TV Program Description
Original PBS Broadcast Date: November 7, 2006
In the early 1900s, the most acclaimed celebrity in Europe, and arguably the
world, was a fashionable, frail, Brazilian-born aviator named Alberto
Santos-Dumont. The first to fly an airplane in Europe, Santos also built and
flew the first practical dirigibles, or powered balloons. At a period when most
balloons were at the mercy of the wind and many still thought the airplane an
impossibility, Santos's bold exploits created a sensation. He was the spiritual
father of aviation, and at the same time, a flying P.T. Barnum, intrepidly
demonstrating his incredible flying machines in Paris, London, New York, and
St. Louis.
But Santos's burst of glory was short-lived. When the secretive Wright brothers
finally unveiled their flying machine in France in 1908, Wilbur's piloting
skills dazzled the public and instantly eclipsed Santos's fame. Over the next
three decades, Santos slipped gradually into illness and despair until he
finally committed suicide, tormented by knowing that the airplane, which he
believed to be his invention, had become a lethal weapon of war.
Based on the acclaimed biography by Paul Hoffman, "Wings of Madness" tells the
colorful and tragic life of this neglected pioneer, a brilliant technical
improviser who cut an unforgettable figure of high fashion in
turn-of-the-century Paris. Always impeccably tailored, Santos delighted in
steering his airship down the boulevards and dropping in at cafés or the
garden parties of his wealthy friends, while suffering numerous scrapes among
the rooftops of Paris. His friend Louis Cartier, the Parisian jeweler, created
the first wristwatch specifically so that Santos could keep track of time while
maneuvering his airship.
In the 1890s, Santos inherited a fortune from his Brazilian coffee
plantation-owning family and threw himself obsessively into solving the
challenge of flight. With characteristic ingenuity, Santos figured out how to
combine gasoline engines with hydrogen balloons and avoid the explosions that
everyone predicted. A landmark, prize-winning flight around the Eiffel Tower in
1901 turned him into an instant celebrity; the press and public affirmed that
mankind had indeed conquered the skies.
Tiring of balloons, Santos built the 14bis, an ungainly tail-first
flying machine that nevertheless made the first powered airplane flight in
Europe in 1906. At that time, the Wright brothers's secret early flights were
widely disbelieved, so Santos and his adoring public were convinced he was the
first to fly. When Wilbur made his triumphant European tour in 1908, Santos had
to face the terrible realization that the Wrights were the true pioneers after
all. But just before his long slide into illness began, he designed an
exquisite new airplane out of bamboo: the Demoiselle, or Damselfly. One
of the classic aircraft of the pioneering era, it was the true forerunner of
today's ultralight planes (see Tale of the Damselfly and Tour the
Demoiselle).
"Wings of Madness" combines captivating hands-on technology with a human story
of triumph and tragedy. The program includes rare movie archive footage of Santos's
original flights as well as new footage of the recent building of a
14bis replica in Brazil. The hair-raising test flights of this modern
replica evoke the ingenuity and extreme courage of Alberto Santos-Dumont as he
pursued his lifelong dream of flight.
Program Transcript
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