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Removing comparative section

There was a whole section consisting of only this phrase: "Aviation historians credit the Wright Brothers with the creation of the first successful heavier-than-air flying machine, able to take off under its own power and capable of sustained and controlled flight." I noticed that it was actually written in a pro-Santos Dumont way before and someone just changed to Wright Brothers and added a different source. I removed the whole section, and the reasons are quite fair. What's the point of having a comparative section that actually just states one side is indisputably right? That was no comparison, only a statement, and a false one, because it implies that all aviation historians credit the Wright Brothers, while actually there are historians crediting Santos Dumont, Ader and many others. The whole point of this discussion is that there is actually no consensus about a clear definition of what is an airplane. Everybody agrees it must be heavier-than-air and human managed, of course, but apart from that there are many possibilities, regarding the taking off process, the maneuverability, etc, as well as the quality of the confirmations (witnessing, photos, film...) of the flight. Enlarging the definition will favor 19th century aviators like Ader and narrow definitions favor Dumont. There is really no point in having a comparative section unless it shows the main arguments for each claim, instead of a statement of a false consensus.191.249.28.35 (talk) 05:30, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

The Morris Tribune. [volume], September 29, 1906, Image 7
KEEPING TAB ON THE WORLD
Concluded from page 2.
Santos Dumont's Mechanical Flight.
Although M. Santos-Dumont in his new aeroplane, the Bird of Prey, was able to traverse the air at Paris only a distance of thirty-seven feet before his ship came to the ground with a crash, nevertheless the test is regarded as one of great importance because it was the first time an airship had ever left the earth unaided.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91059394/1906-09-29/ed-1/seq-7/#date1=1770&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=aeroplane+Dumont+Santos+Santos-Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=15&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=santos+dumont+aeroplane&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 17:22, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
Nature – November 8, 1906, Page 35
The First “Manned” Flying Machine.
OCTOBER 23 of the present year will be remembered as a red-letter day in the history of flying machines, for it was on that day that the first flying machine, constructed on the “heavier than air” principle, successfully raised itself and its driver from the ground several feet, and transported itself by means of its own power over a distance of eighty yards.
In this his first successful flight with this machine. M. Santos Dumont is to be sincerely congratulated, for he has accomplished a performance which many workers in different parts of the world have been striving after for many years past and failed.
https://www.nature.com/articles/075035a0#:~:text=OCTOBER%2023%20of%20the%20present,itself%20by%20means%20of%20its 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 17:23, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
New-York Tribune. [volume], November 20, 1906, Page 6, Image 6
SANTOS-DUMONT ANTICIPATED.
A fresh reason for determining the amount of glory due to Santos-Dumont for his recent flights with an aeroplane is afforded by an article in the latest number of "Nature" to reach this country. In that periodical it is asserted that on October 23 "the first flying machine, constructed on the 'heavier than air' principle, successfully raised itself and its driver from the ground several feet, and transported itself by means of its own power over a distance of eighty yards." While that statement is probably correct, the merit of the performance can be rightly estimated only by a comparison with what Wilbur and Orville Wright, of Dayton, Ohio, have been able to accomplish.
Santos-Dumont has been at work on the aeroplane only about a year. Most of his aeronautic experiments were conducted with an entirely different class of airship, the self-propelled balloon. On the other hand, the Wright brothers have been identified with the aeroplane for at least four or five years and perhaps longer. In a letter to the Aero Club of America, last winter they told the results attained by them up to the close of 1905. So startling were their claims that in France and Germany their story was received with much skepticism. With a creditable desire to vindicate the honor of the country, The Scientific American addressed a circular letter of inquiry to seventeen persons who, according to the Wrights, had witnessed their aerial voyages. Twelve responses were received, one of them coming from Mr. Octave Chanute, the author of a well known work on aeronautic experiments and a man whose veracity no well informed foreigner or American would venture to question. The testimony of each of these witnesses was in substantial agreement with that of the others. Though now and then doubt would be expressed as to the exact date of a flight, the distance covered or some other detail, the general tenor of the letters seemed to put the truthfulness of the Wrights' statement quite beyond dispute.
