When you think of people who significantly contributed to aviation, you probably don’t think of Alberto Santos-Dumont. Instead, you probably think of someone like Orville or Wilbur Wright, or maybe even Charles Lindburgh.
Despite this, Santos-Dumont is arguably as instrumental as them, if not more so! Where the Wright Brothers made a completely new form of travel, Santos-Dumont expanded upon it, not to mention his works on airships.
Before Aviation
Alberto Santos-Dumont was born on July 20 1873 in Palmira in the then-Empire of Brazil. He was the youngest of seven children born to Franco-Brazilian coffee plantation magnate Henrique Dumont.
His mother, Francisca de Paula Santos came from a wealthy, land-owning family, which Henrique Dumont married in to, expanding his own coffee plantation onto much of their land.
Henrique Dumont was an extremely savvy businessman. He pioneered many coffee farming techniques, which eventually made him the “Coffee King of Brazil”. Dumont showed his son these techniques several times.
As a child, Santos-Dumont was obsessed with the farm’s machinery. By his own admission, he couldn’t care about the farming, but the tractors and locomotives were the coolest things for him.
Dumont saw this in his son, and encouraged it, believing that one day, Santos-Dumont would inherit his plantation. To do this, Dumont bought his son everything he needed, in particular, the works of Frenchman Jules Verne.
This was arguably what set him on the path of becoming a world famous aviator. With his move to France in 1891, and him seeing a hot air balloon for the first time, Santos-Dumont decided that aviation was going to be his mark on the world.
Aircraft
Despite being mostly known for his early airships and his later fixed wing aircraft, Alberto Santos-Dumont designed and built pretty much every type of aircraft imaginable!
Balloons
Santos-Dumont’s first foray into the world of early aircraft design was with balloons. Santos-Dumont designed only one balloon, however, flew it several times, breaking almost every world record at the time.
Just as with the Montgolfier Brothers before him, Santos-Dumont designed his balloon completely from scratch. Incidentally, Santos-Dumont also tested them in France as well!
His design, now designated as the Santos-Dumont No. 1, but more commonly known as the Bresil (meaning Brazil in French). Santos-Dumont was inspired by several different designs including those of the Montgolfier Brothers.
Unlike their designs, however, Santos-Dumont used Japanese silk, which was both lighter and more durable than what the Montgolfier Brothers had used.
In order to be recognized for his work, Santos-Dumont also tried to make the balloon as small as possible. This was an order he accomplished, with it being well published in the local Parisian newspapers.
Airships
After several flights with the Bresil, Santos-Dumont noticed one major issue with it- it’s lack of controlability. This made Santos-Dumont rather angry, however, he noticed other aviators were having the same issue too.
This led him to develop the concept of the dirigibles, more commonly known as airships. On the surface of it, Santos-Dumont incorporated many of the design elements of his Bresil hot air balloon.
However, Santos-Dumont also developed propellers, which made it so that his dirigibles didn’t need the wing in order to fly, however, this would help them fly regardless.
In order to help with stability and maneuverability, Alberto Santos-Dumont added large control surfaces at the back of the airship, inspired by the rudders on ships.
The vast majority of Santos-Dumont’s aircraft were airships. His first one, whilst not the first airship, it was the more successful and advanced one. However, this did end up crashing in 1898.
Many of his subsequent designs were larger, more powerful and faster versions of his original design. Many of these airships were the largest aircraft of their time, and made Santos-Dumont a very rich man.
Several of these airships were flown around Paris for various roles, where he won sometimes, and lost on others. Many of his later designs were also flown on transatlantic flights, all done by Santos-Dumont himself.
Fixed Wing
Despite preferring airships (by his own admission in his autobiography) he got interested in the concept of fixed wing, heavier-than-air aircraft. Meanwhile, he continued to design and build airships for various roles.
In 1906, Alberto Santos-Dumont revealed his first fixed wing aircraft. This aircraft was his No. 14, which Santos-Dumont himself referred to as the 14-bis (quatorze-bis), which it was referred to as the time.
Prior to Santos-Dumont’s flight, he had contacted all of the local newspapers about his flight. Unlike other newspapers in other countries, these newspapers published it beforehand, creating a crowd to watch his flight.
His flight on November 21 1906, set aviation’s first recognized fixed-wing world record. His flight lasted a total of 21.5 seconds, traveling a distance of 220 metres (722 ft), being the longest officially recorded flight up until that point.
Following this, the Wright Brothers were awarded with the title of “First flight” a fact that annoyed Santos-Dumont until his final days. Despite this, he continued to develop more fixed-wing aircraft.
In fact, Alberto Santos-Dumont was among the first to develop monoplane designs. These were done through his Demoiselle series of aircraft (No. 19 to No. 22). These aircraft were both longer and wider than other aircraft of the time.
Unlike all of Santos-Dumont’s other aircraft, these aircraft were not developed for competitions or to break speed or distance records. Instead, they were used by Santos-Dumont as personal transport.
Helicopter
In the early 1900’s, Alberto Santos-Dumont saw the rise of the helicopter. He saw many American and European designs for some of the first helicopters and decided that he could create a better model after noticing several major flaws.
As such, in 1905, Santos-Dumont revealed his No. 12 design. This design was in fact superior to many other early models, however, due to Brazil’s relative isolation at the time, it is often forgotten.
Similarly to many other helicopters of the era, the design was rather crude, having to main propellers on either side of the “fuselage”. Many in Brazil do see this as the first working helicopter.
