Having mastered lighter-than-air vehicles, Santos-Dumont later turned his attention to building airplanes.
While living in Paris in the early 20th century, Alberto Santos-Dumont cemented a reputation as the world’s first gentleman aviator. The flamboyant, impeccably dressed Brazilian used money from his family’s coffee planting fortune to fly hot air balloons and build groundbreaking motor-powered dirigibles. He won an aviation prize for successfully piloting an airship around the Eiffel Tower in 1901 and later used his technical brilliance to create more than a dozen different airship designs. His craft was so reliable that he was even known to tie one up outside his Paris apartment and use it to cruise to nearby restaurants and shops. Having mastered lighter-than-air vehicles, Santos-Dumont later turned his attention to building airplanes.