PETROPOLIS, Brazil (Reuters) - As Americans prepare to celebrate the centennial of the Wright brother's first flight, a whole country is cringing at what it believes to be a historical injustice against one of its most beloved heroes.

Ask anyone in Brazil who invented the airplane and they will say Alberto Santos-Dumont, a 5-foot-4-inch (1.6 meter) bon vivant who was as known for his aerial prowess as he was for his dandyish dress and high society life in Belle Epoque Paris.

As Paul Hoffman recounts in his Santos-Dumont biography "Wings of Madness," the eccentric Brazilian was the first and only person to own a personal flying machine that could take him just about anywhere he wanted to go.

"He would keep his dirigible tied to a gas lamp post in front of his Paris apartment at the Champs-Elysees and every night he would fly to Maxim's for dinner. During the day he'd fly to go shopping, he'd fly to visit friends," Hoffman told Reuters.

An idealist who believed flight was spiritually soothing, Santos-Dumont financed his lavish lifestyle and aerial experiments in Paris with the inheritance his coffee-farming father had advanced him as a young man. Always impeccably dressed, he regularly took a gourmet lunch with him on his ballooning expeditions.

But it was on Nov. 12, 1906, when Santos-Dumont flew a kite-like contraption with boxy wings called the 14-Bis some 722 feet on the outskirts of Paris. It being the first public flight in the world, he was hailed as the inventor of the airplane all over Europe.

It was only later that the secretive Orville and Wilbur Wright proved they had beaten Santos-Dumont at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, three years earlier on Dec. 17.

But to bring up the Wright brothers with a Brazilian is bound to elicit an avalanche of arguments -- some more reasonable than others -- as to why their compatriot's flight didn't count.

"It's one of the biggest frauds in history," scoffs Wagner Diogo, a taxi driver in Rio de Janeiro, of the Wright's inaugural flight. "No one saw it, and they used a catapult to launch" the airplane.

Apparently, the debate comes down to how you define the first flight of an airplane.

Rest of Article

But if there was a 3 year difference im sure they would of had a successful unassisted flight by then... Also it depends what the other mans "airplane" looked like, and if it fit the criteria to be called an airplane or not.

Different countries are always trying to clam credit for these inventions. It reminds me of the scene in the Sopranos:

I am from Argentina, next to Brazil. We dont love each other, but all agreed that Santos-Dumont could constructed the first airplane, and not the Wright Brothers....

I was sincerelly outraged when I saw the replies to this article. Everyone in Brazil knows that Santos Dumont is in fact the first person to invent the airplane and fly it publicly. I live in Florida as of today and I was simply shocked to take a test in my world history class and get the question "Who invented the airplane?", then to find out I was the only one who got it wrong. I am an american as of today and I know that Americans like to take credit for everything, but in this case they should give the credit to whom deserves it. Any amount of research will tell you that Santos Dumont invented the airplane. I have no doubt about it.

So the Wright Brothers did what in history?

I live a drive away from the EAA that focus on airplanes and airplane history from all over the world and I haven't heard of the Brazillians that flew first.

Of course you haven't __Kratos__, media and others tend to hide it. Try going to an aviation museum in France or Brazil or somewhere else in Europe or Latin America and give that a try. If you dont see Santos Dumont written all over the place I'll shut my mouth for good. And we have proof too. Again, I am certain of this, I took tests in Brazil and I've done major research about it. Also, I am american too (been here for 10 years now) and I know we like to take credit for everything.

If you'll pay for my trip to Europe or Latin America, I'll gladly go and take a look.

Some good reading here, showing both sides. I'm a bit more confused and curious now

Link

last time i argue about this, i was sent to the principal office.....

I can't pay for a trip to Europe myself, but maybe you can do some research in european and latin american sites that are not directly linked to the US (in american english) and you will find out. Just go to a web site in Spanish, Portuguese, or French that talks about Santos Dumont. (If you can't read it, use the google page translation wizard to give it a try). ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Okay, a dirigible is not an airplane. And as for the 'first public flight' by Santos Dumant, it doesn't mention if it was manned or not. As far as I know, the Wright bros were the first with a manned, controlled flight by an airplane (in other words, it wasn't gliding). This from one who has a degree in aeronautical engineering, for what that's worth!

Santos Dumont was in fact the one who invented the airplane, take a look at where I'm from in my avatar and you'll understand. There are more brazilians than what I thought here in UM.

We invented the airplane, why can't the world know this?

Is this wrong Brazilians?

Its clearly not true because I have been told it was the wright brothers!

Americans do give credit where it is due.
This is from the Wright Brother's museum official site.
This is who they gave credit to as the Father of the Airplane.

"Sir George Cayley, an English baronet, first conceived the idea of a fixed wing aircraft in 1799, then built the first successful glider in 1804. A conscientious scholar, he conducted the first controlled experiments in aviation, proposed aeronautical theories, and raised the quest for flight from a fool’s hope to a true science."

source


Here are the Wright brothers first three types of aircraft made.

1903 Flyer 1 -- The Wright Brothers first powered aircraft, and the first in which anyone made a sustained, controlled flight. As in their earlier gliders, it had a variable-camber twin canard in front to control pitch and a twin rudder in back to control yaw. Roll was controlled by warping the wings.

1904 Flyer 2 -- The Wright Brother second powered aircraft, almost a copy of the Flyer 1, with which they learned they still had a lot of work to do before they had a practical airplane. It was also the first aircraft on which the Wrights used their distinctive "bent-end" propellers.

1905 Flyer over HP 3.JPG (32566 bytes) 1905 Flyer 3 -- The Wright's 1905 aircraft, their third powered machine, was the world's first practical aircraft. Both the canard and the rudder were extended out from the aircraft to make it easier to control. Semi-circular "blinkers" between the surfaces of the canard prevent the nose from dropping in a turn.

There was nothing secretive about any of this. Scholars in England and Germany were not only fully aware of their work, but actively helped them with it through advice. Both previous to the first flight and afterwards their work was written about in scholarly journals in Europe as to how to do it. The work was also documented with photographs.

I'm pretty sure we brazilians created the airplane, but the USA government don't wanna accept this and told the wrong story to their citizens. I mean, why can't a genius from a poor country be recognized for what he done? I think poor countries are destinated to live in the shadows forever...

Was I completely mistaken when I read that it said the Wright brothers was three years earlier than this guy?

Who doesn't want to give credit where it's due?