How the flight started - Costache Marius

How the flight started

The history of the Romanian Aeronautics Group’ guidelines and contributions raise the value of the technical and scientific thinking of the Romanian people in a major area of human civilization since this area was just getting started. The genius creator of the Romanians

was affirmed by the essential achievements in the science and art of aviation engineering flight, as they have been designing and building some types of missiles, including multistage, reagent or vertical flight, dragging through the propeller, wing aircraft design of the \"delta\" or

unconventional aircraft. World-renowned inventors Traian Vuia, Gregory Brişcu, Henri Coandă, George Arion, T Brumărescu, Hermann

Oberth, Dimitrescu, Nicolae Văideanu and many others have managed due to their inventive spirit to achieve outstanding

performance. Between the years 1906-1915, Romanian scientists have solved the

problem of flight mechanic (Traian Vuia), invented the jet plane (Henri Coanda), also designed and built the first aircraft with vertical take-off in the world which flew on 27 May 1911 (T Brumărescu) and Prof. Dr. Joseph Ramani realized two projects concerning the invisible plane.

Together with his father Daedalus, they built the

labyrinth in Crete, where King Minos closed the Minotaur. They were suspected that they might have contributed to the flight of Theseus, who had come to kill the Minotaur, after completion

of the work, they were imprisoned in the labyrinth of Minos. To escape, they made

some wings of feathers and wax and flew out of the maze.

Fascinated by the beauty of the heights, Icarus flew too high,

despite the advice of his father. Helios, envious that people fly, gave a strong heat, melting the

wax, and Icarus fell into the waters of the Aegean Sea, in the vicinity of the island, hitting the rocks and dying. Since then, that part of the sea and the island is

called after Icarus.

Hot air balloon inventors were French. The Montgolfier brothers in 1783 were able to raise from the ground up to an altitude of 1,000 meters, the first heavier than air balloon, they had previously built. In the same year, they repeated the experience using all sorts of domestic animals before they tried with humans. So at the end of the 18th century, they became the first people who flew with the

balloon. On board the vessel, the two Frenchmen, covered a distance of about 8 miles.

The Romanians and the balloons

Bucharest is proud to be one of the first capitals in the world over which an object made by human hand flew. On June 26,

1818 there were documents mentioning the launch on Dealul

Spirii of our first balloon called "Basica lui

Caragea", because he was at that time the

Prince in the Principality of Valahia. With a

diameter of about 8 m, it was made of canvas.

Traian Vuia was a Romanian inventor,

pioneer of world aviation. On March

18, 1906 he accomplished the first self-propelled flight (no catapults or other external

means which helped the aircrafts to fly) with a heavier than

air.

On 1 July 1902, he arrived in Paris, bringing in his luggage an original

project "aircraft-car", designed as a student, and the related form,

which were carried out over the past 12 months. In the winter of

1902\1903, he began the construction of the device in detail perfecting the original plans which had been worked the previous year in Lugoj. In spite of many financial problems, he exceeded them with the help of his mentor Coriolan. In

the autumn of 1904, he started building an engine and all his

personal inventions. In 1904 he got a patent for their invention in the

United Kingdom. The whole mechanical part is completed in

February 1905. The device is ready in December, after the engine is

mounted, and it was nicknamed the Bat, because of its shape. It had

provided for a total weight of 250 kg, an area for support of 14 m²

and a motor 20 HP. First experiments started în 1905, as a

car, with its wings removed, in order to gain experience in

handling him. On 18 March 1906 at Montesson,

near Paris, he went and flew for the first time. After an acceleration

over a distance of 50 meters, it was raised to a height of about a meter over a distance of 12 m, after which the propeller blades were turned off

and the plane landed.

Henri Marie Coandă was an academician and engineer, aviation pioneer, inventor, physicist, inventor

of the Jet engine and the discoverer of the effect that bears his name. He was the son of general Constantin

Coandă, Prime Minister of Romania in 1918.

Passionate about technical problems and especially of aviation technique, in 1905 Coandă builds a rocket-plane for Romanian army. With the support

of engineer Gustave Eiffel and scholar Paul Painlevé, which helped him to obtain the necessary permits, Henri

Coandă fulfilled his aerodynamic experiments and built his first airplane in the workshop of Joachim Caproni. It

was actually a jet aircraft without propeller, the conventional Coandă-1910. He presented it at the second

international aeronautic Salon in Paris in 1910.

Between 1911-1914 Henri Coandă worked as technical director of the aviation plant in Bristol, England and built an aircraft with higher performance and a propeller design. The next year he returned to France, where he built a very

appreciated device which in 1916, gained recognition as being the first sled-car powered by a Jet engine and having a more aerodynamic shape. In 1934, he

obtained a patent for the invention and also for the phenomenon discovered and called the Coanda Effect (diverting a stream of fluid that penetrates another

fluid). He noticed this phenomenon first in 1910 by diverting a jet of fluid flowing along a convex wall on the occasion of sampling with which his plane was

equipped with. This discovery led him to important research on applied sustainability of airplanes, to the development of sound attenuators, and more.

Aurel Vlaicu was one of the first Romanian and

world engineers, inventors and

aviation pioneers. In his honor, his home village Binținți is

today called after his name:

Aurel Vlaicu.

In the autumn of 1909 began the construction of his first

airplane, Vlaicu I at the Army Arsenal. The plane flied without

changes in June 1910 and in 1911 he built a second airplane, Vlaicu II with which he won five memorable Awards at the air

rally in Aspern, Austria in 1912. On September 13, 1913, during

an attempt to cross the Carpathian mountains with his Vlaicu II, the airplane crashed near Câmpina, apparently due to Vlaicu’s heart attack. The

following year his friends completed construction of

Vlaicu Silișteanu III, and with the assistance of the pilot

performs a short-haul. Weather authorities prohibited the

continuation of the tests and in the autumn of 1916, during the German occupation, the plane is sent to Berlin. He was last seen

in 1940.

In 1920 the Franco-Romanian air navigation established a new company which had the

first carrier in the world for passengers, cargo and mail. In 1923 the Franco-

Romanian air navigation Company was born on Baneasa airport and it had

workshops there. It was a precursor of Plane engine Repair (IRMA) in the 1960s and ' 70s and it is the present Company

ROMAERO. In the years 1947-1952, it built a new building for the airport. Their plane

had a propeller with three blades.

Currently, Aurel Vlaicu international airport is used by small aviation companies, especially low-cost companies such as Blue Air and Wizz

Air. Blue Air connects the airport with a number of international destinations, such as

Paris, Lyon, Madrid, Berlin, Maastricht, Verona, Frankfurt, Valencia, Barcelona,

Istanbul, Turin and Rome. Apart from the Blue Air, there are Sky Europe, which has flights from Bratislava, and My Air with flights from Milan, Venice and Naples. The link with the

city by public transport is with lines 783 and 131, or by taxi.