The Flirty Santos=Dumont, Aida de Acosta and Adeline Assis Brazil

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As much as I search, I always end up stumbling upon the limited data on Santos-Dumont life, particularly with regard to some female figures that passed through the life of the aviator. The first of them is Aida de Acosta. Aida de Acosta was a young American daughter of Ricardo Acosta, a Cuban businessman of the steamships construction business and Micaela Hernandez de Alba y de Alba of an aristocratic Spanish family from Toledo from the House of Alba. She went on vacations of University to Paris with a group of friends.

Steampunk look Santos=Dumont "Charmed"

Fact is, that she became the muse of the hangar. Every time the staff arrive to the hangar, as well as those who gathered there to see the flights always referred to her as: "La belle de Neuilly est arrivée". Among the huge number of people who begged to fly Santos=Dumont dirigible, Aida de Acosta was the chosen one.

What led Santos=Dumont to opt for her was her detachment and fierce desire for adventure. It was easy to identify in Aida the spirit of adventure together with the seriousness necessary to carry out such a task.

Santos set an appointment with her to the next day to teach the basic instructions of flight, Aida anticipated his arrival in Neuilly in half an hour for their first lessons. After the theoretical instruction, they left for practical instructions.

An important observation is that the delicate basket of Balladeuse does not have enough space for two people, therefore S=D flew some times from the outside, however, sometimes he had to go inside the basket (together with her) to have the agility handle de aircraft. On the morning of July 29, 1903 Aida came early to the hangar, flew alone to the polo field of Longchamps, after which, returned to the hangar. Santos=Dumont accompanied every move from the ground from his bicycle. Actually, she was the first woman to fly an aircraft powered by any form of engine. Santos had a brief involvement with her but was abruptly stopped. Mr. Ricardo, the father of Aida, very upset with the relationship said: "How could you Mr. Dumont? How could you have the courage to expose my daughter to such a risk? How could you expose my daughter to the nasty comments of the press? You may know that she had barely got out of puberty. I do not approve your relationship with my daughter. Mr. Dumont, I’d say that there are only two reasons for an honored woman to appear in the pages of newspapers; one is to announce her wedding, the other is to announce her obituary".

Another beautiful woman who appeared in the life of Santos=Dumont was Adeline Assis Brasil. There are some photos among Dumont belongings of the beautiful Adeline.

Inside the well known “Castelo das Pedras” (Stones castle), owned by Lydia Assis Brasil there is a picturesque picture in which Assis Brazil plays to hit an apple on the head of Santos=Dumont just like William Tell.

One thing that few people know is that among Santos=Dumont deeds, he had presented Brazilian people with great gift – The Iguazu falls. The history of the Iguaçu National Park begins in 1916 when Alberto Santos=Dumont, the father of aviation in visiting the family Assis Brasil, got so impressed with the beauty of the falls that used his prestige to interceded with the President of the State of Paraná , Affonso Alves de Camargo, to expropriate it and made it public property. The area belonged to an Uruguayan named Jesus Val On July 28, the Decree No. 63, passed and “Foz do Iguazu” area has been declared a public utility with 1008 hectares.