5 kg without the crewman[66] and made more than 200 flights.[74][upper-alpha 17] According to biographer Gondin da Fonseca, Dumont would have been influenced to create his first balloon after following the Paris-Amsterdam race on his tricycle.[50][upper-alpha 18] The second balloon, Amérique, had 500m³ of hydrogen and 10 metres in diameter, and was capable of carrying a few passengers, but without control.[77] With the second balloon he faced everything from storms to accidents.[78] In his first experiments he was awarded a prize by the French Aeroclub for his study of atmospheric currents; he reached high altitudes and even stayed in the air for more than 22 hours.[70] At this time Dumont already understood the need for government investment in aviation development[upper-alpha 19] and the importance of public opinion being in favor of this, something previously noted by Júlio César Ribeiro de Sousa.[82]

It was first demonstrated and patented by the Brazilian priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão in 1709, and had its first crewed flight by the Montgolfier Brothers in 1783,[83] the existing view until the late 19th century was that balloon dirigibility was something unresolved, having already been addressed by, among others, Henri Giffard,[84][upper-alpha 20] Charles Renard and Arthur Constantin Krebs in a flight with an electric motor in a closed circuit[upper-alpha 21] in a project abandoned by the French Army, and by the Brazilian Júlio César Ribeiro de Sousa, without success.[88][upper-alpha 22] Public demonstration, such as the ones performed by Santos-Dumont, became something of paramount importance in the skeptical academic environment.[90]

Due to the weight of the electric motors, Santos-Dumont chose the combustion engine. During initial tests, he received help by lifting his tricycle used in the Paris-Amsterdam race up a tree to check for vibrations, which did not occur.[91] He came to adapt the engine, putting the two cylinders on top of each other,[92] succeeding in creating a lightweight 3.5 horsepower device, becoming the first explosion engine successfully used in aeronautics.[93][upper-alpha 23] In translation of an article presented in CENDOC, Rio de Janeiro 2021, it is said that the aeronautical movement in France was sparked by Santos Dumont's experiments[94] and Dumont himself said he believed his experiences led to the founding of the Aero-Club of France.[95]

A detail raised by Santos Dumont refers to the definition of what would be heavier than air: in June 1902 he published an article in the North American Review arguing that his work on airships was about aviation, because hydrogen gas by itself was not capable of taking off, and the power of the engine was needed.[96] In this article he also stated: "...the flying-machine will be achieved only by the way of evolution, by making the air-ship pass through a series of transformations analogous to the metamorphoses by which the chrysalis becomes the winged butterfly."[97][98]

N-1

Airship Nº1

Airship Nº2

The first airship designed by Santos-Dumont, the N-1, 25 metres long and 186 cubic metres,[99][upper-alpha 24] had its first takeoff attempt in February 1898,[upper-alpha 25] after being inflated in Henri Lachambre's workshops in Vaugirard. But snowy conditions caused the airship to bend and fall. "At a height of five or six metres, over Longchamp, the apparatus suddenly bent and the crash began. Of my entire career, this is the most abominable memory I have in store."[35][46]

After this incident, it was inflated in the Aclimation Garden in Paris on 18 September 1898, but ended up torn before it was tried, due to a bad manoeuvre by the helpers on the ground holding the ropes of the aircraft. Repaired two days later, the aircraft took off and progressed in all directions. An unforeseen event, however, shortened the trip: the air pump responsible for supplying the internal balloon, which kept the balloon envelope rigid, did not work properly,[46] and the airship, at a height of 400 metres, began to bend and descend rapidly.[99] In an interview, Santos-Dumont told how he escaped death:

"The descent was at a speed of 4 to 5 m/sec. It would have been fatal if I hadn't had the presence of mind to tell the passersby, spontaneously suspended from the dangling cable like a real human cluster, to pull the cable in the opposite direction to the wind. Thanks to this maneuver, the speed of the fall decreased, thus avoiding the greater violence of the shock. I thus varied my amusement: I went up in a balloon and came down in a kite."[101]

N-2

In 1899, Santos-Dumont built a new aircraft, the N-2, with the same length and more or less the same shape, but with a larger diameter: 3.80 metres, which increased the volume to 200 cubic metres.[102] Considering the inadequacy of the air pump, which had almost killed him, he added a small aluminum fan to ensure that the shape of the balloon remained unchanged.[103]

