Santos Dumont built and numbered 20 flying machines. This is their story, and his.
1. A giant cigar made from Japanese silk. I crash into trees then fly up to the milk.
2. Wider, gasier, a rotary fan. I crash into trees, this time I cut my knees.
3. Shorter, thicker. Lamp gas inside. Around the Eiffel tower itís lifting my pride.
4. Out of my basket I straddle a bike. Like a witch on her broom I can fly where I like.
World love through flight
In wonder machines
We control
All our dreams
5. Piano wire ropes. I crash at my friends but master the art of aerial bends.
6. Crystal Palace, Monaco, Deutsch Prize, New York. Sunken and slashed. People talk, people talk.
7. I compete at St Louis for a shining grand prize and again my balloon is hacked at with knives.
8. I return to Paris. And contemplate. Avoiding acknowledgment of the dreaded number 8.
9. I transport a child in this aerial car and hand the controls to a woman. Huzzah!
10. I build it for 10 but it flies with just 1. This is the worldís first airship for no one.
World love through flight
In wonder machines
We control
All our dreams
World love through flight
In wonder machines
We control
All our dreams
World love through flight
In wonder machines
We control
All our dreams
11. A glider. One engine. That can barely fly. It has to get better so upward I try.
12. Leonardo inspired this twin helicopter. But unlike my vision, itís ability falters.
13. A division of hydrogen and piping hot air. An airship that lacked elevation and flair.
14. My airship becomes an aerial tug which I use to pull planes like a donkey with brains.
15. A biplane at last, to the future I ride. If only I could make it fly high like a kite.
16. Is it an airship or is it a plane? Whatever it is its clearly insane.
17. A biplane again, but the design is elusive. I lack the passion to even build it.
18. A plane that can float on the beautiful Seine. Did I call it a plane? Itís a boat, message ends.
19. A precarious mess which I hope will win big. It carefully springs from the earth and then digs.
20. Demoiselle. I love you but war has begun. You fly in my dreams. Dream on everyone.