While Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont and his experimental dirigibles were celebrities above the streets of Paris more than 100 years ago, his feats have largely been forgotten outside his native country. Considered the father of aviation by Brazilians, Dumont's story is like many other Latin American aviation pioneers: all but forgotten outside their native country. Hagedorn, curator for Seattle's Museum of Flight, corrects those omissions with this lavish history of Latin American aviation, which also chronicles the many and varied advances in aviation contributed by Latin American pilots and engineers. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)