Rating: 
Summary: Nice book, not really a biography
Review: "Wings of Madness" is a great book, entertaining and informative. But it is much less a biography of Santos-Dumont than an account of the development of his flying machines. While the author provides detailed descriptions of Santos-Dumont's attempts to conquer the air, a fair amount of the history of manned flight, and even digresses about the development and the creators of military weapons (an interesting analysis by the way), we learn little about this extraordinary man and his activities outside the aviation realm. The years before his arrival in Paris and those after he built his last airplane are condensed in only two chapters. The tale of Santos-Dumont's endeavors in Paris in the early 20th century is thrilling and admirably recounted by Paul Hoffman, but my thirst for learning more about Santos-Dumont's life was far from quenched.
Rating: 
Summary: Good But In Need Of A Little Editing
Review: * Paul Hoffman's WINGS OF MADNESS is a biography of Alberto
Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian who was one of the pioneers of
aviation. Although largely forgotten except to Brazilians
and aviation buffs in contrast to the Wright Brothers,
Santos-Dumont was an important figure in the development of
modern flight. He was born on 20 July 1873 into a wealthy family, his
father owning one of the largest coffee plantations in
Brazil. He grew up to a petite man, weighing
not much more than 100 pounds (45 kilos) and about
5 foot 5 inches (165 cm) tall, generally quiet, absorbed,
and solitary. In 1891, Santos-Dumont went to Paris, where he
would take up residence and conduct most of his flight
experiments. He first got into automobiles, which were
all the new rage at the time, then balloons, and then
finally began to work on a series of airships, what we
would call "blimps" these days, of increasing capability
that made him a celebrity in Paris society. Although he was skeptical of heavier-than-air machines
for a time, mostly because of the lack of availability
of adequate engines, competition from the US turned him
in that direction, and in 1906 he became the first
person in Europe to fly in an airplane. Unlike the
Wrights, he was never concerned about patenting his
work, and went to great lengths to give his ideas away. However, although he did work on improved aircraft for
the next several years, he was becoming increasingly eccentric and finally abandoned his work on aircraft.
He was appalled to see the airplane used as a weapon
during World War I. He returned to Brazil and became
increasingly reclusive. On 23 July 1932, during a
revolutionary conflict in Brazil, he heard an airplane
dropping bombs, and went up to his hotel room and
hanged himself. He was 59 years old. It is good that Mr. Hoffman has written a biography of
the underappreciated Santos-Dumont, and he appears to
have done his homework on the subject. He tells the
story carefully and thoroughly. However, WINGS OF
MADNESS suffers from the fact that it's about twice
as long as it needs to be. I usually will say this about biographies, and
immediately add a qualification that I understand that
a biographer needs to be thorough to write a salable
book and get some respect. I can't add that qualification
in this case, because WINGS OF MADNESS is not so much
overly thorough as overly digressive. Mr. Hoffman tends to go off on tangents that aren't
that relevant to the story at excessive length. For
example, after Santos-Dumont's death, his heart was
preserved in a jar, and Mr. Hoffman uses this somewhat
bizarre tale to spend over a page going on about other
famous people whose miscellaneous vital parts were
preserved. I think that this book didn't have an editor
who could come back to the author and politely ask:
"Is this trip really necessary?" Possibly Mr. Hoffman did this because the book would have
been very brief otherwise -- even with the digressions
it's not all that long. Santos-Dumont was not very
charismatic; he was solitary and quiet, and when he did
talk he had an unfortunately tendency to go off on insecure
boasting sessions that got worse as time went on. He
never did acknowledge that the Wright Brothers beat him
into the air. However, all that said, I find this a good book, worthwhile
for most aviation enthusiasts (though I am not sure a
more general reader would enjoy it), and I think Mr. Hoffman
deserves praise for preserving the memory of Alberto
Santos-Dumont.
Rating: 
Summary: "Wings of Madness" good review
Review: Alberto Santos-Dumont was a great man with good ideas. He met with the President of the USA in the white house when he was making Zeppelin. He was the creator of an Airplane that is heavier than air and a Wrist Watch which we still using it today. Like in the book it is saying that he flew a longer distance than the Wrights.
England asked Dumont and the Wrights for a long distance test flight, and the Wrights turned it down, because they were concerned about the airplane not being strong enough. It is sad that a great creator like Dumont doesn't receive the credit he deserves, but he receive critics from others. This is a great book in commemorating Santos Dumont for his ideas and his life.
Rating:
Summary: "Wings of Madness" good review
Review: Alberto Santos-Dumont was a great man with good ideas. He met with the President of the USA in the white house when he was making Zeppelin. He was the creator of an Airplane that is heavier than air and a Wrist Watch which we still using it today. Like in the book it is saying that he flew a longer distance than the Wrights.