It is worthy of note, in the interests of justice, that the Brazilian has made better provision for launching an aeroplane than the Wrights did last year. His machine, when on the ground, is supported by wheels. When the Wrights were ready to start, theirs was arranged crosswise on a pair of rails. To overcome the friction between these and the lower part of the frame, it was necessary to rely on external aid. Their aeroplane would not lift itself clear of the rails until it had been pushed forward twenty-five or thirty feet by hand, whereas the one which has just created a sensation in Europe will advance without assistance as soon as the propellers begin to revolve and will rise shortly afterward unhelped. Strictly speaking, then, "Nature" is quite right when it says that Santos-Dumont's machine is the first to raise Itself by means of its own power.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1906-11-20/ed-1/seq-6/#date1=1770&index=18&rows=20&words=aeroplane+Dumont+Santos+Santos-Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=santos+dumont+aeroplane&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 17:24, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
Evening Star. [volume], December 09, 1906, Sunday star, Page 5, Image 53
The Sunday Star, Washington, D. C., December 09, 1906—Part 4.
(Copyright, 1906, by John Elfreth Watkins.)
SANTOS-DUMONT is the first man to have performed aerial flight with a self-propelled machine heavier than the air which it displaced. He has solved a problem which has caused inventive geniuses to burn the midnight oil and toss restlessly upon their couches since centuries before the dawn of the Christian era. During three millenniums or more ambitious men have broken their hearts and their heads seeking the great goal which this fearless Brazilian has won within the past few weeks.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1906-12-09/ed-1/seq-53/#date1=1770&index=0&rows=20&words=aerial+air+displaced+DUMONT+first+flight+have+heavier+machine+man+performed+propelled+SANTOS+SANTOS-DUMONT+self+self-propelled+than+which&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=SANTOS-DUMONT+is+the+first+man+to+have+performed+aerial+flight+with+a+self-propelled+machine+heavier+than+the+air+which+it+displaced&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 17:25, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
Danville Intelligencer. [volume], January 04, 1907, Image 1
It remained for the world of 1906 to see the first mechanical navigation of the air from a standing start in a screw-propelled aeroplane. This was achieved by M. Santos-Dumont, at Paris, September 13. in his airship, the Bird of Prey.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86053369/1907-01-04/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1770&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=aeroplane+Santos-Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=+aeroplanes+of+Santos+Dumont&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=7 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 17:26, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
Flying Machines: practice and design – December, 1909, Page 54
Santos-Dumont, in November, 1906, with a petrol driven aeroplane machine, accomplished a short flight successfully, and so is probably the first man carried on a mechanically propelled flying machine. He accomplished a flight of 200 ft. at about 8 ft. from the ground, and secured the Archdeacon prize cup.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft7sn02698&seq=70 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 18:03, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
The Democratic Advocate. [volume], January 11, 1907, Image 1
Address By President Armstrong.
William H. Armstrong, former president of the Maryland State Turnpike Association, delivered the following address at the meeting held in Hagerstown on December 29:
“In the near future, there may float in the ocean of air above us, simulachres of those winged monsters of the paleozoic age, that lived by the shores of nameless lakes and left their ‘footprints in the sands of time.' These griffins of the sky will be the aeroplanes of Santos Dumont, and may be the evolution ary successors of the horse, the automobile and the trolley. They will carry their freight, in cars less costly, against a material less resistant than earth or water and be operated at an expense less than the vehicles now used by man.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038292/1907-01-11/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1770&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=aeroplanes+Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=14&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Dumont+aeroplane&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=10 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 18:05, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
Flying Machines: practice and design – December, 1909, Page 54