The first test was scheduled for 11 May 1899. At the time of the experiment, heavy rain made the balloon heavy. The demonstration consisted of simple maneuvers with the aircraft attached by a rope; nevertheless, the test ended in the adjacent trees. The balloon had folded under the combined action of the contraction of the hydrogen and the force of the wind.[104]

N-3

In September of that year Santos-Dumont started the construction of a new elongated balloon, the N-3,[upper-alpha 26] inflated with lighting gas, 20 metres long and 7.50 in diameter, with a capacity of 500 cubic metres. The basket installed was the same used in the two other aircraft.[107]

Airship Nº3

At 3:30 pm on 13 November, the date when, according to some astrologers, the world would end 100 years earlier,[85] Santos Dumont, in a gesture of defiance, took off in N-3 from Vaugirard Aerostation Park and went around the Eiffel Tower for the first time.[46] From the monument he went to the Parc des Princes and from there to the Bagatelle Gamefield in the Bois de Boulogne (near the Hippodrome of Longchamp). It landed at the exact spot where the N-1 had crashed, this time under controlled conditions.[108] He got excited:

"From that day on, I no longer had the slightest doubt about the success of my invention.[upper-alpha 27] I recognized that I would, for life, be dedicated to aircraft construction. I needed to have my workshop, my aeronautical garage, my hydrogen-generating apparatus, and a plumbing system to connect my installation to the illuminating gas pipelines."[109]

Indeed, the far-sighted balloonist soon had a large hangar built at the Saint Cloud site, long and high enough to hold the N-3 with its completely filled casing, as well as the various devices needed to manufacture the hydrogen gas.[110] This airfield, completed on 15 June 1900, was 30 metres long, 7 metres wide, and 11 metres high.[46][upper-alpha 28] But it was no longer intended to house N-3, which had been abandoned by the inventor, but rather N-4, completed on 1 August of that year.[46] With No. 3 he broke the record of 23 hours on air.[113] He also tried to fly almost every day, demonstrating the reliability and usefulness of his aircraft.[114]

N-4

At that time, a huge prize was shaking up the aviation scene. On 24 March 1900, the Jewish millionaire oil magnate Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe sent the President of the Aeroclub of France, which had been founded two years earlier, a letter in which he promised to award 100,000 francs to anyone who could invent an efficient flying machine:[46]

"Desirous of contributing to the solution of the problem of air travel, I undertake to place at the disposal of the Air Club a sum of 100,000 francs, constituting a prize, under the title of the Air Club Prize, to the aeronaut who, leaving the park of Saint Cloud, Longchamps, or any other point situated at an equal distance from the Eiffel Tower, reaches this monument in half an hour, and, surrounding it, returns to the point of departure. (...) If one of the competitors is judged to have fulfilled the program, the prize will be awarded to him by the President of the Club himself, to whom I will immediately put the amount indicated above. If at the end of five years, beginning on April 15 of the current year, 1900, no one has won it, I consider my commitment null and void."[115][upper-alpha 29]

Keel from N-4

The challenge became known in the press as the Deutsch Prize. The regulations stipulated that an aircraft, to be considered practical, 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, covering a total of 11 kilometres under the eyes of a commission from the Aeroclub de France, convened at least one day in advance. The minimum average speed to be reached, therefore, was 22 km/h.[116]

The award encouraged Alberto Santos-Dumont to attempt faster flights with the N-4.[117] The aircraft was 420 cubic metres, 29 metres long, and 5.60 metres in diameter.[118][upper-alpha 30] Underneath was a 9.40-metre bamboo pole keel, in the middle of which were the saddle and pedals of an ordinary bicycle. Mounted on the saddle, the pilot had under his feet the starting pedals of a 7-horsepower engine, which powered a front propeller with two 4-metre long silk blades. Next to the pilot were the ends of ropes through which he could control the carburetor and valve settings, as well as the rudder, ballast, and displacement weights.[119] With the N-4 Santos Dumont made in August almost daily flights departing from Saint Cloud. On 19 September, before members of the International Congress of Aeronauts, he provided clear proof of the effective work of an aerial propeller driven by an oil engine: he marched repeatedly against the wind, even with a broken rudder, impressing the scientists present.[120] The general impression was that Dumont would win the Deutsch Prize and upon going to Nice after falling ill, he began designing the N-5 using, for the first time, piano wire in the aircraft's suspensions.[121]

