flight to achieve a sustained flight of over 25 meters; the steering gear and
At
the Bagatelle, Paris, the Brazilian constructor-pilot Alberto Santos-Dumont(1873-1932) flew on 23 October 1906 his machine,
the No 14-bis (translated as the “second 14, in honour of his
14th dirigible; also known as Oiseau de proie) with
an Antoinette engine, for 197 feet (60 m.) in a straight line at the
height of about 10 feet to win the Archdeacon prize of FF3,000 for the first
flight to achieve a sustained flight of over 25 meters; the steering gear and
the fuselage were located in front of the wings. It was also the first
sustained flight in Europe; this flight is the first to have been certified by
the Aéro Club de France (founded in 1898) and the Fédération
Aéronautique Internationale (FAI,founded in 1905 ). Prior to
this first European flight, Santos-Dumont had made an early demonstration of
controlled flight in his dirigible No 6, flying round the
Eiffel Tower on 19 October 1901, and won the Deutsch de la Moselle prize. In
1935, at the initiative
of the TouringClubof Brazil,
the Semana da ASA (Week of the Wing) was created in Brazil to preserve the
memory of Santos-Dumont;
see more information on this by clicking on the following link: Brazil – Semana da ASA. He is considered the
"Father of Aviation" in Brazil, his native country.