Thursday, May 16, 2019

First European heavier-than-air flight

First European flight would probably make it the second successful aircraft in the world. 
Alberto Santos-Dumont was a Brazilian living in Paris at the turn of the last century.  He was active in the new craze of flying machines, experimenting with both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air craft. The craft shown is his 14-bis which on Oct 23 1906 made a flight of 200 feet at an altitude of 15 feet, this was considered to be the first flight in Europe. The craft had its wings mounted at the rear so it resembled a goose, the front is to the left in the picture above. 
Some contend that the 14-bis was the first true airplane due to its wheeled landing gear, but by 1905 the Wrights had been flying for two years and had flown a circular course of 24 miles in under 40 minutes, clearly ahead of the 14-bis flight. 

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