Alberto Santos-Dumont

Brazilian aeronautical designer

• Born: July 20, 1873
• Birthplace: Palmyra, Brazil
• Died: July 23, 1932
• Place of death: Guarujá, Brazil

Santos-Dumont, a leading European aviator during the period of early development of piloted flight, is recognized as an inventor and innovative designer in both major categories of flight: lighter than air (airships) and heavier than air (airplanes). Working with semirigid airships, he adapted the internal combustion engine as a source of power for lighter-than-air vehicles, and he was the first to design, build, and fly a heavier-than-air machine in Europe. Two of the airplanes he designed and built played a major role in the development of European aviation.

Early Life

Alberto Santos-Dumont (SAWN-toz-doo-MOHN) was the third son and the last of seven children of Francisca Santos and Henriques Dumont, known as the Brazilian“coffee king.” An avid reader, especially of Jules Verne’s science fiction, Alberto was enthralled by the idea that humans might fly, and he was also fascinated by machinery. At an early age, he drove the huge steampowered tractors and locomotives that transported coffee beans to the processing plant. There, the young Santos-Dumont would observe how the machines operated, and he soon became adept at making needed repairs. During a visit to the Palace of Industry in Paris, Alberto was completely captivated by a working exhibit of an internal combustion engine, the first he had ever seen. He bought an automobile, to which he applied his mechanical talents, and he was soon able to disassemble an engine and rebuild it perfectly. He also read every book he could find on balloons and aerial navigation. Such experiences were to influence his later work much more than did his formal education, which ended with his graduation from the academy at Minas Gerais province, although he did later take some studies in physics, mechanics, electricity, and chemistry with a private tutor in France.

In 1897, the young Santos-Dumont went to France, where he became a balloon pilot for Henri Lachambre and Alexis Machuron, whom he then commissioned to build a balloon to his design: small, light, and made of Japanese silk. Although the two experts had maintained that silk would not be strong enough, tests proved Santos-Dumont correct: The silk was stronger than the material previously used. He named his tiny balloon the Brazil and flew it time after time, becoming a familiar sight and a popular hero to the Parisians, who reacted enthusiastically, taking him to their hearts.

Life’s Work

Having learned to fly, Santos-Dumont turned his back on everything else and devoted all of his energies to the goal of controlled, powered flight. This dream was scoffed at by his friends, who argued that an engine mounted under a balloon would shake itself to pieces. Undeterred, Santos-Dumont experimented with a small, motor-powered tricycle, which he suspended by ropes from tree branches, finding that it vibrated less in the air than on the ground. The success of this experiment and of his first balloon encouraged the inventor to rely increasingly on his own intuition, refusing suggestions from others.

Santos-Dumont’s first controllable airship was an elongated balloon with rigging lines, from which was suspended a basket on which was mounted a modified internal combustion engine. The vehicle incorporated two control mechanisms: one a crude but movable rudder, the other a method of controlling pitch (vertical angle) by moving weights, thus allowing the pilot to climb or descend. On September 20, 1898, the designer made the first successful flight in his airship number 1. He was able to steer the ship, but its balloon envelope collapsed in midair, and he was saved from crashing only by a group of boys who grabbed the lines and ran into the wind, allowing the balloon to settle gradually to the ground.

Santos-Dumont’s airship number 2, constructed from parts of number 1, also collapsed on its first flight, dumping its pilot in a tree. Undaunted, he began plans for his first semirigid airship. Its construction was similar to that of its predecessors but with a bamboo pole added to the underside of the envelope, providing some rigidity. After his first flight in number 3, the designer was ecstatic; for the first time he believed that he was mastering control of the airship. This success hardened Santos-Dumont’s resolve to pursue aviation as his life’s work.

