Alberto Santos Dumont

He became a renowned folk hero in his own country Brazil in later period of his life. His distinctive style of dressing like his high collared shirts and Panama hat gained much popularity among fashion conscious youth of that day.

According to some sources, he had special attraction towards a married Cuban-American woman namely Aida de Acosta. Until the end of his life, he kept a photograph of this woman on his desk. He was a lifelong bachelor.

In 1910, he suffered from double vision and vertigo that restricted him from driving and flying. He was also under treatment for suffering from multiple sclerosis.

Dumont was born on July 22, 1873 as the sixth child of his engineer father. Born in Cabangu Farm in Southeast Brazil, he came from a family that owned a coffee plantation in Sao Paulo.

In his childhood days, he learnt to drive steam tractors and locomotive, used on his family’s plantation. Besides this, he was a voracious reader and finished reading all the books by Jules Verne.

He attended Colegio Culto a Ciencia in Campinas. Later, he studied at Escola de Minas in Ouro Preto, Minas. In 1891, after his father became a paraplegic, his family sold the plantation and shifted to Europe. As a result of this Alberto left the institute and reached Paris. Reaching Paris, he pursued his studies in subjects like physics, chemistry, mechanics and electricity under the guidance of a private tutor.

He took his first balloon ride as a passenger. When he started to pilot balloons himself, he designed his own balloons too. He flew his first balloon design namely “Bresil” in 1898.

Next, he worked on the design of steerable balloons which are known as “Dirigible”. One can move this type of balloon through the air rather than drifting along with the wind.

From 1898 to 1905, he built and flew 11 Dirigibles. At that time, air traffic control did not exist so he used to float along Paris boulevards at rooftop level in one of his airships.

On August 8 in 1901, he encountered an accident when his Dirigible lost hydrogen gas and started to descend. As its result of this an explosion occurred but he survived the explosion without getting injured.

On October 19, 1901, he successfully made a trip by using his Dirigible “Number 6”. This flight was caught in a controversy due to a last minute rule change of the timing of the flight.

In 1901, he won the 100,000 franc Deutsch de la Meurthe Prize for the first flight from the Parc Saint Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back which took only 30 minutes for him.