Alberto Santos Dumont and the 14-Bis

October 23, 2006, marks the 100th anniversary of Santos Dumont's first successful flight with his 14-bis airplane, a flight of about 200 feet. This was the first flight made in an airplane after the Wright brothers flew their Flyer - and depending on how you define "airplane", it might have been the first flight made in an airplane, period.

Since I am Brazilian, and since I am an aerospace engineer and an enthusiast of aviation history, I feel it is my duty to do my part in informing the world about aviation pioneer Alberto Santos Dumont and his amazing achievements. It really would be a shame for his accomplishments to be forgotten, or to be as overshadowed by the Wrights' flights as they are (in much of the world outside Brazil).

So below you will find links to three essays I have written. One is about Santos Dumont, his life, and his many cool inventions such as his amazing, record-breaking, award-winning dirigibles, his Demoiselle ultralight airplane, and others. The second essay details the conception, design, development, and testing of the 14 bis. The third is about the "controversy" over whether the Wright Flyer or the 14-Bis deserves to technically be considered the "first practical airplane". If you only read one of these essays, please make it the third one.

Click on the links to access the essays:

Alberto Santos Dumont

The 14-Bis

The controversy over the "first practical airplane":
The Wright Flyer versus the 14-Bis

I hope you enjoy these essays. If you do, or if you have any comments, suggestions, questions, corrections, etc, then please please email me.

Valeu!

- Bernardo

PS: Two very good, very reasonable, and quite short articles about Santos Dumont, the 14-Bis,
and the "controversy" over the 14-Bis versus the Wright Flyer, can be found here and here.
The first is written by an American aviation historian, the second by a Brazilian one.

PPS: I wrote the Wikipedia articles about the 14-Bis and about the 14-Bis-vs-Wright-Flyer controversy.
I use that material in the respective articles above. Similarly, I use some material from Wikipedia (which
I did not write but which is free for anyone to use under the GNU License) in my Santos Dumont article.

PPPS: The above image is the official logo of the Brazilian "Centennial of Flight" celebrations, events, and websites.
I did not create the logo, but it is in the public domain, and is freely distributed by Brazilian governmental agencies
to any website that recognizes the importance of Santos Dumont's flights. See www.santosdumont.14bis.mil.br