The heir of a wealthy family of coffee producers, he dedicated himself to aeronautical study and experimentation in Paris, where he spent most of his adult life. He designed, built, and flew the first powered airships and won the Deutsch prize [ pt ] in , when he flew around the Eiffel Tower in his airship No.
Santos-Dumont then progressed to powered heavier-than-air machines and on 23 October flew about 60 metres at a height of two to three metres with the fixed-wing bis also dubbed the Oiseau de proie —"bird of prey" at the Bagatelle Gamefield in Paris, taking off unassisted by an external launch system. On 12 November in front of a crowd, he flew metres at a height of six metres. Santos-Dumont is a national hero in Brazil, where it is popularly held that he preceded the Wright brothers in demonstrating a practical aeroplane.
He was a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from until his suicide in Pedro II railroad. Santos-Dumont would remember with nostalgia the times spent on his father's farm, where he enjoyed the greatest freedom:. I lived a free life there, which was indispensable to form my temperament and taste for adventure. Since childhood I had a great love for mechanical things, and like all those who have or think they have a vocation, I cultivated mine with care and passion.
I always played at imagining and building little mechanical devices, which entertained me and earned me high regard in the family. My greatest joy was taking care of my father's mechanical installations. That was my department, which made me very proud. At the age of seven Santos-Dumont was already driving the farm's trains, and at twelve he could operate a locomotive on his own, but the speed achievable on land was not enough for him.
Years later, as an adult, he still remembered the adventures lived in imagination:. With Captain Nemo and his shipwrecked guests I explored the depths of the sea in that first of all submarines, the Nautilus.
