Space agency post reignites centuries-old dispute between Brazil and the United States
A publication of the History Office of NASA it reignited a century-old debate and provoked a wave of criticism from Brazilians on social media. During the presentation of the brothers Orville And Wilbur Wright as pioneers of aviation last Wednesday 17 NASA faced users who claim for Brazil Santos Dumont the title of inventor of the airplane.
Reactions mocked how the Americans had managed to take off. “With a catapult, even a cow flies,” one profile wrote in the comments. Users recalled that Wright planes depended on rails and a weight mechanism, like a sort of catapult, to take off.
The controversy is not new. For more than a hundred years, Brazil and the United States have had different versions of the origin of the plane. While Americans maintain that the Wright brothers made the first flight in 1903, Brazilians say the feat belongs to Santos Dumont, who publicly tested his plane years later.
Researchers and experts often emphasize differences considered decisive in the criteria of the time. In 1906, in Paris, Santos Dumont’s 14-bis took off without any outside help, in front of hundreds of people and a technical commission from the Aeroclub de France convened in advance to follow the demonstration. The thefts attributed to the Wrights had no accredited witnesses and did not take place in public displays.
See comments:
The Wright brothers invented it here. The plane is what Brazil did pic.twitter.com/46oJFKm6zG
– Cléber Lourenço (@ocolunista_) December 21, 2025
– Tchê Guevara (@Gus_acab) December 18, 2025
The Wright Brothers said: pic.twitter.com/54VwHshfkE
— . (@descrls) December 19, 2025
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