In April, 1900, a prize of 100,000 francs was offered by M. Deutsch de la Meurthe to the first person to fly from the Parc d’Aérostation of the Aéro Club de France in St. Cloud, near Paris, around the Eiffel Tower, and back to the Parc d’Aérostation without landing, in thirty minutes or less. Santos-Dumont began construction of his airship number 4 immediately, using a combination of old and new ideas. The envelope was of the same basic design as number 3, with a longitudinal bamboo spar underneath to add rigidity; attached to this was an engine, mounted now as a tractor rather than a pusher. The basket was omitted, replaced by a bicycle seat mounted aft of the engine. Horizontal steering was done with controls attached to bicycle handle bars. Pitch was again controlled by shifting weights, but with a new component, water ballast, which the pilot could dump by simply turning a tap. Although Santos-Dumont made several successful flights in this airship, it lacked the speed necessary to win the Deutsch Prize.

In his next model, Santos-Dumont made four major changes. First, he built a girderlike keel of aluminum and pine, which provided a lightweight, rigid framework on which to mount the engine and basket. Second, he braced the framework with piano wire rather than rope, greatly reducing drag. Third, he enlarged the rudder for more effective control. Finally, he installed an air-cooled fifteen horsepower Buchet engine, into which he incorporated an electric ignition system. On its maiden voyage, the engine failed, and once again Santos-Dumont landed in the trees. The damage was quickly repaired, but on his next attempt the airship lost its rigidity and deflated, crashing into the Hotel Trocadero. Rescuers found the pilot perched on a windowsill high above street level; safe on the ground again, he announced that construction of number 6 would begin immediately. It took only twenty-two days, the only design change being a modified water-cooled Buchet engine. On October 19, 1901, Santos-Dumont made the round-trip flight from the Parc d’Aérostation around the Eiffel Tower and back again. Although his flight had lasted forty seconds more than the allotted time, the people of Paris demanded that he be awarded the prize, half of which he gave to the poor of Paris and the other half to his mechanics and other workers. Santos-Dumont went on to design a total of fourteen airships, of which his number 9 is considered the most successful. This short, fat vehicle, so easy and convenient to fly that he used it as his “runabout,” reflected his credo of smallness, lightness, and simplicity of design.

In 1905, Santos-Dumont entered the race for prizes offered by Ernest Archdeacon, a wealthy patron of aviation, for the first heavier-than-air flight of more than twenty-five meters, and by the French Aéro Club for a flight of more than one hundred meters. His first design was an ungainly looking “canard-type” airplane, with a rectangular, fabric-covered fuselage and tail unit forward of the main wings with its propeller in the rear. Its wings, which resembled large box kites, were attached at a pronounced dihedral angle, providing lateral stability. Attached to the leading end of the fuselage was a small boxlike device that pivoted both vertically and horizontally, the sole means of control during flight. The pilot stood in a wicker basket directly in front of the engine. The airplane’s first test, which involved towing by a donkey harnessed to a pulley arrangement, occasioned a series of colorful comments by observers, which were not appreciated by the designer. He then decided to suspend it from his number 14 airship, resulting in the appellation number 14-bis (again, twice). On October 23, 1906, at Bagatelle, near Paris, Santos-Dumont made the first successful European airplane flight, covering some sixty meters before crashing to earth. He had won the Archdeacon Prize and was the toast of Europe. To improve control, he now added ailerons, modified from an earlier design of Robert Esnault-Pelterie. Wires from the ailerons ran to a piece of metal sewn into the back of his jacket. To activate them, he shifted his body to and fro, controlling the airplane through a sort of dance. On November 12, 1906, Santos-Dumont flew his modified number 14-bis a distance of 220 meters, in slightly more than twenty-one seconds, to win the Aéro Club Prize of fifteen hundred francs.

Santos-Dumont forged ahead, trying to solve the still-worrisome lack of control. In March, 1909, he surprised the aviation world by unveiling a totally new design a tractor (front propeller) monoplane with a silk-covered wing and tail surfaces and a skeletal fuselage made of bamboo. He had returned to his original criteria of small, light, and simple. This beautiful machine, powered by a Dutheil-Chambers engine that Santos-Dumont had modified extensively to give it more horsepower, was the prototype for his number 20, the Demoiselle (dragonfly). Incorporated into its construction were his solutions to control problems: a rudder and an elevator for control about the longitudinal and vertical axes and wing warping for lateral control. The mechanism for the latter was a pair of metal rings worn around the pilot’s arms; when he wanted to turn, he moved his arms up or down, twisting the wings. The Demoiselle, relatively easy to construct and an excellent flying machine, was an instant success, joining Santos-Dumont’s number 9 airship and his number 14-bis airplane as the third jewel in his crown of achievements.

