page_title: Santos-Dumont number 6
section_title: Operational history
hierarchical_section_title: Santos-Dumont number 6 / Operational history
caption_attribution_description: English: Santo Dumont circles the Eiffel Tower on 13 July 1901 in Dirigible No. 5 Title: Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution Identifier: annualreportofbo1901smit (find matches) Year: 1846 (1840s) Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Board of Regents; United States National Museum. Report of the U. S. National Museum; Smithsonian Institution. Report of the Secretary Subjects: Smithsonian Institution; Smithsonian Institution. Archives; Discoveries in science Publisher: Washington&#160;: Smithsonian Institution Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: Smithsonian Report, 1901.—Lyle. Plate I Text Appearing After Image: The Air Ship "Santos Dumont V" circling the Eiffel Tower. "Bringing together man's two ways of getting into the air, the one from a century just closed, the other from a century just beginning." [The balloon was really no higher than the second platform; but the camera, pointed upward, made it appear to be near the top.] Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: The Santos-Dumont No. 6 was an airship designed and built by the Brazilian pioneer aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont. In 1901 it was used by him to win the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize for a flight from Parc Saint Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back within thirty minutes.
context_section_description: After some tethered trials on September 5 Santos Dumont made his first flight in the airship on September 6. After an hour and a half of trials at the Longchamps racecourse he flew the craft to meet friends at a nearby restaurant, but on attempting to return to his base at Chalais-Meudon a series of mishaps ended with the gondola being damaged. However it was soon repaired and a first attempt at the Deutsch de la Meurth prize was made on September 19, ending when the airship was blown against some trees during preliminary trials, resulting in the envelope being punctured. Another more successful flight was made on October 10, followed by an attempt on the prize the following day, which was frustrated by technical problems. Another successful trial flight followed on the 13th.
  Further flying was ruled out by the weather until October 19, when Santos-Dumont took off from Saint-Cloud at 2:42 pm. With the wind behind him, he reached the Eiffel Tower in nine minutes, but on the return journey but then suffered an engine failure. To restart the engine, he had to climb back over the gondola rail without a safety harness. The attempt was successful, and he reached the finish line after 29 minutes 30 seconds.  However, there was a short delay before his mooring line was secured, and at first the adjudicating committee refused him the prize, despite de la Meurthe, who was present, declaring himself satisfied. This caused a public outcry from the crowds watching the flight, as well as comment in the press. However a face-saving compromise was reached, and Santos-Dumont was awarded the prize. In a charitable gesture, he gave half the prize to his technicians and donated the other half to the poor of Paris.
  After winning the De la Meurthe prize Santos-Dumont took the airship to Monte Carlo in January 1902, making use of the newly built balloon shed belonging to the Prince of Monaco on the Boulevard de la Condamine.
  It was badly damaged on February 14, 1902 when superheating of the hydrogen caused the airship, already in a nose-up attitude, to pitch up even further, causing some of the wires supporting the gondola to break.  Some of these then began to get entangled with the propeller.  Santos-Dumont was forced to stop the motor and in order to prevent himself being blown out to sea, vented hydrogen to bring the airship down in the sea.
  The airship was salvaged and returned to Paris where it was repaired, and on Easter Monday 1902 it was placed on exhibition in the Concert Room in the Crystal Palace Park in south London, where it attracted 10,000 visitors on the first day it was shown. It remained on display throughout April and May, after which a series of exhibition flights were announced. During the static exhibition the envelope had been inflated with air, and when inflated with hydrogen it was found that the envelope had deteriorated and so the flights were cancelled.
caption: Often published as a photo of Santos-Dumont during the prize-winning flight, this is actually an earlier attempt using No.5
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