Santos-Dumont, in November, 1906, with a petrol driven aeroplane machine, accomplished a short flight successfully, and so is probably the first man carried on a mechanically propelled flying machine. He accomplished a flight of 200 ft. at about 8 ft. from the ground, and secured the Archdeacon prize cup.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft7sn02698&seq=70
Evening Star. [volume], February 05, 1911, Page 16, Image 40
HOW AVIATION STANDS TO-DAY
BY FRED T. JANE. Editor of "All the World's Airships"
Early Experiments
THE aëroplane is the antithesis of the dirigible. Unlike the latter, it makes no attempt to reproduce in air what a fish does in water. It seeks to do in the air what a bird does. At present it has advanced a step, in that its present practical exposition is no longer an imitation bird. It has got to adapting certain bird characteristics instead.
Twenty years ago any man who even thought that heavier than air flying might become possible was regarded as a lunatic. Ten years ago anyone who tried to make such a thing was regarded with gravest suspicion. Early experiments were regarded as pure folly.
Then came the boxkite, able to lift men. It was obvious that if an engine could be made to do the essential work of a boxkite string, a kite would need no string, and be a flying machine. Santos-Dumont, the first man to fly on a heavier than air machine, did so on a series of boxkites which subsequently developed into the well known Voisin type of aëroplane. Henry Farman in one of the Voisin machines proved that controlled flight in a heavier than air machine was possible.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1911-02-05/ed-1/seq-40/#date1=1770&index=14&rows=20&words=Dumont+first+Santos+Santos-Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Santos+Dumont+first&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume], November 07, 1909, Sunday Edition, THIRD SECTION, Page 23, Image 23
Santos Dumont Was the First Real Air Passenger
Every great advance toward the conquest of the air, whether it be made by the Wright brothers, Curtiss, Bleriot, Latham or any of the host of others who are now directing their attention toward solving the problem, reflects some credit on Santos-Dumont.
He brought about the present extraordinary interest in aeronautics. His experiments, beginning a decade ago with a dirigible balloon and continuing to his present aeroplane of today, were the spur that started hundreds of experimenters.
The little Brazilian, resident of Paris for so long, and fitting so thoroughly into the life of the metropolis, has been believed by many to be a Frenchman, but he is a South American by birth, and his father is immensely wealthy.
It is a curious contradiction that from the coffee fields of Brazil rather than from the capitals of Europe should come the man who is really the inspiration of the last few years' wonderful advance in conquering the air.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1909-11-07/ed-1/seq-23/#date1=1770&index=0&rows=20&words=Brazil+coffee+contradiction+curious+fields+from&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=It+is+a+curious+contradiction+that+from+the+coffee+fields+of+Brazil+&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
The Evening Statesman. [volume], September 29, 1909, Page Four, Image 4
SANTOS-DUMONT TO THE FRONT.
M. Santos-Dumont has emerged from his seclusion with an aeroplane of his own invention both smaller and swifter than those of his rivals. We are told also that its wings spread only a sixth as many square feet as does the machine of his best known rivals, the Wrights; with its one passenger on board it weighs but 240 pounds, and in its first public flights it made a speed of fifty-five miles an hour. Truly this is something worth waiting for, and we now understand what Santos-Dumont was doing in the time when he was silent. It is almost inconceivable that an art that is only in its infancy should bring such remarkable results so soon. It seems but yesterday that the first announcement was made to the world that a heavier-than-air machine actually flew. Yet Santos-Dumont now comes forward with a small and compact little craft weighing, with him on board only 260 pounds and accomplishing the astonishing speed of 55 miles an hour.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085421/1909-09-29/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1770&index=0&rows=20&words=announcement+first+heavier+made+world&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=the+first+announcement+was+made+to+the+world+that+a+heavier&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
The Intermountain Catholic., October 23, 1909, Page 3, Image 3
Santos Dumont First Flyer.
(From the New York Press.)
