dream gone wrong, The

Air Classics, Oct 2003 by Hulett, George

NEW ITEMS FOR THE AVIATION ENTHUSIAST

With the 100th anniversary of manned flight, this look at Santos-Dumont is timely

On 19 October 1906, one of the largest crowds in recorded history assembled to watch Alberto Santos-Dumont circle France's Eiffel Tower in a never-before-seen flying machine. When his rotation was complete, Santo-Dumont became the toast of Paris - received congratulatory telegrams from Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and the London Times declared that, "when the names of those who have occupied outstanding positions in the world have been forgotten, there will be a name which will remain in our memory, that of Santos-Dumont."

Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight by Paul Huffman (Theia, $24.95) tells the fascinating story of this amazing aviation pioneer in the earliest days of manned flight. The author follows Santos-Dumont's remarkable life from his childhood on a remote coffee plantation in Brazil, through his rise to fame during the technological revolution, to his descent into devastating madness and despair.

Upon his arrival in Paris at the turn of the century, the brilliant and wealthy Santos-Dumont took to bar-hopping around the City of Lights in a one-man dirigible he invented, circling above crowds and crashing into rooftops. He dreamed of a time when every person would have their own personal flying machines and not be tied to ground transportation, but be afforded the freedom of aerial travel.

In 1906, he made, in the author's opinion, the world's first public airplane flight before expert witnesses - the Wright brothers had made their flight in near secrecy. Once he succeeded, the press hailed him as the man who had conquered the air. His picture appeared on cigar boxes and dinner plates. He dined regularly with the Rothchilds and the Roosevelts at his famous "aerial dinners," at which guests ate at an elevated table so they could imagine how it felt to be above the world. Louis Cartier designed the first wristwatch for Santos-Dumont so the aeronaut could check the time without removing his hands from the controls of his aircraft to dig for his pocket watch. He was a household name.

Santos-Dumont led a joyful life until World War One when his beloved flying machines were used to kill people. he devoted the rest of his life to lobbying heads of state and the League of Nations to demilitarize aircraft. He obviously did not succeed, and he ended up going mad - pasting feathers on his arms and trying to leap out the window of a Swiss sanitarium. In 1932, he took his own life.