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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: 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.
Debra Hamel -- book-blog reviews
Author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece
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: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The race for powered flight - a great topic!
Review: Paul Hoffman has given us a biography of a man who seems to be relatively unknown here in the United States, although he is very well known in his native Brazil - Alberto Santos-Dumont. I purchased this book because I had been exposed to Santos-Dumont while listening to James Tobin's To Conquer the Air book, and I wanted to understand more about this uncommon man. Santos-Dumont was an innovator, and experimented primarily with lighter-than-air flying craft (such as attaching a motor to a hydrogen filled balloon). He eventually moved into heavier than air flying craft by inventing airplanes in the same genre as the Wright Brothers. I found the book to be fast-paced and well-written. However, I had two minor concerns with the book - first, there was precious little introduction to some people that were important in the development of powered flight (i.e. Octave Chanute or Otto Lilienthal), despite the fact that they were mentioned numerous times during the book. The second concern I had was that one chapter seemed to have nothing more than a tangential connection to Santos-Dumont - a chapter devoted primarily to the use of aircraft in World War I. Despite these two minor shortcomings, I highly recommend the book to all, since it truly allows us to explore a man that many of us know virtually nothing about, and his important work leading to powered flight.
Rating:
Summary: A charming but surface picture of a man and an era
Review: The author is an award-winning science and technology writer and editor, and his subject is one of the greatest pioneers of the dawn of controlled flight. Alberto Santos-Dumont was one of the great celebrities of turn-of-the-century Europe, but he is now little known outside of his native Brazil. Mr Hoffman seeks to remedy that obscurity. He describes Santos-Dumont's ancestral and social background, outlines his early interest and development of powered dirigible flight, discusses his early heavier-than-air flights (Europe's first), and then describes Santos-Dumont's tragic later years. Santos-Dumont appears to have been a brilliant but eccentric gentleman who rarely did much follow-up work on his innovations, but who then became depressed when aviation deviated from his early visions.
The book is well-written and his description of this aviation pioneer is a valuable addition to this centenary of powered and controlled heavier-than-air flight. Mr. Hoffman introduces us to many aspects of early flight (including the bureaucratic and childish in-fighting among organizations which gave out the first aviation prizes) and he paints a colorful picture of life a century ago. The book appears well-researched and well-documented (although it relies heavily on newspaper accounts, second-hand information, and hyperbole) although it does not break any ground in biographical writing. Still, anyone interested in an account of the early years of powered flight, or in life in pre-WWI European society, will probably find this book a very pleasant and charming read.
Rating:
Summary: Santos Dumont a Brazilian Indiana Jones
Review: The beauty of this book is that reading it, you will feel going back in time, participating in the life and adventures of Mr. Santos Dumont. The author did a very good work in presenting not only history, but recreating the personality of Alberto Santos Dumont, a man that is totally focused on his inventions. As I read the book I found many reasons to think that Mr. Steven Spielberg would have material for a very good film....Santos Dumont was quite a man, great imagination, and a truly courageous person.
Hoffman descriptions of the way inventors in the end of the XIX century risked their lives, to develop and use the new technologies of their time, provides a good framework to understand Santos Dumont behavior, risking his life on many experiments for the good of mankind. My perspective as to where Santos Dumont should be placed in aviation history differs from most Brazilians. The airplane was the product of several inventions done by different people, each one contributing with a piece of the puzzle. There is room for the accomplishments of many inovators, like Otto Lillienthal, the Wright Brothers, Alberto Santos Dumont, Glenn Curtiss... and many others. I think Hoffman gives a balanced view of aviation history and Santos Dumont accomplishments. The book is worth reading and you will enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: rkrb is crazy!!!!!!
Review: This is an excellent book. First of all, I would probably recommend that "rkrb" read the book again. Santos Dumont is truly the "Father of Aviation", the main purpose of his discoveries was to provide a different way of transportation. Santos Dumont was focused on the advance of transportation to humans, and not to make money, he did not care about patente or anything like that. And Second, he did not kill himself after seen a airplane throwing bombs, there was never a bombing in Brazil. Santos Dumonts died due to health problems, and not because of mental problems. Santos Dumonts was a great man, and not only to Brazilians, but to most of europeans, who just like Brazilians do not even know the wright brothers. Over all, the book is fantastic.
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