Pan-America rejoices that our gallant premier aviator, Santos Dumont, again strides the blast to the tune of 55 miles the hour. He is a rara avis; indeed, the first who flew in public and showed an astounded world the miracle of a man's flight. He is a whole world prodigy, and his name should be fastened to a star or bestowed upon the first convenient coming comet. Brazil may cut the name of Dumont in letters 50 feet high across the face of the peak of the Sugar Loaf mountain at the entrance to the harbor of Rio de Janeiro as a monument of Miltonic majesty to the Brazilian eagle. His father, old man Dumont, a Frenchman, was the pioneer coffee man in the big Santos district of Brazil. He sold out his plantation a number of years ago to a syndicate. Two brothers are quiet bankers in the city of San maulo, Brazil. Santos was believed for a long time to be a mere nutty spendthrift.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn93062856/1909-10-23/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1770&index=0&rows=20&words=astounded+first+flew+public+showed+who&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=the+first+who+flew+in+public+and+showed+an+astounded+&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
Newark Evening Star and Newark advertiser. [volume], February 08, 1915, HOME EDITION, Page 8, Image 8
AMERICA GETS A FAMOUS AIRMAN.
It is good news for the interests of aviation in this country that Santos-Dumont, the famous Brazilian airman, is to make the United States his permanent home. This, for America, is one of the fortunate results of the war, as Santos-Dumont in recent years has been devoting himself to the development of aviation in France.
Santos-Dumont years ago startled the world as a pioneer navigator of the dirigible balloon, and has the distinction of the first public flight in an aeroplane. He will be an immense help to popularizing aviation in the United States. If the nation has a few thousand citizen aviators it will be an immensely valuable aeronautic reserve.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91064011/1915-02-08/ed-1/seq-8/#date1=1770&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=country+Dumont+Santos+Santos-Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=6&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Santos-Dumont+This+Country&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=5
Evening Star. [volume], January 09, 1916, Page 4, Image 22
The Sunday Star, Washington, D. C., January 9, 1916-Part 2.
THE WAR'S GEOGRAPHICAL LESSONS
⁂
On the oriental front it was the 3.000 automobiles of Gen. Hindenburg which changed the issue of the furious battle of Bzoura, also called the battle of Lodz. Thus the automobile is another lesson of the war of which the Germans believed that they alone possessed the secret under the head of "mobel machen." Von Hindenburg's Automobiles.
The actual war has become a subject of incessant disquietude and tension on the part of neutral states which, notwithstanding their good intentions in the matter of their neutrality, are attacked and their rights as neutrals violated. This disquietude has proved a latent factor certainly in the meeting at Washington these days of the Pan-America Scientific Congress. The congress has discussed the ways and means to a closer union for the development of their commerce and their mutual protection, bearing in mind the semiofficial threat of a distinguished military visitor two years before the war.
There was nothing more natural than that aviation from a scientific and economical point of view should be a special subject of discussion by this congress of pan-Americans, all the more that there was present as a member of the congress the man who is considered as the pioneer and father of modern aviation, M. Alberto Santos-Dumont.
⁂
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1916-01-09/ed-1/seq-22/#date1=1770&index=2&rows=20&words=aviation+father+Santos&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=%22father+of+aviation%22+santos&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
El Imparcial., San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 09, 1919, Page 3.
ENGLISH SECTION
OPINIONS OF MY OWN
BY Claudio Capó.
ON AIR NAVIGATION
Air navigation, which is in its infancy, has progressed wonderfully since it first became a practical proposition. Of course, man must have thought of the convenience of being able to fly, since the very moment he perceived other animals going through space. But is is only within the present generation that real progress has been made in the science of aerial navigation, and at the rate it goes we should not be at all surprised if one of these days a trip to the Moon were seriously considered.
If we remember right, Santos Dumont was the first man to flew in a heavier-than-air machine. The Wright Brothers are spoken of in the United States as the first inventors to make of the art a practical proposition. Of the lighter-than-air devices, the most famous are those constructed by Count Zeppelin.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88073003/1919-05-09/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1770&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=Dumont+first+Santos&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=13&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Santos+Dumont+first&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2
July 20, 1969 = Apollo 11 = Moon
One Giant Leap For Mankind
Santos Dumont (20 July, 1873 – 23 July, 1932)
July 20, 1969
July 20, 1873
International Astronomical Union – Santos-Dumont (crater)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos-Dumont_(crater)
Santos-Dumont propeller
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Santos-Dumont_(propeller) 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 19:43, 10 February 2024 (UTC)


