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Heavier-than-air flyer needs a wristwatch
Flight of Santos Dumont, Le Petit Journal, 25 November 1906
Mainstream aviation historians credit the Wright Brothers with the creation of the first successful heavier-than-air flying machine, able to take off under its own power and capable of sustained and controlled flight.
The Wrights used a launching rail for their 1903 flights and a launch catapult for their 1904 and 1905 machines, while the aircraft of Santos-Dumont and other Europeans had wheeled undercarriages. The Wright Brothers continued to use skids, which necessitated the use of a dolly running on a track for take-off. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, founded in France in 1905 to verify aviation records, stated among its rules that an aircraft should be able to take off under its own power in order to qualify for a record. Supporters of Santos-Dumont maintain that this means the 14-bis was, technically, the first successful fixed-wing aircraft.
The Wrights flew earlier with no official witness, and Santos-Dumont took off on wheels before the Wrights did, earning a variety of prizes and official records in France. Santos-Dumont's flights in the 14-bis contributed to the development of aviation by publicly demonstrating the feasibility of heavier-than-air flight, which encouraged other pioneers in Europe to begin or quicken the pace of their experiments.
When flying, Santos-Dumont needed to measure time intervals. The wristwatch had been invented centuries earlier, but Santos-Dumont played an important role in popularizing its use by men in the early 20th century. Before him they were generally worn only by women as jewelry, while men favored pocket watches
In 1904, while celebrating his winning of the Deutsch Prize at Maxim´s Restaurant in Paris, Santos-Dumont complained to his friend Louis Cartier about the difficulty of checking his pocket watch to time his performance during flight.
Santos-Dumont then asked Cartier to come up with an alternative that would allow him to keep both hands on the controls. Cartier went to work on the problem and the result was a watch with a leather band and a small buckle, to be worn on the wrist.
Santos-Dumont never took off again without his personal Cartier wristwatch, and he used it to check his personal record for a 220 m (730 ft) flight, achieved in 21 seconds aided by a large headwind, on 12 November 1906. The Santos-Dumont watch was officially displayed on 20 October 1979 at the Paris Air Museum next to the 1908 Demoiselle, the last aircraft that he built.
Alberto Santos-Dumont (20 July 1873 – 23 July 1932) was a Brazilian aviation pioneer and an inventor. The heir of a wealthy family of coffee producers, Santos Dumont dedicated himself to aeronautical study and experimentation in Paris, France, where he spent most of his adult life.