Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight

On the eve of the centennial of the Wright brothers' historic flights at Kitty Hawk, a new generation will learn about the other man who was once hailed worldwide as the conqueror of the air--Alberto Santos-Dumont. Because the Wright brothers worked in secrecy, word of their first flights had not reached Europe when Santos-Dumont took to the skies in 1906. The dashing, impeccably dressed inventor entertained Paris with his airborne antics--barhopping in a little dirigible that he tied to lampposts, circling above crowds around the Eiffel Tower, and crashing into rooftops. A man celebrated, even pursued by the press in Paris, London, and New York, Santos-Dumont dined regularly with the Cartiers, the Rothschilds, and the Roosevelts. But beneath his lively public exterior, Santos-Dumont was a frenzied genius tortured by the weight of his own creation.Wings of Madness chronicles the science and history of early aviation and offers a fascinating glimpse into the mind of an extraordinary and tormented man, vividly depicting the sights and sounds of turn-of-the-century Paris. It is a book that will do for aviation what The Man Who Loved Only Numbers did for mathematics.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Theia
Published: 06/01/2003
ISBN: 9780786866595
Pages: 380
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.22w x 1.33d
Award: L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2003 pg. 586
Publishers Weekly 05/05/2003 pg. 211
Library Journal 05/15/2003 pg. 102
Booklist 06/01/2003 pg. 1736
Discover 07/01/2003 pg. 76
New York Review of Books 11/06/2003 pg. 30
Booksense '76 Sep/Oct 2003 09/01/2003 pg. 1