On a breezy Paris afternoon in 1901, more than two years before the Wright Brothers even invented the airplane, the only real contender anywhere set out to claim aviation’s first great prize. That visionary aviator was Brazilian emigré Alberto Santos-Dumont, and his goal was the 100,000 franc Deutsch Prize. When people ask you who invented the airship, please don’t say ‘von Zeppelin’. The idea of … Continue reading Santos-Dumont