N-5 and N-6

Santos Dumont circling the Eiffel Tower with the airship n-5, 13 July 1901

The N-5 was built to try to win the Henry Deutsch de la Meurthe award[121][upper-alpha 31] for a flight from the Aero-Club de France flying field in Saint-Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back in 30 minutes. It used the extended envelope of No. 4, from which a triangular gondola made of pine was suspended. Other innovations included the use of piano wire to suspend the gondola, greatly reducing drag, and the inclusion of water tanks as ballast. Powered by a 12 hp, 4-cylinder air-cooled engine moving a propeller.[124]

On 13 April the "Santos-Dumont Prize" was created, which was basically the same as the Deutsch Prize, but without a time limit.[125][upper-alpha 32] On 13 July 1901,[upper-alpha 33] After some experimental outings, Santos Dumont competed with the N-5 in the Deutsch Award for the first time. It completed the required course, but exceeded the time limit stipulated for the race by ten minutes.[128] At that time, he met Princess Imperial Isabel, after an accident.[125] On 29 July he aborted the flight where he cut his fingers on the way down the guide-rope, and at that time French aeronauts started a smear campaign against Dumont.[129]

On the 8th of the following month, trying for the prize again, he ended up crashing his aircraft into the Hotel Trocadero;[130] although the balloon exploded and was completely destroyed, the pilot escaped the accident unscathed[131] and publicly tested the engine in front of everyone, to show its reliability.[132] The cause of the accident was due to one of the automatic valves having a weakened spring, which caused the loss of gas.[127]

After offering his own 21 cubic metre balloon which was under construction – and being politely refused – Henri Deutsch said, "I'm afraid the experiments will not be conclusive. Mr. Santos-Dumont's balloon will always be at the mercy of the wind, and is therefore not the kind of aircraft we dream of."[133] Dumont crashed his N-6 at the Longchamps racetrack on September 19, 1901.[134]

On 19 October 1901, with the 622 cubic metre N-6 balloon with a 20 horsepower engine,[upper-alpha 34] he finally executed the test in 29 minutes and 30 seconds,[135][upper-alpha 35] but it took about a minute to land, which caused the committee to initially deny the award.[upper-alpha 36] This became a matter of controversy, as both the public and Mr. Deutsch believed that the aviator had won. After some time and the aviator protesting this decision, it was reversed. He became internationally recognized as the world's greatest aviator and the inventor of the airship. The prize was then 100,000 francs plus interest,[135] that Dumont distributed among his staff and the unemployed[137][3] and workers in Paris who for some reason had "pawned their tools of labor"[138] with help from the City Hall of Paris.[139][upper-alpha 37] A month before the event, by announcing this intention, he had obtained "unrestricted support from public opinion". However, the money was only released on 4 November after a vote in which nine members of the Aeroclub were against and fifteen were in favor.[140] This delay only served to put public opinion in Santos-Dumont's favor.[141] In the afternoon of the same day, he sent an irrevocable letter of resignation to the Aeroclub.[142] Mauricio Pazini Brandão, in "The Santos-Dumont legacy to aeronautics", says that this event should be considered as the certification of the airship.[143]