Well done. There is an entire article on this

Main article: Early flying machines

so there is no need to rehash it here. I edited the original text down since it incorrectly stated that Dumont flew the "first successful heavier-than-air flying machine, able to take off under its own power and capable of sustained and controlled flight" and then presented an unsourced laundry list of claims about the wright brothers. To your point while the original claim is false, you can make it true by adding fixed-wing or witnessed by Aéro-Club de France to it. As you have said it's mostly a controversy of semantics. BlueDingo (talk) 18:38, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

The Morris Tribune. [volume], September 29, 1906, Image 7
KEEPING TAB ON THE WORLD
Concluded from page 2.
Santos Dumont's Mechanical Flight.
Although M. Santos-Dumont in his new aeroplane, the Bird of Prey, was able to traverse the air at Paris only a distance of thirty-seven feet before his ship came to the ground with a crash, nevertheless the test is regarded as one of great importance because it was the first time an airship had ever left the earth unaided.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91059394/1906-09-29/ed-1/seq-7/#date1=1770&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=aeroplane+Dumont+Santos+Santos-Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=15&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=santos+dumont+aeroplane&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 17:27, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
Nature – November 8, 1906, Page 35
The First “Manned” Flying Machine.
OCTOBER 23 of the present year will be remembered as a red-letter day in the history of flying machines, for it was on that day that the first flying machine, constructed on the “heavier than air” principle, successfully raised itself and its driver from the ground several feet, and transported itself by means of its own power over a distance of eighty yards.
In this his first successful flight with this machine. M. Santos Dumont is to be sincerely congratulated, for he has accomplished a performance which many workers in different parts of the world have been striving after for many years past and failed.
https://www.nature.com/articles/075035a0#:~:text=OCTOBER%2023%20of%20the%20present,itself%20by%20means%20of%20its 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 17:28, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
New-York Tribune. [volume], November 20, 1906, Page 6, Image 6
SANTOS-DUMONT ANTICIPATED.
A fresh reason for determining the amount of glory due to Santos-Dumont for his recent flights with an aeroplane is afforded by an article in the latest number of "Nature" to reach this country. In that periodical it is asserted that on October 23 "the first flying machine, constructed on the 'heavier than air' principle, successfully raised itself and its driver from the ground several feet, and transported itself by means of its own power over a distance of eighty yards." While that statement is probably correct, the merit of the performance can be rightly estimated only by a comparison with what Wilbur and Orville Wright, of Dayton, Ohio, have been able to accomplish.
Santos-Dumont has been at work on the aeroplane only about a year. Most of his aeronautic experiments were conducted with an entirely different class of airship, the self-propelled balloon. On the other hand, the Wright brothers have been identified with the aeroplane for at least four or five years and perhaps longer. In a letter to the Aero Club of America, last winter they told the results attained by them up to the close of 1905. So startling were their claims that in France and Germany their story was received with much skepticism. With a creditable desire to vindicate the honor of the country, The Scientific American addressed a circular letter of inquiry to seventeen persons who, according to the Wrights, had witnessed their aerial voyages. Twelve responses were received, one of them coming from Mr. Octave Chanute, the author of a well known work on aeronautic experiments and a man whose veracity no well informed foreigner or American would venture to question. The testimony of each of these witnesses was in substantial agreement with that of the others. Though now and then doubt would be expressed as to the exact date of a flight, the distance covered or some other detail, the general tenor of the letters seemed to put the truthfulness of the Wrights' statement quite beyond dispute.
It is worthy of note, in the interests of justice, that the Brazilian has made better provision for launching an aeroplane than the Wrights did last year. His machine, when on the ground, is supported by wheels. When the Wrights were ready to start, theirs was arranged crosswise on a pair of rails. To overcome the friction between these and the lower part of the frame, it was necessary to rely on external aid. Their aeroplane would not lift itself clear of the rails until it had been pushed forward twenty-five or thirty feet by hand, whereas the one which has just created a sensation in Europe will advance without assistance as soon as the propellers begin to revolve and will rise shortly afterward unhelped. Strictly speaking, then, "Nature" is quite right when it says that Santos-Dumont's machine is the first to raise Itself by means of its own power.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1906-11-20/ed-1/seq-6/#date1=1770&index=18&rows=20&words=aeroplane+Dumont+Santos+Santos-Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=santos+dumont+aeroplane&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 17:29, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
Evening Star. [volume], December 09, 1906, Sunday star, Page 5, Image 53
The Sunday Star, Washington, D. C., December 09, 1906—Part 4.
(Copyright, 1906, by John Elfreth Watkins.)
SANTOS-DUMONT is the first man to have performed aerial flight with a self-propelled machine heavier than the air which it displaced. He has solved a problem which has caused inventive geniuses to burn the midnight oil and toss restlessly upon their couches since centuries before the dawn of the Christian era. During three millenniums or more ambitious men have broken their hearts and their heads seeking the great goal which this fearless Brazilian has won within the past few weeks.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1906-12-09/ed-1/seq-53/#date1=1770&index=0&rows=20&words=aerial+air+displaced+DUMONT+first+flight+have+heavier+machine+man+performed+propelled+SANTOS+SANTOS-DUMONT+self+self-propelled+than+which&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=SANTOS-DUMONT+is+the+first+man+to+have+performed+aerial+flight+with+a+self-propelled+machine+heavier+than+the+air+which+it+displaced&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 17:30, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
