Page:The bipolarity of Alberto Santos-Dumont.pdf/3

The bipolarity of Santos-Dumont65 aeroclub and consecrates him, at least at first, as the inventor of the airplane.

Another important invention by ASD was the Demoiselle, the number 20, which was the first sports airplane in the world. The device, created in 1909, set a new speed record and achieved commercial success, with more than fifty units produced.

The exploits of ASD made him world famous in the early years of the 20th century. Proof of his enormous prestige is that, in Paris, they were among his regular dinner partners and close friends: Louis Cartier, the jeweler; Princess Isabel, daughter of D. Pedro II; Gustave Eiffel, the tower architect; Antônio Prado Jr., son of a Brazilian ambassador; members of the Rothschild family of bankers; Empress Eugênia, a reclusive widow of Napoleon III; plus some kings, queens, dukes and duchesses.

The situation, however, changes with the arrival of the brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright, from the United States, in 1907. They refer that, in North Carolina, in 1903, therefore three years before ASD, they had already flown with a machine heavier than air, the Flyer. They had worked in secret, and there was no verification of that flight by any accredited entity. In 1908, they went to France, where they demonstrated their aircraft, and in a short time, they ended up being recognized internationally as the true inventors of the airplane. However, even today the primacy of Americans is contested in Brazil, with the claim that the Flyer needed the help of rails and a catapult to take off, unlike the 14-Bis, which took flight by its own means.

Uncrowned by the Wright brothers, ASD complains about his friends, who, according to him, would have abandoned him. “It was, now I can say,” he would write later, “a painful experience for me to see – after all my work with airships and machines heavier than air - the ingratitude of those who recently covered me with glory”.

Appearance and personality

ASD was a very slight man: his height was 1.52 meter, and his weight varied around 50 kilos3. He tried to disguise his short stature with his clothes: dark suits with vertical stripes, heels, high collars, a very tight tie knot, trousers rolled up at the hem and somewhat short. All of this, added to the Panama hat, gave him an elegant but at the same time extravagant appearance.

Fame and glory were the motivation for their achievements. ASD had no financial interests: he did not register the patents for his inventions and donated all the prizes he received. He was very concerned with his public image and took great pleasure in showing off, especially on his flights. Paradoxically, he was very shy. In childhood, he was described as lonely and dreamer. In adulthood, at social gatherings, even with his family, he almost never opened his mouth. He had an intense fear of speaking in public.

ASD never married or publicly assumed a romantic relationship. One of his biographers believes that he was a homosexual. In childhood, he was not interested in the games and activities more typically of boys with their siblings. His voice and clothes were described by journalists as unmanly. In addition, he liked to embroider, to knit and to practice tapestry, habits traditionally more linked to the feminine sex. Another biographer, in contrast, claims that he was a womanizer, as he was often seen in public situations in the company of beautiful young women and because of the references to love affairs with women in some letters he wrote to friends.

Depression and suicide

There is a lack of information about ASD’s mental illness, because at one point he burned many letters and documents. In addition, the clinics he checked into did not keep medical records. However, some information about what happened to him was provided by people around him and by the press of the time.

In 1910, at the age of 36, ASD decides to abandon aviation. Complaining of double vision and dizziness, he consults a doctor, who would have formulated the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. However, this diagnosis would later be challenged by several doctors, who believed that ASD was already presenting psychiatric manifestations. In fact, at that time, he, feeling exhausted, stays at home, totally isolated. A few years later, during the First World War, he said he felt guilty for using the airplane as a war weapon: “More infamous than the Devil”, he would have said about himself.

In the 1920s, ASD was admitted to psychiatric clinics in Europe several times: at the Préville sanatorium, in Orthez, France; and the Valmont-sur-Territet sanatorium in Glion, Switzerland. There are reports that he presented loss of appetite, lack of strength, sadness and hopelessness. In Brazil, the aviator consulted with two of the most eminent Brazilian psychiatrists: Juliano Moreira, in 1925, and Henrique Roxo, in 1927. In 1927, he was removed by his nephew Jorge Dumont-Villares from the clinic in Switzerland, after a long hospitalization. In 1928, on his return to Brazil, he witnessed the death of twelve intellectuals and scientists who came to greet him on board an exploded seaplane. In the following weeks, he is locked up at the Copacabana Palace hotel, from where he only leaves to attend the funerals of the victims of the accident.

In 1930, in Paris, ASD stops eating and talking and locks himself in his room. He is then readmitted to Orthez and, at the clinic, feels discouraged and attempts suicide with medication. In 1931, another hospitalization, now in the Biarritz sanatorium, also in France. That same year, Jorge again takes him out of the clinic, taking him back to Brazil, aboard the Lutetia steamboat. During the trip, ASD attempts suicide again, being saved by his nephew. J Bras Psiquiatr. 2022;71(1):63-8