The first Zepplin, named for Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin (1838-1917), flew in 1900. It was by no means the first such airship. A French design existed as early as 1784, and one was demonstrated in 1850. Developments in the field of aeronautics followed. Santos Dumont made a famous flight around the Eiffel Tower in a dirigible in 1901.
When I lived in Brazil as a boy, I was often told that Santos Dumont (Albert Santos Dumont, 1873-1932) invented the airplane. This fact was widely taught in schools there. The Wright Brothers, commonly credited with this feat in American history books, were not part of the story at all. The Wright Brothers famous flight was in 1903, and Santos Dumont didn't fly an airplane that took off, flew, and landed (the way we think of an airplane flying, without the assistance of catapults, winds, high cliffs, guide rails, etc.) until 1906. But Dumont flew gliders from dirigibles -- airplanes with gas bags attached -- before he made a flight without such support. The headline from December 18, 1903 edition ofThe Dayton Daily News reported the Wright Brothers' flight with this headline: "Dayton Boys Emulate Great Santos Dumont".
Today's topic for your consideration today is the nature of history. As a great critical thinker, doubt is your friend, and you will naturally refuse to accept historical "fact" until you have delved more deeply into the details. There are a variety of factors that make believing any given version of history desireable to a particular audience. Can you identify the reasons the Americans or the Brazilians would want to tell different versions of the "first in flight" story? Note that the presence of bias towards a particular fact or interpretation of the facts does not of itself make the fact false.
Read more online:
http://www.dirizabl.co.yu/eng/dirigible.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Santos-Dumont
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