Danville Intelligencer. [volume], January 04, 1907, Image 1
It remained for the world of 1906 to see the first mechanical navigation of the air from a standing start in a screw-propelled aeroplane. This was achieved by M. Santos-Dumont, at Paris, September 13. in his airship, the Bird of Prey.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86053369/1907-01-04/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1770&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=aeroplane+Santos-Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=+aeroplanes+of+Santos+Dumont&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=7 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 17:30, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
Flying Machines: practice and design – December, 1909, Page 54
Santos-Dumont, in November, 1906, with a petrol driven aeroplane machine, accomplished a short flight successfully, and so is probably the first man carried on a mechanically propelled flying machine. He accomplished a flight of 200 ft. at about 8 ft. from the ground, and secured the Archdeacon prize cup.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark%3A%2F13960%2Ft7sn02698&seq=70 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 18:04, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
The Democratic Advocate. [volume], January 11, 1907, Image 1
Address By President Armstrong.
William H. Armstrong, former president of the Maryland State Turnpike Association, delivered the following address at the meeting held in Hagerstown on December 29:
“In the near future, there may float in the ocean of air above us, simulachres of those winged monsters of the paleozoic age, that lived by the shores of nameless lakes and left their ‘footprints in the sands of time.' These griffins of the sky will be the aeroplanes of Santos Dumont, and may be the evolution ary successors of the horse, the automobile and the trolley. They will carry their freight, in cars less costly, against a material less resistant than earth or water and be operated at an expense less than the vehicles now used by man.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038292/1907-01-11/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1770&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=aeroplanes+Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=14&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Dumont+aeroplane&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=10 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 18:04, 10 February 2024 (UTC)
Evening Star. [volume], February 05, 1911, Page 16, Image 40
HOW AVIATION STANDS TO-DAY
BY FRED T. JANE. Editor of "All the World's Airships"
Early Experiments
THE aëroplane is the antithesis of the dirigible. Unlike the latter, it makes no attempt to reproduce in air what a fish does in water. It seeks to do in the air what a bird does. At present it has advanced a step, in that its present practical exposition is no longer an imitation bird. It has got to adapting certain bird characteristics instead.
Twenty years ago any man who even thought that heavier than air flying might become possible was regarded as a lunatic. Ten years ago anyone who tried to make such a thing was regarded with gravest suspicion. Early experiments were regarded as pure folly.
Then came the boxkite, able to lift men. It was obvious that if an engine could be made to do the essential work of a boxkite string, a kite would need no string, and be a flying machine. Santos-Dumont, the first man to fly on a heavier than air machine, did so on a series of boxkites which subsequently developed into the well known Voisin type of aëroplane. Henry Farman in one of the Voisin machines proved that controlled flight in a heavier than air machine was possible.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1911-02-05/ed-1/seq-40/#date1=1770&index=14&rows=20&words=Dumont+first+Santos+Santos-Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Santos+Dumont+first&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume], November 07, 1909, Sunday Edition, THIRD SECTION, Page 23, Image 23
Santos Dumont Was the First Real Air Passenger
Every great advance toward the conquest of the air, whether it be made by the Wright brothers, Curtiss, Bleriot, Latham or any of the host of others who are now directing their attention toward solving the problem, reflects some credit on Santos-Dumont.
He brought about the present extraordinary interest in aeronautics. His experiments, beginning a decade ago with a dirigible balloon and continuing to his present aeroplane of today, were the spur that started hundreds of experimenters.
The little Brazilian, resident of Paris for so long, and fitting so thoroughly into the life of the metropolis, has been believed by many to be a Frenchman, but he is a South American by birth, and his father is immensely wealthy.
It is a curious contradiction that from the coffee fields of Brazil rather than from the capitals of Europe should come the man who is really the inspiration of the last few years' wonderful advance in conquering the air.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1909-11-07/ed-1/seq-23/#date1=1770&index=0&rows=20&words=Brazil+coffee+contradiction+curious+fields+from&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=It+is+a+curious+contradiction+that+from+the+coffee+fields+of+Brazil+&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
The Evening Statesman. [volume], September 29, 1909, Page Four, Image 4
SANTOS-DUMONT TO THE FRONT.
M. Santos-Dumont has emerged from his seclusion with an aeroplane of his own invention both smaller and swifter than those of his rivals. We are told also that its wings spread only a sixth as many square feet as does the machine of his best known rivals, the Wrights; with its one passenger on board it weighs but 240 pounds, and in its first public flights it made a speed of fifty-five miles an hour. Truly this is something worth waiting for, and we now understand what Santos-Dumont was doing in the time when he was silent. It is almost inconceivable that an art that is only in its infancy should bring such remarkable results so soon. It seems but yesterday that the first announcement was made to the world that a heavier-than-air machine actually flew. Yet Santos-Dumont now comes forward with a small and compact little craft weighing, with him on board only 260 pounds and accomplishing the astonishing speed of 55 miles an hour.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085421/1909-09-29/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1770&index=0&rows=20&words=announcement+first+heavier+made+world&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=the+first+announcement+was+made+to+the+world+that+a+heavier&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
