ABSTRACT
Considered the father of aviation, Santos Dumont became interested in dirigible balloons, the first of which, ‘Brazil’, he built in 1898. On the 12 and 13 July 1901 he circled the Eiffel Tower in his dirigible no. 5, watched by a huge crowd. In 1906, using part of his dirigible no. 14 with a 28cv V8 engine powering a rotor, he built the aircraft ‘No. 14b’. On 12 November 1906 it flew for 21.5 seconds, some 5 or 6 metres above the ground, travelling 220 metres at a speed of 41 km per hour. Marcio Souza has written a novelistic version of his life.
