Wings of madness - Paul Hoffman

This text presents the history of aviation told through the inspirational story of the brave men who battled to be the first to free themselves from the confines of the earth. It follows one man in particular, who was so impassioned by the idea of flying that his eternal battle to create the perfect flying machine ultimately, it is believed, destroyed his mind.;Ask any historian outside Brazil who flew the first airplane and you'll get the same response: Orville and Wilbur Wright. But ask any Brazilian the same question and you will get a different answer: Alberto Santos-Dumont whom they have crowned the "father of aviation".;Fearless, Alberto Santos-Dumont was a slight and wiry man who built flying machines that could hold no-one heavier than himself and that required daredevil dexterity to keep aloft. Never before and possibly never since has there been an airplane that the pilot has had to stand up in for the whole flight. He had to perfect the rumba in order to keep his Bird of Prey in the air for a respectable 21 minutes. With his genius and charisma he became the toast of Paris and London. He dined with the Cartiers and the Rothschilds and he was the darling of the press.;A child of his time - Santos-Dumont had a blind faith in the future of technology and did not foresee the destructive power of the aircraft. Yet, his indomitable spirit was crushed as competition grew and the skies became full of hazardous aircraft. With the dawn of World War I, Santos-Dumont saw the devastating effect of aircraft and began to blame himself for every fatality. With such a weight on his mind Santos-Dumont became distracted from his dream and fears began to grow amongst his family and friends for his sanity. He made his last attempt to fly by sticking feathers to his arms and launching himself through a window in a sanatorium.