S.Dumont VERY early aviation photo

joegertler · 18 April 2006, 11:13 AM

While scanning dozens of photos of early race cars from the 1901-1904 French issues of "La Vie au Grand Air," I came across two pages of a photo report on the crash of Sanots-Dumont's Airship #5. Apparently his motor stopped and the airship crashed into the Hotel du Trocadero, after he had made two trips around the Eiffel Tower in ten minutes. As this original photo size is 8.5x11 inches, it came out pretty clear. There are another seven smaller photos of the salvage of the airship on the next page, which included three photos of him in his usual straw "boater" hat. and tie. (If that is what the hats were called in 1901.) This photo from the issue of 18 August 1901. Auto racing was in full bloom at the time, and bicycle racing and motor boat racing was still huge. "La Vie Aur Grand Air" was the then equivalent of "Sports Illustrated."
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Pat Daily · 18 April 2006, 07:03 PM

Interesting photo. While in Paris last summer, I went to the Paris Air Museum and they had a special display on Santos- Dumont. Here are some photos I took.

Pat Daily · 18 April 2006, 07:04 PM

another photo of the exhibit--note the gas blimp (?)

Pat Daily · 18 April 2006, 07:06 PM

another photo of his plane

Pat Daily · 18 April 2006, 07:09 PM

another of the exhibit. I wish I had photographed all the many photos, but was running out of disk space on my camera and needed to save some for the Fokker DVII and many others