England asked Dumont and the Wrights for a long distance test flight, and the Wrights turned it down, because they were concerned about the airplane not being strong enough. It is sad that a great creator like Dumont doesn't receive the credit he deserves, but he receive critics from others. This is a great book in commemorating Santos Dumont for his ideas and his life.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating invocation of a lost world
Review: Alberto Santos-Dumont, a Brazilian who emigrated to Paris at the age of 19, was perhaps the most celebrated man in France in the early 20th century. An effete eccentric with a genius for mechanical invention, Santos designed and regularly flew about Paris a series of airships. Most of these were powered, lighter-than-air vessels--hydrogen balloons to which he had attached a motor. But later in his career Santos also experimented with heavier-than-air flying machines--though not, to his great disappointment, before the Wright brothers had themselves achieved sustained flight. Among the aviator's airships was the world's first, and only, personal flying machine. Santos hopped around Paris in his "Baladeuse," or "Wanderer," alighting to order an aperitif at some sidewalk café, or dropping anchor at a club where, upon disembarking, he would hand the reins of his machine to a valet. Paul Hoffman's seamless account of Santos-Dumont's life and career follows the aviator from his childhood on his father's coffee plantation to his sad death in 1932. Always somewhat tormented--Santos craved the adoration his pioneering exploits won for him--he ended his days apparently guilt-ridden over the lethal use to which airplanes--which were to his mind his own invention--were being put. Hoffman's well-written book is fascinating for its invocation of a lost world. The author is to be applauded, too, for bringing the flamboyant, troubled Santos-Dumont once again to the attention of the public.
Rating: 
Summary: Incorrect, Misleading, Cover Photo
Review: First let me say that I have not read this book, but I do own it. I am writing this review because I don�t want anyone else to be mislead by the photo on the cover of the book. The picture on the cover of the book appears to be a photo of Alberto Santos-Dumont circling the Eiffel Tower in a airplane in 1901. Actually if you read the back flap you will find the following statement in small print: �Jacket photograph: A composite image of Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle, the world�s first sports plane, and the crowd that watched him circle the Eiffel Tower in a powered balloon in 1901.� The doctored picture along with the inside front flap blurb (not the back flap disclaimer that I quoted above) would lead a reader to believe that this picture predated the Wright Brothers flight in 1903! I think this is a blatant play by the publishers to try to sell more books. The correct photo showing Santos-Dumont circling the Eiffel Tower in a powered balloon is in the photo section after page 180.
Rating:
Summary: Incorrect, Misleading, Cover Photo
Review: First let me say that I have not read this book, but I do own it. I am writing this review because I don't want anyone else to be mislead by the photo on the cover of the book. The picture on the cover of the book appears to be a photo of Alberto Santos-Dumont circling the Eiffel Tower in a airplane in 1901. Actually if you read the back flap you will find the following statement in small print: 'Jacket photograph: A composite image of Santos-Dumont flying the Demoiselle, the world's first sports plane, and the crowd that watched him circle the Eiffel Tower in a powered balloon in 1901.' The doctored picture along with the inside front flap blurb (not the back flap disclaimer that I quoted above) would lead a reader to believe that this picture predated the Wright Brothers flight in 1903! I think this is a blatant play by the publishers to try to sell more books. The correct photo showing Santos-Dumont circling the Eiffel Tower in a powered balloon is in the photo section after page 180.
Rating:
Summary: Fin de siecle - start of something new
Review: I found this volume very entertaining. I have been in the aeronautics world for 50 years as a designer. As far as I could see the aeronautics was accurate, as were the people and places. I would have liked to see a little more attention to technical and personal detail, for example, size, weight and power of his aircraft and more about his life style - residence, servants, girl-boy-friends in that fascinating and gorgeous era. Glad to have the book, which is a worthy addition to my large aeronautica library.
Rating:
Summary: Fin de siecle - start of something new
Review: I found this volume very entertaining. I have been in the aeronautics world for 50 years as a designer. As far as I could see the aeronautics was accurate, as were the people and places. I would have liked to see a little more attention to technical and personal detail, for example, size, weight and power of his aircraft and more about his life style - residence, servants, girl-boy-friends in that fascinating and gorgeous era. Glad to have the book, which is a worthy addition to my large aeronautica library.
Rating:
Summary: Nice book, not really a biography
Review: I picked up this book because Simon Winchester, in the New York Times, called Wings of Madness "brilliant" and an "unforgettably good book." Fortunately this atmospheric book (it evokes Paris at the end of the 19th century) lived up to its billing. This is an incredible story that deserves to be widely known. The Brazilian-born aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont was a tremendous aerial showman and a great humanitarian. He flew the first working dirigible around the tip of the Eiffel Tower in 1901 in front of biggest gathering of human beings--scientists, royalty, peasants to whom he promised money if he was successful--that had ever come together before. He went on to shrink the size of his airship so that he became the only person in history to have an aerial car. He tied it to the lampost in front of his Parisian apartment and flew every night to fancy restaurants like Maxim's and handed a rope from the balloon to the doormen to hold. He was so famous that Parisians imitated his dress--his Panama hat and the peculiar upturned shirt collars he wore to make himself seem taller. He believed that flying machines would bring about world peace and was emotionally destroyed when he saw his beloved inventions commandeered to kill people in World War I. This moving story ends with his mysterious death in circumstances that I don't want to give away.
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