Nº6 airship

After winning the Deutsch Prize, Santos-Dumont began to receive letters from several countries, in different languages, congratulating him;[144][upper-alpha 38] magazines published lavish, richly illustrated editions to reproduce his image and perpetuate the achievement;[148] an Alexander Graham Bell interview in the New-York Herald explored the reasons for Santos Dumont's success, envy of other inventors, and the experiments that preceded him;[87] tributes were paid to him in France, in Brazil, in England, where the English Aero Club offered a banquet[50] and in several other countries: as far back as 1901, the president of Brazil, Campos Sales sent him prize money of 100 contos de réis following the proposal of Augusto Severo,[149] as well as a gold medal with his effigy and an allusion to Camões: " Through skies never sailed before";[150][151] However, the Brazilian people proved to be apathetic to the event;[152] in January 1902, Albert I, the enthusiastic Prince of Monaco, extended him an invitation he couldn't refuse to continue his experiments in the Principality. He offered him a new hangar on the beach at La Condamine, and everything else Alberto thought necessary for his comfort and safety,[153] which was accepted;[154] his success has also inspired the creation of several biographies and influenced fictional characters, with Tom Swift as a prime example;[155] in April of that year, at his invitation, Santos Dumont traveled to the United States, where he visited Thomas Edison's laboratories in New York,[156] where they discussed the problem of patents.[upper-alpha 39] The American asked Santos-Dumont to create the Aero Club of the US and when explaining the reason not to charge for demonstrations in Saint Louis, Dumont said: "I am an amateur".[upper-alpha 40] After the meeting with Edison, Santos-Dumont declared to the American press that he did not intend to patent his aircraft.[159] In addition, he was received at the White House in Washington, DC, by President Theodore Roosevelt.[156] In July 1902, after the creation of the Aeroclub of the United States, Santos-Dumont even announced the execution of a series of flights in American territory, which did not take place, which confused the media – that created several articles exploring his intimacy – and American public opinion.[160] He left New York in late 1902, without having made a single flight[161] and the American view did not consider their inventions to be practical or profitable.[162]

At the beginning of the last century, Santos-Dumont was the only person on the planet capable of controlled flight.[157] After his time in the United States, he learned of the fatal accident of Augusto Severo and the suicide of his mother;[163] he returned to England, where he had left No. 6 being prepared for an exhibition at The Crystal Palace, as well as planning to fly into London.[158] However, a technical error caused the fabric to be punctured – this view was confirmed by the balloonist Stanley Spencer.[163] The initial view was that the balloon had been cut with a knife, with Dumont stating that "...whole sections were cut and removed." and that he had previously experienced something similar.[164]

Monaco

In Monaco,[upper-alpha 41] after accepting Prince Albert I of Monaco's invitation, Dumont guided the construction of a 55m long, 10m wide and 15m high hangar, with doors, designed by Dumont, of 10 tons,[149][upper-alpha 42] on the Boulevard de La Condamine by the sea, in order to test how the guide wire behaved at sea, finding it a good way to stabilize the aircraft in low flight.[135] Dumont also demonstrated that overall the aircraft behaved well over water, reaching up to 42 km/h (26 mph).[166] Its success made clear the possible military use of the aircraft, especially in case of submarine warfare, but its plans in the principality were interrupted after a crash in the Bay of Monaco on 14 February 1902.[167] The crash was due to the balloon being "imperfectly filled when leaving the garage."[168] After the accident he began to perform the "check list" before each take-off – but No. 6 ended up in an unrecoverable state.[169][upper-alpha 43]

N-7, N-8, N-9 and N-10

Airship Nº10

After the homage period, Santos-Dumont started to dedicate himself to the construction of new airship models, two years after he left Paris,[171] each one with a specific purpose: the N-7, with 1,257 cubic metres[172] and 45 horsepower engine,[173] designed to be a racing airship, was tested in Neuilly (France) in May 1904.[upper-alpha 44] The following month the aircraft was sabotaged in an exhibition organized in St. Louis (United States of America),[upper-alpha 45] getting ruined, and could not be rebuilt – a malefactor, never identified, made four 1-metre cuts which, because the balloon was folded, resulted in forty-eight cuts in the envelope,[175] when it was in New York Customs[176][upper-alpha 46] – on this trip, he also met the Wright Brothers;[178] the N-8 was a copy of the N-6 ordered by an American collector named Edward Boyce,[179] vice president of the Aeroclub of America,[180][upper-alpha 47] having made a single flight in New York;[169] the N-9, with 261 cubic metres and 3 horsepower, was a travel airship, in which Santos Dumont made several flights throughout 1903,[154] as the first night flight of an airship on 24 June, and the last of these came on 14 July.[183] On this day, the N-9 took part in a military parade[184] in commemoration of the 114th anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille.[154] As he passed the President of the Republic, he fired 21 revolver shots into the air and with the presentation, the military considered the balloon to be a practical instrument, considerable for wartime.[185] Dumont placed himself and his flotilla of three aircraft at the disposal of the government in the event of foreign hostility, provided it was not against the nations of the Americas and that, "in the impossible event of war between France and Brazil," Dumont considered himself obliged to place himself on the side of his motherland.[186] With the demonstration of feasibility, the French military encouraged several industries to develop the technology proposed by Santos-Dumont.[174]

