The first proven flight of an airplane capable of taking off by its own means was carried out by the Brazilian Alberto Santos Dumont aboard the 14-Bis, on October 23, 1906 at the Bagatelle field, in Paris, France. Four years later, by an irony of fate, it was up to a Frenchman to carry out the inaugural flight of a heavier-than-air machine in Brazil.
The first aircraft designed entirely on Brazilian soil was built by Dimitri Sensaud de Lavaud, a French inventor living in Brazil. The airplane, baptized as “S. Paulo”, flew in Osasco, in the state of São Paulo, more than a century ago, on January 7, 1910. The flight took place in front of a group of curious people and journalists where today’s Avenida dos Autonomistas is located.
In the January 8 edition, the newspaper “O Estado de São Paulo” described the feat of the French inventor, saying that he managed to “make a flight, in the extension of 103 meters in 6 seconds and 18 thousandths, at a height that varied between two and four meters.”
The article also detailed the project for the plane, which was built only with Brazilian raw material. The 45 hp engine was cast and machined in the city of São Paulo, and the structure of the plane, measuring 10.2 meters in length by 10 meters in span, used pine wood and peroba covered with varnished cretonne (a type of fabric).
Also according to the publication, Lavand built his airplane taking inspiration from the lines of the “Blériot” (designed by the French aviator Louis Blériot), one of the first aircraft in the world for civil and military use.
Despite the successful take-off after a 70-meter run down a slope, what happened next with the S. Paulo can be considered the first plane crash in Brazil. “At this point the engine, terrible traitor to aeronauts, which has already provided Lathan (Hubert Latham, the first aviator who tried to cross the English Channel by plane, between France and England) an unexpected bath in the middle of the Channel, suddenly stops and the device falls on the wheels, crushing them.”
Even with the plane damaged in the sudden landing, Lavand’s feat, who was not injured in the incident, was considered at the time a “resounding success”, as described by aeronautical historian Roberto Pereira de Andrade in his book “Construction Aeronautics in Brazil”. The flight by Lavand’s plane was also the first in Latin America, the day before Alberto Braniff, a Mexican aviator who flew around Mexico City with a Voisin monoplane imported from France.
A week after the flight in Osasco, the S. Paulo, duly repaired, was exposed at the entrance of the old Cine-Teatro Polytheama, in the center of São Paulo. Later on, Lavand performed other flights with the monoplane, the most notorious of them being at the Jockey Club in São Paulo. Later, the French inventor sold his plane to an unknown person, who had an accident with the device and died.
Dedicated inventor
The São Paulo airplane was just one of several projects by Dimitri Sensaud de Lavaud, who had more than 1,200 patents registered. French citizen born in Spain in 1882, the inventor studied in traditional schools in France, Greece and Turkey before arriving in Brazil with his parents in 1903, settling in Osasco, which at that time was still a neighborhood of São Paulo.
Lavaud’s most famous invention was the automatic transmission for automobiles, which won him the Montyon Prize for Engineering from the Academy of Sciences in Paris in 1927. He also created the first independent traction system for armored vehicles, a piece of equipment that is now commonplace. in 4×4 vehicles.
The French inventor was also a pioneer in the development of gas turbines and rockets. His last invention, recorded in 1946, was the electric clutch.
Back in France in the 1940s, Lavand was imprisoned after the occupation of Nazi Germany during World War II. After the liberation of Paris by Allied forces in 1944, the inventor returned to prison after being accused of having collaborated with enemies, a suspicion that has never been proven.
Lavand would only be released in 1946, at the age of 64 and in very fragile health, dying the following year impoverished and discredited.
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In what year was Varig founded?
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Cruzeiro was one of the most important Brazilian airlines. In 1975, who was it sold to?
Which of these airlines existed?
When did Transbrasil stop operating in the country?
Which of these companies was nationalized by the government of São Paulo?
Transbrasil was originally created in 1955 by what name?
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Reference: CNN Brasil
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