WHERE DID HE GO? ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI - 1904

SANTOS-DUMONT NUMBER 7 The 1257 cubic meters section of Santos-Dumont No. 7 - the so-called RACER. The 40 m x 7m gasbag was sabotaged by knife cuts and did not compete at the St. Louis Meet in 1904. Powered by one Clement (Bayard) 60 h.p. motor with 4-57m propellors at both ends of the gondola, the airship was calculated to be capable of attaining a speed of 80.5 km/h. Although very streamlined, the air pressure on the balloon would have been enormous (4 times that of No. 6). The airship would have been very unstable and it was fortunate for Santos-Dumont that he never flew it at full speed. At the time a filling of gas would have cost 3ooo FF; and so, as he had no further use for it, No. 7 was scrapped. Collection of Jean-Pierre Lauwers

 

MISSOURI The Lousiana Purchase Exposition, 1904      By May 23, 1904, the officials and the public at large were looking to Alberto Santos-Dumont to provide the majority of the aerial thrills. To read more of the story, as transcribed from the book City of Flight by James J. Horgan, click on: St. Louis

 

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