The first woman to fly an aircraft was Aida de Acosta, on 29 June 1903, flying the N-9.[187][188] The 11 August 1905 issue of "La Vie au Grand Air" describes the organization of the second edition of the "Coupe des Femmes Aéronautes"[189] and in the second half of 1906, the magazine "Le Sport Universel Illustré" reported that three years after the start of the Grand Prix of the Aéro-Club de France, seven countries were already participating in the competition.[190]

The N-10, a 2,010 cubic metre, 60 horsepower engine, was a coach airship, large enough to carry several people and serve for public transportation. Although the aircraft made a few ascents in October 1903, it was never completely finished; the N-11, was an unmanned monoplane.[upper-alpha 48] No 12 was a helicopter never completed due to the technological limitation of the time and finally, N-13, a luxurious double hot air and hydrogen balloon.[191]

On his first return to Rio de Janeiro in 1903, a group of climbers put up a banner on Sugarloaf Mountain, to the side of Guanabara Bay, greeting the aviator, while he was still returning by ship from Europe.[37] On the day of his return, 7 September 1903, he was received as a hero and even greeted the then President of Brazil, Rodrigues Alves, at the Catete Palace. When asked why he didn't fly in Brazil, Santos-Dumont justified himself that it was because he couldn't "...count on the help of his mechanics, and much less on a hydrogen production plant like he had in France." He returned to Paris on 12 October.[192] In 1904 he was initially nominated as a Knight of the Legion of Honor of France and published the work "Dans L'Air", whose translation into Portuguese, "Os Meus Balões" (My Balloons), was only published in Brazil in 1938.[193]

In October 1904, three aviation prizes were founded in France: the Archdeacon Prize, the French Aeroclub Prize, and the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize. The first, promoted by millionaire Ernest Archdeacon, would award 3,500 francs to anyone who flew 25 metres; the second, instituted by the French aeroclub, would award 1,500 francs ($300) to anyone who flew 100 metres; and the third, sponsored by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe and Ernest Archdeacon, would award 1,500 francs to anyone who flew 1,000 metres.[194]

With the exception of the Deutsch-Archdeacon Award, which did not admit that the competing aircraft should at any time use a balloon for support, the other awards left the question of takeoff open. The flight could take place on flat or uneven terrain, in calm weather or under wind – the French Aeroclub's Award required the flight to be into the wind – and the use of an engine was not mandatory. This gave a free pass to human-powered gliders and ornithopters to compete as well. It was expressly required for all prizes, however, that the race took place in France and under the supervision of an aeronautical commission convened no later than the evening of the previous day.[195]

Very little of what was required was new. Inventors in other countries had already met or even exceeded some of the required goals.[upper-alpha 49] In Germany, Otto Lilienthal made thousands of descending glider flights in the early 1890s, often reaching distances far greater than the 25 metres stipulated by the Archdeacon Prize. In the United States, the Wright brothers had been making ever longer flights in powered airplanes since 1903, their takeoffs aided by headwinds near Kitty Hawk and a catapult in Ohio, but without any official observers.[200][178][201] Otto Lilienthal's death due to a stall led the Wright brothers to place the horizontal elevator in front, which helped prevent stalls but made stable flight difficult until the Wrights modified the design; the configuration nevertheless was adopted by other inventors.[202][upper-alpha 50]

Glider and Helicopter

Having already accumulated technical knowledge, mainly concerning engines,[204] in early 1905, Santos Dumont built a model glider, the N-11, inspired by a self-stabilizing prototype made 100 years earlier by English scientist George Cayley, considered to be the first airplane in history: the model, 1.5 metres long by 1.2 metres wide, had fixed wings, a cruciform tail and a movable weight to adjust the center of gravity. Dumont's glider differed from Cayley's in size, wing profile, and the fact that it had no movable weight.[205][206] The project was abandoned due to poor stability.[204] An article by Georges Blanchet published in April 1904 diverges from the description of the N-11 as a model airplane by presenting it as a dirigible balloon capable of carrying five people and a 34-meter-long envelope, being purchased by an American.[182]

