Santos-Dumont: The First Homebuilder

Abstract

Brazilian-born Alberto Santos-Dumont was the first person to create and operate a practical powered flying machine, an airship that he flew around the Eiffel Tower in 1899. Repeating this in 1901 along a specified route in a specified time won him a large cash prize along with worldwide fame. Later, he was widely feted as the first to successfully fly a heavier-than-air craft, the prior success of the Wright Brothers being unknown at the time. He can also be credited as the first "homebuilder" for his worldwide release of plans for a tiny aircraft that virtually anyone could build and fly. He is little known today, but among certain circles he is still considered the true "father of aviation". This paper will summarize his life and many contributions to aviation including his "homebuilt" plans, and will briefly address the claim that he, not the Wright Brothers, deserves the credit for the first successful heavier-than-air flight.