My Airships; The Story of My Life

This is the autobiography of one of humanity's first to truly fly. Alberto Santos-Dumont was a Brazilian dreamer who grew up on a coffee plantation reading Jules Verne, then went to Paris and became the most famous aviator in the world at the turn of the century. He built his own airships, his own balloons, and later his own airplanes. He was the first person to fly an airship from Saint-Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back, winning the prestigious Deutsch Prize, and he did it not once but repeatedly, steering his craft to precise destinations rather than just drifting with the wind. He describes hair-raising collisions with buildings, near-misses with death, and the sheer intoxicating joy of mastering the air. Written when he was just 30 years old, this book captures the youthful exuberance of a man who turned fantasy into reality, who made Paris gasp skyward every time his airships appeared over the city. The tragedy awaiting him gives this memoir its poignant edge: he would eventually return to Brazil and, depressed by the military use of aircraft, take his own life. But here, his voice is buoyant, daring, alive.