SantosDumont

Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873–1932) was a Brazilian aviation pioneer who designed, built, and flew both dirigibles and fixed-wing aircraft. Born in the state of São Paulo, he pursued engineering and moved to Paris, where he conducted most of his aviation experiments. He built a series of airships and achieved a number of notable demonstrations in the late 1890s and early 1900s, contributing to the development of controlled flight.

In 1906, Santos-Dumont designed the 14-bis, a fixed-wing aircraft that he piloted in Bagatelle, near Paris. On October 23, 1906, it is documented to have flown about 60 meters in level flight, an achievement that the French Aeronautical Club credited as the first powered flight of a heavier-than-air machine to be publicly observed in Europe. This event is often contrasted with earlier, less publicly verified flights by the Wright brothers in the United States in 1903.

Santos-Dumont spent much of his career in Europe before returning to Brazil. He died in 1932 in Guarujá, São Paulo. In Brazil, he is remembered as a pioneering figure in aviation; his name has been given to various institutions and landmarks, including the Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro, which honors his early contributions to aviation.

His legacy is that of an early experimenter who helped popularize flight in both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air categories and who remains a national emblem of Brazilian innovation.