Aviation History – August 8, 1901. The inhabitants of the Quai de Passy district will witness, on August 8, 1901, a strange spectacle: indeed, an aeronaut will finish his flight suspended from a building, at the level of 5e stage. It was Alberto Santos-Dumont who, within the framework of his participation in the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize created in 1900, experienced this misadventure, piloting his dirigible n° 5 on this occasion. His attempt to win the trophy was therefore a failure…
To win it, you had to fly back and forth between the Aéro-Club de France park, which was then in Saint-Cloud, and the Eiffel Tower, go around the building and then get to the starting point. . The pilot managing to take up the challenge pocketing no less than 100,000 francs. Small precision, the course must be done in a limited time, the competitors having to do this raid in less than half an hour.
Alberto Santos-Dumont therefore fails on August 8, 1901, he will have no other choice but to stop his engine, there are ropes stuck at the level of the propeller!
