Alberto Santos-Dumont

Santos-Dumont flew airships over Paris, once mooring one outside his own front door, and in 1901 rounded the Eiffel Tower to win the Deutsch prize. On 23 October 1906 his 14-bis rose from a field at Bagatelle before a crowd and official timekeepers — the first public flight of a heavier-than-air machine in Europe.

He refused to patent his designs, believing flight belonged to everyone. Appalled that aircraft were being used in war, he took his own life in 1932; he lies in Rio under a statue of Icarus.