From May 1916, in the midst of the First World War, Santos Dumont was in Brazil and hardly flew anymore. In fact, his health changed drastically through the combination of overwork, a nervous breakdown and the onset of an irreversible disease, probably multiple sclerosis.
He traveled to Foz do Iguaçu to see the waterfalls, Paraná and São Paulo, before arriving in Rio de Janeiro, where he built and donated to the Brazilian Aeroclub a hangar on Saudade beach (today Vermelha beach in Urca), with the aim of serving hydroaviation. In fact, it was in this type of aircraft that he flew the only time on Brazilian soil in early 1917.
Do you know where this = comes from? To show his deep attachment to France, where he lived for many years, he wrote his double name, in the Portuguese or Brazilian style (first the mother's name then the father's), not with a single hyphen, but with a double sign to indicate that he considered these two countries as his two homelands on an equal footing.
From that year of 1916 and the Great War, I have seen very few autographed documents by Santos Dumont, this is one of them. Furthermore, this signature is one of the most unusual with this “a” of Alberto and the = between Santos and Dumont.
