It might be thought that such an accident would have deterred the inventor from making further attempts on the prize; but the aeronaut seemed to be well endowed with the qualities of patience and perseverance and continued to try again.Trial after trial was made, and numerous accidents took place.On nearly every occasion it was comparatively easy to sail round the Tower, but it was a much harder task to sail back again.
At length in October, 1901, he was thought to have completed the course in the allotted time; but the Aero Club held that he had exceeded the time limit by forty seconds.This decision aroused great indignation among Parisians--especially among those who had watched the flight-- many of whom were convinced that the journey had been accomplished inthe half-hour.After much argument the committee which had charge of the race, acting on the advice of M.Deutsch, who was very anxious that the prize should be awarded to Santos Dumont, decided that the conditions of the flight had been complied with, and that the prize had been legitimately won.It is interesting to read that the famous aeronaut divided the money among the poor.
But important though Santos Dumont's experiments were with the air- ship, they were of even greater value when he turned his attention to the aeroplane.
One of his first trials with a heavier-than-air machine was made with a huge glider, which was fitted with floats.The curious craft was towed along the River Seine by a fast motor boat named the Rapiere, and it actually succeeded in rising into the air and flying behind the boat like a gigantic kite.
12th November, 1906, is a red-letter day in the history of aviation, for it was then that Santos Dumont made his first little flight in an aeroplane.This took place at Bagatelle, not far from Paris.
Two months before this the airman had succeeded in driving his little machine, called the Bird of Prey, many yards into the air, and "11 yards through the air", as the newspapers reported; but the craft was badly smashed.It was not until November that the first really satisfactory flight took place.
A description of this flight appeared in most of the European newspapers, and I give a quotation from one of them: "The aeroplane rose gracefully and gently to a height of about 15 feet above the earth, covering in this most remarkable dash through the air a distance of about 700 feet in twenty-one seconds.
"It thus progressed through the atmosphere at the rate of nearly 30 miles an hour.Nothing like this has ever been accomplished before....The aeroplane has now reached the practical stage."The dimensions of this aeroplane were:
Length 32 feet Greatest width 39 feet Weight with one passenger 465 pounds.Speed 30 miles an hourA modern aeroplane with airman and passenger frequently weighsover 1 ton, and reaches a speed of over 60 miles an hour.
It is interesting to note that Santos Dumont, in 1913--that is, only seven years after his flight in an aeroplane at Bagatelle made him world- famous--announced his intention of again taking an active part in aviation.His purpose was to make use of aeroplanes merely for pleasure, much as one might purchase a motor-car for the same object.
Could the intrepid Brazilian in his wildest dreams have foreseen the rapid advance of the last eight years? In 1906 no one had flown in Europe; by 1914 hundreds of machines were in being, in which the pilots were no longer subject to the wind's caprices, but could fly almost where and when they would.
Frenchmen have honoured, and rightly honoured, this gallant and picturesque figure in the annals of aviation, for in 1913 a magnificent monument was unveiled in France to commemorate his pioneer work.
