Brazilian aviation pioneer (1873-1932). An
avid reader and
exceptional student, he had read all of
Jules Verne's
books by the age of 10 and had his parents' permission to drive the steam
tractors on the family's
plantation. After his
father suffered an
accident which left him partially paralyzed, the family moved to
France, hoping for a
cure, but his father died in 1892. Dumont completed his studies in
Paris and built his first
dirigible, which he called "
Number 1."
In 1901, he was the
first person to
fly a
dirigible from
Saint Cloud Park to the
Eiffel Tower and back in less than 30 minutes, earning the
Deutsch de la Meurth prize. While celebrating, he was
indirectly
responsible for a
popular invention when he complained to a
friend,
Louis Cartier, that he was unable to check his
pocket watch during the
flight because he couldn't take his hands off the controls. Cartier went out and
invented the
wristwatch.
Dumont started work on a
powered
biplane in 1906. To
test it, he mounted it under his number 14
dirigible and freed it in flight. In October, the "
14-bis" successfully took off before a group of judges from the
Aero-Club de France and landed safely after
flying about 200 feet, winning a
prize of 3,000 francs for being the first
pilot to fly at least 25 meters in a
self-powered machine. In November, he flew 720 feet, winning another prize for being the first person to fly more than 100 meters.
After that, he created the
Model 20, or the "
Demoiselle," which was capable of flights longer than ten miles at
speeds of almost 60 miles per hour. The Demoiselle is considered more
influential in
aeronautics than the 14-bis.
In 1910, Dumont fell
ill with
multiple sclerosis. He also became
depressed because, as a
pacifist, he did not accept the use of
aircraft as instruments of
war in
World War I. He returned to
Brazil and, after the beginning of a local conflict in which his planes were used as
war machines, committed
suicide.
Brazilians still regard Dumont as the "
Father of Aviation." Of course, the
Wright Brothers made the first
heavier-than-air flight at
Kitty Hawk in 1903, but Brazilians point out that the
14-bis, unlike the Wrights'
plane, was capable of taking off without
external aid, and that Dumont invented the
aileron. In addition to
airplanes, Dumont is credited with other
inventions, including
designs for
hangars and
sliding doors. He also worked unsuccessfully on designs for
helicopter-like and
float-equipped
aircraft.
Research from GURPS Who's Who, compiled by Phil Masters, "Alberto Santos Dumont" by Leonardo M. Holschuh, pp. 114-115.