This helicopter first flew in March 1905 after several trials, however, this was purely accidental according to Santos-Dumont’s autobiography. Nevertheless, it a point of national pride for Brazilians.
However, due to it being mostly a failure, the No. 12 was Santos-Dumont’s only helicopter design (that we know of). It was certainly the only one every built by him.
Retiring From Aviation
In March 1910, Alberto Santos-Dumont announced to the local newspapers that he was retiring from aviation. This was mostly cited as being down to his multiple sclerosis, and the depression that resulted from it.
With this, Santos-Dumont almost entirely secluded himself from the rest of society, choosing to live in a relatively small town house. However, he continued to be harassed by the press due to other aviator’s works.
As such, in 1911, Santos-Dumont chose to emigrate to France. Here, he would settle in a small village on the English channel, once again being secluded from the rest of society, not really learning any French.
Whilst in France, Santos-Dumont took up astronomy as a hobby. This saw him amass a large collection of telescopes used for various different purposes. This is something that would later cause him many issues…
In 1914, WWI broke out. Due in part to his reclusivity, his large telescope collection, his odd accent and lack of French, he was quickly labelled as a German spy, despite no evidence pointing to such.
Accusations stated that Santos-Dumont was in fact using his telescope collection to spy on French naval movements for the Germans. This led the French Police to search his house, finding no evidence.
Disheartened by this, Alberto Santos-Dumont burned the rest of his unpublished designs and left for Switzerland. Here, he would live on and off until 1931, often spending his time in Rio de Janiero as well.
Death
In the early 1930’s, Santos-Dumont’s nephew traveled to Switzerland to meet and bring back his uncle. His family had hoped that upon his return to Brazil in late 1931, his depression would be cured.
However, it is debated whether Santos-Dumont’s return to Brazil was the catalyst for his death or not.
Upon his return to Brazil, the nation was in turmoil. In 1932, controversial politician Getúlio Vargas assumed the presidency, despite the fact he had not actually won the presidency himself.
As such, the people of São Paulo rose up against Getúlio Vargas, demanding both a new constitution and for the democratically-elected president to be allowed to take office.
This incident was known as the Constitutionalist Revolution. This revolution led to a war between the Brazilian military and the people of São Paulo. In this conflict, many of Santos-Dumont’s aircraft were used as weapons.
Horrified that his creations had been used for such and endeavor, possibly aided by his depression resulting from his multiple sclerosis, Santos-Dumont chose to take his own life on 23 July 1932.
Following this, his official cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest. His body later lied in state for two days, before his body was taken to Rio de Janeiro, where he had a state funeral and was buried in the São João Batista Cemetery.
Honors
Despite, in the West at least, being generally considered a forgotten aviator, Santos-Dumont is a cult hero in Brazil. Many in Brazil do believe that it was Santos-Dumont, not the Wright Brothers, who made the first flight.
Because of this, Brazil has awarded him with numerous honors, many within his lifetime, but equally as many after his lifetime.
In 1905, Santos-Dumont recieved his first major award, becoming a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, then becoming an Officer, Commandeur and finally a Grand Officier in 1929.
Following his death in 1932, he was considered for the National Air & Space Museum’s Hall of Fame, although the nature of his death prevented this. In 1967, however, he was inducted into it.
Since his passing, several aircraft have been named in his honor, ranging from small “one off” aircraft to experimental ones. In recent years, the Brazilian Air Force One has been named after Alberto Santos-Dumont.
His life, and subsequent legacy in Brazil has led many cities to be named in his honor. The plantation town of Dumont for instance, was where Santos-Dumont grew up, with his father having ran the town.
Thanks to his French and Brazilian heritage, a series of universities was created, known as the Réseau Santos Dumont. Thanks to his contribution to aircraft design, many US, French and Brazilian test facilities are also named after him.
Legacy
Despite being mostly forgotten, Alberto Santos-Dumont left an enormous impact on the aviation industry, perhaps even more so than the Wright Brothers, Kelly Johnson or Ben Rich ever could have!
Aircraft Design
Despite having burned many of his unpublished designs in the late 1910’s and early 1920’s, much of work remains intact. Santos-Dumont didn’t patent any of his work, believing that aircraft would serve as a deterrent for war.
Whilst this may seem naive, Santos-Dumont seriously believed that this would happen. And he was right, one day (technically) aircraft would serve as a deterrent, but it was more to do with what was in them (nukes!)
This allowed other aviation pioneers to take his work and recreate them. Often, these designs were altered and improved by the other aviators, leading to them inventing, now-vital pieces of aviation technology.
As such, aircraft designs are arguably 10, or maybe even 15 years ahead become of him! No longer did others need to wait several years to research something, Santos-Dumont was giving it away for free!
Airline Industry
Although Santos-Dumont didn’t live long enough to see it fully, he did arguably invent the first airlines. Whilst Santos-Dumont was busy making aircraft, others were wondering how they could use them to make money.
The result was what we know today as airlines. Initially, Santos-Dumont was hesitant to actually design and build aircraft for commercial use, believing it to be a fad. However, he was soon convinced otherwise.
In the end, Santos-Dumont partnered with several engine manufacturers to produce large scale airships for transatlantic voyages. Although his model failed, he inspired many in Europe to do the same.
Of these people who were inspired, one was Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the founder of the Zeppelin Airship Company. This company would later design the world’s largest aircraft, the LZ 129 Hindenburg.
Has the story of Alberto Santos-Dumont inspired you? Tell me in the comments!