The Intermountain Catholic., October 23, 1909, Page 3, Image 3
Santos Dumont First Flyer.
(From the New York Press.)
Pan-America rejoices that our gallant premier aviator, Santos Dumont, again strides the blast to the tune of 55 miles the hour. He is a rara avis; indeed, the first who flew in public and showed an astounded world the miracle of a man's flight. He is a whole world prodigy, and his name should be fastened to a star or bestowed upon the first convenient coming comet. Brazil may cut the name of Dumont in letters 50 feet high across the face of the peak of the Sugar Loaf mountain at the entrance to the harbor of Rio de Janeiro as a monument of Miltonic majesty to the Brazilian eagle. His father, old man Dumont, a Frenchman, was the pioneer coffee man in the big Santos district of Brazil. He sold out his plantation a number of years ago to a syndicate. Two brothers are quiet bankers in the city of San maulo, Brazil. Santos was believed for a long time to be a mere nutty spendthrift.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn93062856/1909-10-23/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1770&index=0&rows=20&words=astounded+first+flew+public+showed+who&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=the+first+who+flew+in+public+and+showed+an+astounded+&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
Newark Evening Star and Newark advertiser. [volume], February 08, 1915, HOME EDITION, Page 8, Image 8
AMERICA GETS A FAMOUS AIRMAN.
It is good news for the interests of aviation in this country that Santos-Dumont, the famous Brazilian airman, is to make the United States his permanent home. This, for America, is one of the fortunate results of the war, as Santos-Dumont in recent years has been devoting himself to the development of aviation in France.
Santos-Dumont years ago startled the world as a pioneer navigator of the dirigible balloon, and has the distinction of the first public flight in an aeroplane. He will be an immense help to popularizing aviation in the United States. If the nation has a few thousand citizen aviators it will be an immensely valuable aeronautic reserve.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91064011/1915-02-08/ed-1/seq-8/#date1=1770&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=country+Dumont+Santos+Santos-Dumont&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=6&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Santos-Dumont+This+Country&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=5
Evening Star. [volume], January 09, 1916, Page 4, Image 22
The Sunday Star, Washington, D. C., January 9, 1916-Part 2.
THE WAR'S GEOGRAPHICAL LESSONS
⁂
On the oriental front it was the 3.000 automobiles of Gen. Hindenburg which changed the issue of the furious battle of Bzoura, also called the battle of Lodz. Thus the automobile is another lesson of the war of which the Germans believed that they alone possessed the secret under the head of "mobel machen." Von Hindenburg's Automobiles.
The actual war has become a subject of incessant disquietude and tension on the part of neutral states which, notwithstanding their good intentions in the matter of their neutrality, are attacked and their rights as neutrals violated. This disquietude has proved a latent factor certainly in the meeting at Washington these days of the Pan-America Scientific Congress. The congress has discussed the ways and means to a closer union for the development of their commerce and their mutual protection, bearing in mind the semiofficial threat of a distinguished military visitor two years before the war.
There was nothing more natural than that aviation from a scientific and economical point of view should be a special subject of discussion by this congress of pan-Americans, all the more that there was present as a member of the congress the man who is considered as the pioneer and father of modern aviation, M. Alberto Santos-Dumont.
⁂
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1916-01-09/ed-1/seq-22/#date1=1770&index=2&rows=20&words=aviation+father+Santos&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=%22father+of+aviation%22+santos&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
El Imparcial., San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 09, 1919, Page 3.
ENGLISH SECTION
OPINIONS OF MY OWN
BY Claudio Capó.
ON AIR NAVIGATION
Air navigation, which is in its infancy, has progressed wonderfully since it first became a practical proposition. Of course, man must have thought of the convenience of being able to fly, since the very moment he perceived other animals going through space. But is is only within the present generation that real progress has been made in the science of aerial navigation, and at the rate it goes we should not be at all surprised if one of these days a trip to the Moon were seriously considered.
If we remember right, Santos Dumont was the first man to flew in a heavier-than-air machine. The Wright Brothers are spoken of in the United States as the first inventors to make of the art a practical proposition. Of the lighter-than-air devices, the most famous are those constructed by Count Zeppelin.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88073003/1919-05-09/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1770&sort=relevance&rows=20&words=Dumont+first+Santos&searchType=basic&sequence=0&index=13&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=Santos+Dumont+first&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=2
July 20, 1969 = Apollo 11 = Moon
One Giant Leap For Mankind
Santos Dumont (20 July, 1873 – 23 July, 1932)
July 20, 1969
July 20, 1873
International Astronomical Union – Santos-Dumont (crater)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos-Dumont_(crater)
Santos-Dumont propeller
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Santos-Dumont_(propeller) 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:1A3:45B9:B136:8FBF (talk) 19:44, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