In 1910, Santos-Dumont, ill with multiple sclerosis, retired from his work in aviation and, after a period of wandering, returned to Brazil. In July, 1932, despondent because the machine to which he had devoted his life was being used to kill people in war, he took his own life.

Significance

Working independently of developments in the United States, Santos-Dumont designed and built the first airplane to fly successfully in Europe. He was the third person in the world to pilot an airplane, with only Wilbur and Orville Wright having preceded him in achieving sustained heavier-than-air flight. In early 1910, Santos-Dumont was the only aeronaut qualified to fly all four types of flying machines then in existence: balloons, airships, biplanes, and monoplanes. His major technological contributions were the design of a small, light, controllable airship, powered by an internal combustion engine, and of a small, light, reliable airplane, the Demoiselle, whose ease of construction and flying helped to open the field of aviation.

A pilot, mechanic, skilled craftsman, adapter, and inventor, Santos-Dumont did not engage in systematic research in the same way as did the Wright brothers and others; rather, he built, tested, modified, and rebuilt as necessary to reach his goal. His contribution to the science of aviation is considered by historians to be minimal. Nevertheless, his influence on the development of aviation remains important. His refusal to patent any of his innovations made possible the use and development of his ideas by others, furthering the advancement and popularization of aviation, and his criteria of smallness, lightness, and simplicity became the quintessential concepts of aircraft design.

Santos-Dumont’s other major contribution to aviation was his impact on people’s perception of flight. Moving easily through all levels of society, he did more than any other person during the early 1900’s to make Europeans “air-minded.” Santos-Dumont’s daring aeronautical successes thrilled people and awakened in them an overwhelming curiosity about and awareness of aviation. In a period of history erupting in technological advances, Santos-Dumont fired the imagination of a continent.

Bibliography

Emde, Heiner. Conquerors of the Air: The Evolution of Aircraft, 1903-1945. New York: Viking Press, 1968. Contains a large number of detailed drawings of airplanes, with specifications and descriptions. The short section on Santos-Dumont describes his 14-bis and his Demoiselle airplanes.

Gibbs-Smith, Charles H. The Invention of the Aeroplane, 1799-1909. London: Faber & Faber, 1966. A definitive study of early aviation, in which are chronicled Santos-Dumont’s achievements along with those of other early aviators. The book is essential for anyone interested in the early development of the airplane.

Hoffman, Paul. Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight. New York: Theia, 2003. Entertaining account of Santos-Dumont’s life, describing how his lifelong obsession with aircraft resulted in the creation of his airships.

Napoleão, Aluizio. Santos-Dumont and the Conquest of the Air. 2 vols. Translated by Luiz Victor Le Cocq d’Oliveira. Rio de Janeiro: National Printing Office, 1945. Volume 1 contains a brief history of the Santos-Dumont family, followed by a detailed factual description of Santos-Dumont’s work in the development of flying machines. Volume 2 is a compilation of untranslated documents on the aeronautical accomplishments of Santos-Dumont, with some explanatory annotations in English.

Santos-Dumont, Alberto. My Airships: The Story of My Life. New York: Dover, 1973. An unabridged re-publication of the English translation originally published in 1904 by Grant Richards in London of Dans l’air, Santos-Dumont’s own detailed account of how he designed, constructed, and flew each of his airships. Drawings aid the reader in understanding the problems faced by the inventor, and his descriptions of his adventures make enjoyable reading.

Villard, Henry S. Contact! The Story of the Early Birds. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1968. An excellent history of early aviation, its participants and events, by an author who knew many of the pioneers. Contains many anecdotes.

Wykeham, Peter. Santos-Dumont: A Study in Obsession. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963. This entertaining, informative, and factual book is the definitive biography of Santos-Dumont, covering every aspect of his life. The major portion, however, is devoted to his aviation-related experiments, adventures, and triumphs. The author’s respect and admiration for Santos-Dumont is evident throughout.