Publisher's Synopsis
Years before the invention of the modern airplane, Alberto Santos-Dumont dreamed of flying. As a boy, he was mesmerized by the machinery on his father's coffee plantation in Brazil and went on to study science and engineering in France. Soon his groundbreaking - and sometimes silly - inventions became the talk of Paris, especially after he set his sights on building an airship that could bring the world's people together. His small stature and big ideas earned him the nickname 'Le Petite Santos'. This is the story of Santos's successful race for the Deutsche Prize, and his many failures along the way.