The Wrights' catapult

As it is, one very strong Brazilian point of contention is that the Wrights depended on a catapult to make their Flyer take off. Samuel Langley used a catapult, but I have not found non-Brazilian evidence that the Wrights did. Apparently -- I have found printed reference, but have yet to look it up again --, in the early 1900s one American journalist mixed them up and reported of the Wrights using the catapult. If such is the case, it would seem that some of the wind could be driven off the catapult argument. SrAtoz (talk) 16:33, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

The New York Times, December 17, 1951. Page 30
WRIGHT TRIBUTE TODAY
Airmen to Mark Anniversary of Kitty Hawk Flight
KITTY HAWK. N.C, Dec.16 (U P) – Modern airmen will pay tribute here tomorrow to the forty-eighth anniversary of the Wright Brothers' pioneering airplane flight, but an old-timer who watched the first take-offs said the celebrators have picked the wrong day.
Wilbur and Orville Wright are credited with making their first powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine on Dec. 17, 1903. But Alpheus W. Drinkwater, 76 years old, who sent the telegraph message ushering in the air age, said the brothers only "glided" off Kill Devil Hill that day.
Their first real flight came on May 6, 1908, he said. It was on that day, that Wilbur Wright declared the airplane was a mighty fine contraption, but predicted it would never carry enough gasoline to span an ocean.
Regardless of his quibble with aeronautics historians; Mr. Drinkwater will be on hand for the celebration tomorrow. The first flight will be marked by flights of jet planes, helicopters and huge cargo planes.
https://www.nytimes.com/1951/12/17/archives/wright-tribute-today-airmen-to-mark-anniversary-of-kitty-hawk.html 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:A94D:93D8:5C2D:8BF3 (talk) 17:44, 11 March 2024 (UTC)


The Wright Catapults are heavilly documented everywhere, not only in Brazil. Just check US pages about the Wright, and you will see lots of info. However, the Wrights did not use the catapult at first. On Kitty Hawk, they used rails to overcome the sand. Some say that the dunes were used to lay the rail on an inclined fashion, allowing the plane to gain speed through the help of gravity. However, at least once Wilbur mentioned in a telegram that they were able to take off with the rail "laid flat". This day, however, he mentions that there was a significant breeze (head wind).

In 1904, in the Huffman Praire, the Wright Bros. documented several failed attempts to take off using the rail. They also claim about 2 successfull take-offs with significant head wind. By September, they built and started to use the catapult to assist on take off, which they have used from then onwards.

In 1908, the Wright Bros. presented themselves in Europe and tried to set some World Records mantained by the FIA. When they made a 56 minute flight (to the astonished Europeans), the record was denied because of the use of the catapult. It was then that Wilbur removed the track and took off without the catapult and wheels, having his record homologated.

Anyway, this is what is behind some of the comments saying that the Wright Bros could not take-off unassisted, an affirmation I think is correct (in 1903-1905). Because of its low power, it needed assistance of either: The gravity (inclined rails), catapult or WIND.

Nelbr 88.0.116.1 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 11:38, 14 February 2010 (UTC).

By the way, here is a US government link that describes part of what is said above:

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Wright_Bros/1904/WR7.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.0.116.1 (talk) 11:45, 14 February 2010 (UTC)

and three years after the Wright Brothers flight of their powered fix wing...he flew. This artical is a fraud and a farce. If you read his history or see videos about him. He stole his engineering and hired people to do his math. He was a guy that worked thighs out in a machine shop using other people's R&D. Today we would just call him a fraud and move on. He Reinvented that was already invented or known. That is why the FAC threw him out. (67.1.15.106 (talk) 08:28, 20 April 2013 (UTC)).
The Wright's first successful flight DID NOT USE catapults!!! It just used a railway-like wooden runway to launch the plane but it was entirely moved by its engines! There are videos of it so don't try to fool us! (unsigned by ‎46.189.219.225 )
Correct: engine only, no catapult on 12/17/1903, but still photos only, no film or video on that date. DonFB (talk) 05:27, 29 October 2017 (UTC)
The New York Times, December 17, 1951. Page 30
WRIGHT TRIBUTE TODAY
Airmen to Mark Anniversary of Kitty Hawk Flight
KITTY HAWK. N.C, Dec.16 (U P) – Modern airmen will pay tribute here tomorrow to the forty-eighth anniversary of the Wright Brothers' pioneering airplane flight, but an old-timer who watched the first take-offs said the celebrators have picked the wrong day.
Wilbur and Orville Wright are credited with making their first powered flight in a heavier-than-air machine on Dec. 17, 1903. But Alpheus W. Drinkwater, 76 years old, who sent the telegraph message ushering in the air age, said the brothers only "glided" off Kill Devil Hill that day.
Their first real flight came on May 6, 1908, he said. It was on that day, that Wilbur Wright declared the airplane was a mighty fine contraption, but predicted it would never carry enough gasoline to span an ocean.
Regardless of his quibble with aeronautics historians; Mr. Drinkwater will be on hand for the celebration tomorrow. The first flight will be marked by flights of jet planes, helicopters and huge cargo planes.
https://www.nytimes.com/1951/12/17/archives/wright-tribute-today-airmen-to-mark-anniversary-of-kitty-hawk.html 2001:1284:F514:3D8A:A94D:93D8:5C2D:8BF3 (talk) 17:48, 11 March 2024 (UTC)
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