Nº12 (helicopter) in construction

The first experiment, conducted on 13 May at the Aeroclub de France, was made by the Dufaux brothers with a prototype helicopter. The model, weighing 17 kilograms and equipped with a 3-horsepower engine, repeatedly soared fast to the roof of the air club's porch, raising clouds of dust. It had been demonstrated that heavier, larger aircraft could be lifted by their own means.[207] The second experiment was made on 8 June on the Seine River: Gabriel Voisin went up in the hydroplane Archdeacon, towed by a speedboat piloted by Alphonse Tellier, La Rapière. The device barely rose out of the water and the project was abandoned due to poor stability.[208] Watching tests like this, Dumont realized that the Antoinette engine used in the tugboat could be used in an airplane, giving rise to the concept of the 14-bis.[60][upper-alpha 51]

Divided, he began to study the two solutions for the heavier than air. On 3 January 1906, he entered the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize, and before that he had begun building a helicopter, the "N-12," but gave up on it on 1 June because it was impossible to create a light, powerful engine.[208] Between June 12 and August 25, 1905 he tested the N-14 airship, which received two versions (14-a and 14-b): the first was 41m long, 3.4 in diameter and 186 cubic meters, with a 14 HP engine, and the second was 20m long, 6 in diameter and with a 16 HP engine.[210]

Olympic diploma, 1905

On 13 June 1905, represented by the Italian Count Eugenio Brunetta d'Usseaux, Baron Pierre de Coubertin awarded Santos-Dumont the Olympic Diploma No. 3[211] for "...representing the Olympic ideal..." according to Coubertin, who was also received by Theodore Roosevelt, Fridjoff Nansen and William-Hippolyte Grenfell.[212] Pierre considered aviation a sport; Santos Dumont was described as a sportsman in FAI "Bulletins" and the "Paris Sport" of 15 July 1901 described the Brazilian as "a true sportsman in every sense of the word.[176] The homage to the Brazilian is considered relevant due to the fact that he was already famous at that time and already consecrated as a hero in his country.[213] Santos' diploma was passed to the Brazilian ambassador in Belgium, who then passed it on to the aviator, according to the 21 June 1905 edition of the Correio Paulistano.[214] Dumont was not the only one represented by others at the ceremony[215] and only William Grenfell received the diploma personally.[216] The FAI was created on 14 October 1905, along the lines of the International Olympic Committee.[217]

14-bis

Illustration of the 14-bis flight on 12 November 1906, which earned Santos Dumont the French Aeroclub Award

14-bis pulled by a donkey during tests

He then built a hybrid machine, the 14-bis or Oiseau de Proie, consolidating his studies of what had been done in aviation until then,[218][upper-alpha 52] finished after two months, at the end of the first half of 1906,[220] an airplane attached to a hydrogen balloon to reduce weight and facilitate takeoff.[upper-alpha 53] For completing the 14-bis,[221] on 18 July Dumont signed up to compete in the events[222] and presented the exotic aircraft for the first time the next day,[193][upper-alpha 54] attached to a balloon,[221] at Bagatelle, where he ran some races, obtaining appreciable jumps.[4][upper-alpha 55] Excited, he decided to apply for the Archdeacon and Aeroclub of France awards the following day, his birthday – he would be 33 – but was immediately discouraged by Captain Ferdinand Ferber, another aviation enthusiast. Ferber had attended the demonstrations and did not like the solution presented by Dumont; he considered the hybrid an impure machine. "Aviation must be solved by aviation!" he declared.[224][225]

Oiseau de Proie

Santos-Dumont decided to listen to his colleague's criticism. He would not compete for the prizes with the misto, but even so on 20 July he signed up for the tests and over the next three days continued to test the plane coupled to the balloon, in order to practice steering. Throughout the tests he realized that, although the balloon favored take-off, it made flight difficult.[226] The drag generated was too great. The airship was discarded, and the biplane, finally freed from its light companion, received the name Oiseau de Proie ("Bird of Prey") from the press.[226] The Oiseau de Proie had clearly been inspired by the hydroplane tested by Voisin. Like the water glider, the invention also consisted of a cellular biplane based on the structure created in 1893 by Australian researcher Lawrence Hargrave, which offered good support and rigidity.[227]

