This article analyzes the aeronautical work of Júlio Cézar Ribeiro de Souza, an inventor born in the state of Para, famous in Brazil during the 1880s. Ribeiro de Souza created an air navigation system widely discussed at the Brazilian Polytechnic Institute, which did not reach a conclusion on the invention functionality, at that time. Some authors tried assigning to Souza the invention of the dirigible -notably Fernando Medina do Amaral (1926-2001) and Luis Carlos Bassalo Crispino -a merit that belongs to Alberto Santos Dumont. However, using basic aerodynamic knowledge, this study demonstrates that the Júlio Cézar System, if implemented, would have proved utterly ineffective.
Júlio Cézar Ribeiro de Souza; aeronautics; dirigible balloons; Alberto Santos Dumont
