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October 23: the 14-Bis and Aviator's Day

On October 23, 1906, Santos-Dumont made the 14-Bis take off under its own power in Paris, before the public. In Brazil, the date is Aviator's Day.

bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published

On October 23, 1906, at the Bagatelle field, in Paris, the Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont made the 14-Bis leave the ground under its own power, before a crowd.

What happened

The 14-Bis was a strange airplane to today's eyes: it seemed to fly backward, with the part that controls direction in front and the wings behind. That afternoon, it took off without rail or catapult, flew about 60 meters a few meters off the ground and landed. The flight is remembered as the first public flight of a powered airplane in Europe.

The flight earned Santos-Dumont the Archdeacon cup, created for the first flight of at least 25 meters. Weeks later, on November 12, 1906, with the airplane modified, he flew 220 meters and won the Aéro-Club de France prize for the first flight of 100 meters, recorded by an official commission.

In Brazil, October 23 is celebrated as Aviator's Day.

Why it matters

The date has two meanings. The first is the debate over who flew first. In the United States, the answer is the Wright brothers, for the flights of December 17, 1903. In Brazil, it's Santos-Dumont, because the 14-Bis took off under its own power and before witnesses, while the Wrights' flights had a small audience and used a launch rail. Both stories are true; this page doesn't aim to settle the debate.

The second meaning is the road there. Five years earlier, in 1901, Santos-Dumont's airship No. 5 had lost gas and gotten stuck on the roof of a hotel in Paris, with him hanging from the side of the building. He came out unhurt, built No. 6 and, months later, rounded the Eiffel Tower and won the Deutsch prize.

The bridge to Bairo's vision

Santos-Dumont made his life far from the country where he was born, in a learned language, and fell in public before flying in public. Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez, a Colombian who made his life in Brazil, recognizes that path. He arrived in the country while still young and knew the other side of arriving: losing your footing, far from home, and starting over. It's in Capoeira was the bridge.

The lesson of the airship on the roof is the same as Bairo's rule: no is the foundation of yes. No. 5 left its engine to No. 6. In Bairo's story, every attempt left something for the next, up to the seventh.

Read also: Santos-Dumont: from the airship on the roof to the 14-Bis · December 17, the Wrights

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