Oiseau de Proie I

The plane was 4 metres high, 10 metres long, and had a span of 12 metres,[228] with a wing area of 50 square metres. The mass of the aircraft was 205 kilograms, without a pilot. The wings were attached to a beam, in front of which lay the rudder, consisting of a cell identical to those of the wings. At the rear end was the propeller, powered by a 24-horsepower Levavasseur engine. The landing gear had two wheels. The pilot stood upright.[226] The 23 September 1906 issue of "Le Sport Universel Illustré" published the technical details of the 14-bis.;[190][229]

On 29 July using the strength of a donkey, Santos-Dumont hoisted the Oiseau de Proie by means of a system of cables to the top of a tower[226] 13 metres high (2 metres were stuck in the ground), installed a few days earlier on his property in Neuilly. This frame was very similar to the one Ferber had used at Chalais-Meudon for the May 1905 experiments with the 6-bis. The plane, suspended on a movable hook connected to an inclined steel wire, glided without a propeller 60 metres from the top of the tower to a smaller one, only six metres long, without starting the engine, on the Boulevard de la Seine. The methodical inventor was trying to get a feel for what it would be like to fly an airplane and at the same time to study its center of gravity.[230][223] On 13 September, the 14-bis made a 7-metre test flight,[193] at 8:40 a.m,[221] being praised by La Nature magazine.[231] On the 30 September he interrupted the tests of the 14-Bis to participate in the Gordon Bennett Cup with the Deux Amériques balloon, and abandoned it after suffering an accident, after flying 134 kilometres in 6 hours and 20 minutes.[232] The accident occurred while attempting a maneuver that caused him to have his arm fractured by the engine gear.[233]

Oiseau de Proie II

The flight of the Oiseau de Proie III on the cover of 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 maneuvering the airplane across the lawn, until the propeller shaft broke, not being repaired until the afternoon, after which the plane was moved into position for an official attempt. A crowd was present and had expectations with the day's presentation. At 4:45 pm, Santos-Dumont started the engine.[234]

The race had been completed. More than twice the predetermined distance had been covered. The crewed plane had lifted off into space and sustained itself for 60 metres in mid-air,[193] without taking advantage of headwinds, or using ramps, catapults, slopes, or other devices. The flight had taken place solely by the aircraft's own means, and Europeans at the time believed it was the first such achievement.[235]

The crowd celebrated in excitement, ran up to the pilot and carried him off in triumph. The judges had also been overcome with emotion and, surprised, forgot to time and track the flight, and due to the failure the record was not homologated.[137] Brandão 2018 says that because the Aeroclub Committee was partially present, a new test was scheduled for 12 November.[236]

"I struggled at first with the greatest difficulties to achieve complete obedience of the airplane. It was like shooting an arrow with the tail forward. On my first flight, after sixty meters, I lost direction and crashed... I didn't stay in the air any longer, not because of the machine's fault, but exclusively my own."

— Santos-Dumont.[237]

Oiseau de Proie III

12 November 1906 flight

The airplane was still a very precarious machine. To compete for the French Aeroclub's prize, Santos-Dumont inserted between the wings two octagonal surfaces (rudimentary ailerons) with which he hoped to obtain better steering control and created the Oiseau de Proie III.[238] Dumont was a pioneer in implementing the ailerons in his aircraft.[239][upper-alpha 56]

14-Bis after its crash, 1907.

Santos-Dumont competed for the award on 12 November 1906,[241] once again in Bagatelle. He did five[upper-alpha 57] public flights that day: one at 10 am, of 40 metres; two others at 10:25 am, of 40 and 60 metres, respectively, when the axle of the right wheel broke. The breakdown was repaired during lunch and Santos-Dumont resumed at 4:09 pm. He covered 82.60 metres, surpassing the feat of 23 October, reaching 41.3 km/h.[242] At 4:45 pm, with the day already ending, he took off against the wind and flew 220 metres, for 21 seconds and an average speed of 37.4 km/h,[242] winning the French Aeroclub Award.[upper-alpha 58] These were the first airplane flights recorded by a film company, Pathé.[244] 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."[245][upper-alpha 59] Santos-Dumont even adopted the configuration proposed by the Wright brothers and placed the rudder at the front of the 14-bis, which he described as "the same as trying to shoot an arrow forward with the tail...". To test the idea that the rudder at the rear increased the angle of incidence of the wings, Santos-Dumont built a new aircraft, without abandoning the 14-bis,[246] and tested it in March 1907, without taking off[247] due to a primitive landing gear that did not allow the plane to maneuver off the ground.[248]

