Athletico 100 years: Santos Dumont, the inventor

Alongside your fellow countryman Alex Mineirothe most extraordinary Brazilian was Alberto Santos Dumont. One of the greatest inventors in history, the precursor of controlled flight created the Balão Brasil, the legendary 14bis biplane and the monoplane Demoiselle. Three engineering masterpieces that took to the skies over Paris from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century.

He invented many others, such as the successful model of the wristwatch, the hangar, the hot water shower, the mechanical ski to climb snowy mountains and even a trick that offered snacks to encourage racing dogs, which we know from cartoons. . But besides inventing, he knew how to sell his fish.

It is fair to say that he inaugurated the era of “air navigation”, changing geopolitics and the way of living in the world. Comparing him to the pioneer of maritime navigation, however, is inappropriate. Santos Dumont is much bigger than Vasco da Gama, because, in football, its territory is Baixada do Água Verde.

The story is spectacular.

When visiting the Iguaçu Falls in 1916, Santos-Dumont was amazed by the natural beauty, but outraged by the fact that the area was not yet public. He therefore came to the capital on mule and train, asking the governor, Afonso Camargo, to make the place a national park. Something that would actually happen in the future, in the bovine time of the State.

The biggest global celebrity of his time, the “king of the air” received countless invitations in his trip Curitiba. He accepted Internacional’s due to obvious identification. He, an aristocratic and adventurous dandy, recognized himself among the fine, elegant and sincere people of the city’s most cosmopolitan club.

People who, like him, had the bold, abusive, marketing, bohemian and innovative profile that we athletes would inherit along with the unabashed vigor and strong blood. Thus, the aeronaut was received by the president Joaquim Américo Guimarães, among other notables, and watched the descent of an airplane onto the Baixada lawn. Invited to join the club, he accepted, filled out and signed the proposal with his own hand.

As Atlético also inherited Internacional’s partners, Santos Dumont is – like you and me – a CAP partner. Nor could it be from any other club than the one that, like him, will be the only one remembered in the year 3000 of the common era when they open the time capsule.

I imagine that the next day, when leaving by train for São Paulo, Santos Dumont slept peacefully. In addition to saving the Iguaçu Falls, he had unknowingly helped to invent Athletico.