On November 12, 1906, it seemed like the Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos Dumal had done

it again.

On that day he performed his second public demonstration of a new heavier than air flying

machine that he addubbed the 14B.

The lightweight airplane had been inspired by boxkites whose impressive lift had convinced

Santos that they were the key to a successful heavier than air flying machine.

Accordingly, the 14B looked like an assemblage of boxkites.

It was technically a biplane with an upper and lower wing, but each wing was essentially

three large boxkites laid side by side.

The plane also had a long nose fitted with another boxkite type thing at the far tip, just

to add a bit more lift at the front end.

The small engine was rear mounted and was equipped with a rear propeller that pushed

rather than pulled the machine.

The construction with the long nose was called a canard designed by aviators because it

looked like a duck, canard of course being the French word for duck.

But the always poetic Parisian press instead dubbed the 14B the bird of prey.

It had been five years since Santos had won the Deutsch Prize after circling the Eiffel

Tower in an airship and returning to a predetermined spot in under half an hour.

In those five years, the inventor had traveled to Britain and America, demonstrating his inventions

and tinkering with new designs.

His number nine airship or ballad is had been the most memorable of these designs thanks

to Dumont's whimsical airborne bar hopping.

...