Oiseau de Proie IV

He returned to the 14-bis having already made other changes to the aircraft after 12 November and on 4 April 1907, at Saint-Cyr, the aircraft flew for 50 metres, oscillated, crashed, was torn to pieces, and the project was abandoned.[249]

New airplanes

The Demoiselle in flight

He also made the N-15, a biplane, with the rudder behind, as opposed to the canard format,[250] the N-16, a mix of airship and airplane,[upper-alpha 60] the N-17 and the N-18, a waterslide[228][upper-alpha 61] used to test the wing shape underwater.[252] Dissatisfied with the results of numbers 15 to 18, he made a new series, smaller in size and more refined, like the Demoiselle, that was capable of reaching up to 90 kilometres per hour.[35][253][upper-alpha 62] It was first tested in November 1907, returning on an abandoned idea from 1905, but soon realized that the airplane "... had serious structural problems." according to Henrique Lins de Barros.[248] In 1909 he presented the Demoiselle No. 20, improved and considered "the first ultralight in history".[255][upper-alpha 63] This airplane was made with the vision of being specialized in sports competitions and had 300 copies in several European countries and in the United States,[38] and his schemes were published in the June–July 1910 issues of Popular Mechanics.[257] With the inventor's non-commercial purpose, this plane consolidated Santos-Dumont's role in the birth of aviation in the 20th century.[258][upper-alpha 64] The Demoiselle also featured an engine of original invention by Santos Dumont[upper-alpha 65] and model Nº20, capable of flights of up to 2 kilometres and reaching 96 km/h,[upper-alpha 66]

The aircraft is on permanent display at the Musée de l'air et de l'espace.[260] In 1908, when the Wright brothers went public, and—according to Mattos—used European technology[201][upper-alpha 67] and his colleagues were already being rewarded, he already seemed to have moved away from the events.[252]

A Encantada, Santos-Dumont's chalet in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro

In Brazil, in 1918, Santos-Dumont bought a small lot on the side of a hill in the town of Petropolis in the Serra Fluminense mountains, and in 1918 built a small house there filled with imaginative mechanical devices, including an alcohol-heated shower of his own design. The hill was purposely chosen because of its steep slope, as proof that ingenuity could make it possible to build a comfortable house in that unlikely location. After he built it, he used to spend the summer there to escape the heat of Rio de Janeiro, calling it "The Enchanted" because of the Rua do Encanto. The steps of the outside stairs are dug alternately to the right and left, to allow people to climb up comfortably. The house is now a museum.[337]

The controversy over Santos Dumont's sexuality has long been debated, including by his biographers, since the Brazilian aviator never married and, in addition, always had a well-groomed appearance, refined manners, and was rather shy.[338]

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.[339] 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."[340] Also, in his article "Alberto Santos-Dumont: Pioneiro da Aviação," Barros notes that Santos-Dumont even had a media-heralded engagement to Edna Powers,[217] daughter of an American millionaire.[upper-alpha 72] In addition, Cosme Degenar Drumond, writer of "Alberto Santos-Dumont: Novas Revelações," says that in France Dumont has "a reputation as a conqueror".[341] Recently, Santos-Dumont was listed in the list of the "100 VIP homosexuals of Brazil," formulated by anthropologist Luiz Mott, rekindling the discussion regarding the Santos-Dumont's sex life. Santos-Dumont's family has repudiated the allegations of his homosexuality.[342] Santos-Dumont allegedly had a homo-affective affair with Georges Goursat in 1901.[343]

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".[340]

In 2009, a letter from Santos-Dumont to his friend Pedro Guimarães was published, dated 23 December 1901, in which the former says he is in love with an American woman: "(...) However, my heart is already very much with her... and I don't know what to do, whether to stop the courtship or to continue. It's a very critical position."[344]