Quote:
Originally Posted by gospodin
Santos Dumont developed a flying prototype after the Wrights had flown, so even though the Flyer was barely controlled and had a very short flight, it's still recognized as a flight. Santos Dumont had a better-controlled plane, and was the first in Europe to fly, and since he was Brazilian, of course you'd say he was #1. There are a lot of contenders for the title "First Flight", but history still insists it was the Wright Brothers who made the most important first steps in aviation. Santos Dumont's contributions are also extremely significant, so don't think I'm dissing him...he just ain't "The One".  BTW, Brazil's most important contributions to the world have been in soccer/futeball, and Formula One racing, IMO  |
And the worst brazilian contribution to the world is our current president.
The most corrupt president we´ve ever seen in the brazilian history since our discovery by the portuguese (also were corrupts-I have just bought an interesting book about the portuguese "royal family" that started the brazilian colonization).
Back to the topic: there is an interesting book named
Wings of madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the invention of flight. The author is an american (Paul Hoffman) that wrote Santos Dumont biography since he was a kid in the Brazil. Very interesting. There the author explains How the brazilian aviator built step by step most of his flying devices. And also he admit he was the first to fly despite the fact the author is from US.
I also kow that at that time comunication was a problem and maybe until some news arrive in the other part of the world other could be doing the same at another place and we will never know who was the first one.