| Featured article
|
|
The 14-bis, also known as Oiseau de proie (French for "bird of prey"), was an early airplane designed and built by Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont. In November 12 1906, in Bagatelle, France, it performed what is widely credited as the first fully unassisted takeoff (meaning, with no help from a catapult) and flight by a heavier-than-air aircraft. It was also the first flight of any heavier-than-air craft in Europe (or outside of the United States, for that matter).
In June of 1905, Gabriel Voisin tested a glider by having it towed by a fast boat down the Seine. The glider's wing configuration was made up of Hargrave cells, a box-kite-like structure that allowed for great lift and structural strength with minimal weight. Voisin was towed into the air and flew for over 500 feet as the boat pulled him and his aircraft. In the aviation-crazy Paris of the early 1900s, this established the Hargrave cells as a configuration to be developed into heavier-than-air aircraft, not simply into kites. Santos Dumont lived in Paris at the time, and was by then one of the most active "aeronauts" in Europe, having developed a long series of dirigibles that displayed unparalleled agility, speed, endirance, and ease of control.
edit
|
| Featured picture
|
| edit
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. It is famous for its urban planning, daring architecture, and overpopulation. It is located in the Brazilian Federal District, created from the state of Goiás in the Mid-West region of the country.
|
| Did you know...
|
|
...that the most visited museum in Brazil is the Imperial Museum, located in the town of Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro?
...that the name Rio de Janeiro means "river of January" and is an allusion to the fact that the Portuguese first entered the Guanabara Bay, where the city now is, on January 1, 1501 and thought that it was a river?
...that in Brazil (and other nations) Santos Dumont, not the Wright brothers, is regarded as the inventor of the modern airplane?
...that in the 18th century Ouro Preto, in Minas Gerais was the largest city in all the American continent because of its diamond trade?
...that Brazil was the first country in the world to have fully electronic elections?
|
| Portal Info
|
| edit Founded: June 26, 2005
Founder: Redux
Maintainers: Redux, Zscout370
Members: Milena, Mateusc (more needed)
Languages: English, Portuguese
|
|
|