Comenius project activity

1. Liceul Tehnologic de Servicii „Sfantul Apostol Andrei”
Ploiesti - Romania
Comenius MultiComenius Multilatelateral Pral Partnershipartnership
2012 – 20142012 – 2014
Flying from Manole to Vlaicu’sFlying from Manole to Vlaicu’s
plane and Prunariu’s rocketplane and Prunariu’s rocket

3. 
 This is a PPT material on the history of Romanian
aviation made by our school students, who were
delighted to take part in this Comenius project due to
the intellectual benefits and skills developed.
Short history of Romanian
aviation

4.  The Romanian orally-transmitted ballad says the story of the
master mason Manole who was imprisoned by the king on the
rooftop of the cathedral he had built, after he had said that he
was able to build a more beautiful one.
 In his attempt to save himself, he fashioned wooden wings
and tried to fly off the roof, but he just fell to the ground and
died. A spring of clear water has appeared to mark the spot
where Manole fell. The well is still in front of the cathedral.
 Manole was the first Romanian who tried to fly, inventing a
wooden device and pushing himself beyond the human limits.
 Other Romanian master masons had the same faith, but they all
died because their wooden wings couldn’t help them fly.
Manole’s legend
(16th
century)

5.  1765 – The French newspaper La Republique wrote about
the Romanian Nestor Kostic from Deva, Transylvania who
built a glider and flew it from the highest hill.
 1818 – the first hot air balloon was launched in Bucharest
 1884 – Ion Stoica from Transylvania invented a flying
machine with folded wings, which managed to fly.
 1893 – Mihail Braneanu designed the prototype of an
aircraft which he couldn’t build due to financial issues,
but his attempts convinced the authorities to establish an
institution for flight in Romania.
First Romanian attempts to fly I

6.  Ion Romanescu – built a glider and flew it in
Craiova in 1910, then he sent photos and the
design of the glider to the International
Aeronautics Federation from Paris which named
him “the youngest pilot in the world”.
 Rodrig Goliescu – in 1909 built a beetle plane
and then an airplane in France which flew 50 m.
 Stefan Marculescu – was an engineer who
designed in 1914 a completely original plane and
his technical solutions are used even today.
First Romanian attempts to fly II

7.  “Few nations in the world can pride themselves for
having contributed to the progress of aviation as the
Romanian nation has done.”
 Henri Coanda
 Romanian engineer and inventor

8.  At the beginning of the 20th
century, Romania was among the
few nations in the world who brought essential contributions
to aviation and flying because there were people who
dedicated their life and work to fulfilling the human desire to
fly and developing aviation.
 There were Romanian engineers, inventors, pilots who
designed, invented essential devices, built planes and piloted
them in the dawn of aviation history, at the same time with
the world-renowned American and French inventors.
Romanian contribution to aviation
history

9. Traian Vuia was
a Romanian inventor and
pioneer of aviation who
designed, built and tested
the first monoplane in
Europe which actually
flew without any
exterior help, only with
its own power.
Traian Vuia
1872 – 1950
His monoplane traveled about 12 m (39 feet) on March 18,
1906, near Paris and his best distance was 24 m (79 ft). Vuia's
invention influenced Louis Blériot in designing monoplanes.
Between 1918 and 1921 Vuia built two experimental
helicopters.

10. 
Aurel Vlaicu was a Romanian engineer, inventor, airplane
constructor and early pilot. During his short career (1909 -
1913), Vlaicu designed and built three airplanes on his own
and the first flew in 1910. His aircrafts, Vlaicu 1 and Vlaicu
2 had amazing performances which exceeded in quality
those of Bleriot’s and were internationally recognized in
1913 at the air show from Aspern, Wien where Aurel Vlaicu
and Roland Garros got the same first prize. Aurel Vlaicu
died on September 13, 1913 near Câmpina, in his attempt to
be the first to fly across the Carpathian Mountains.
Aurel Vlaicu
1882 - 1913

11. Romanian inventor, Aerodynamics pioneer and builder of an
experimental aircraft, the Coandă-1910, he was an engineer who
successfully developed for the first time in the world the jet
engine technology in 1910 which is used nowadays to the plane
construction. In 1911 he was appointed the director of the Bristol
plane factories, in the UK and he built planes for the French
government during the First World War.
He invented a great number of devices and discovered the Coandă
effect of fluid dynamics for which he was granted a French patent
in 1934 being a great discovery for aviation.
In 1930 he designed a disc-shaped aircraft called Aerodina
Lenticulara, a "flying saucer“ which hasn’t been built yet.
He is the holder of over 250 invention patents.
Henri Coanda
1886 - 1972

12. 
Dumitru Brumarescu
(1872-1937)
 He was a very active
Romanian inventor who
built the first airplane
with vertical take-off; it
was exhibited in 1910 in
Paris along with Coanda’s
jet plane.

13. 
Grigore Briscu
(1884-1965)
 He was the first engineer
who invented the technical
devices of helicopters:
horizontal, vertical and
lateral movement and
fixed-point landing. His
automatic deviation
device is still used in
helicopter systems.

14. 
Anastase Dragomir
(1896-1966)
 He was a distinguished
Romanian inventor, most
famous for his "catapultable
cockpit" patent (with Tănase
Dobrescu) as an early form
of ejection seat, although it
was preceded by Everard
Calthrop's 1916 compressed
air ejection seat.

15. 
Smaranda Braiescu
(1897-1948)
 She was the first woman -
pilot, the first patented
woman paratrooper in
Romania, European
champion in skydiving (1931)
and World Champion (1932),
with a record of 7.233 m in
Sacramento, USA. She was
one of the few instructors
Romania had in military
skydiving.

16.  Hermann Oberth (1894 - 1989), at 18 years old, wrote the
fundamental equation of the rocket flight and designed the
first rocket. He worked for European governments and
developed the rocket construction, inventing devices and
patenting several techniques and inventions.
 Elie Carafoli (1901 - 1983) – was the greatest specialist in
Mechanics of Fluids and spacecraft constructions, the president
of the International Federation of Astronautics when Apollo 11
touched the Moon and worked in Romanian factories
 George Constantinescu (1881 – 1965) introduces a new science
called sonicity which he developed in the UK where the British
government supported his work and inventions.
 Tens of other talented engineers have been working in Romanian
aviation factories.
Other Romanian
contributions
to aviation

18.  Although during communist era the Romanian
aviation and industry were systematically oppressed
by the Russian leaders in their attempt to destroy
them (because they was considered a fierce rival), the
Romanian engineers, inventors, workers and pilots
from the aviation industry stood against the
oppression and continued their work.
Communist era

19. 
ROMBAC 1-11 is the first jet airliner built in Romania by
Enterprise Aircraft Bucharest (I.A.R.), the current
ROMAERO Baneasa.
The airplane ROMBAC 1-11 (YR-BRE) had its inaugural
flight with passengers on 28 January 1983, on the route
Bucharest-Timisoara and its first external flight was made
on March 23, 1983 on the route Bucharest-London.
Before 1989, I.A.R. Bucharest completely built 9 flying
devices of this type.
Romanian aircraft production
ROMBAC 1-11 YRE-BRE

20.  IAR - was the first plane factory opened in Brasov in
1927 and till it was closed by the communist leaders
in 1959, the engineers built here numerous planes
before, during and after the second World War.
 ICAR – the second plane factory was opened in
Bucharest in 1932 and in 1951 it was transformed in
another type of factory by the communists at the
Moscow’s orders.
 In these 2 factories many planes were designed and
built and the Romanian plane industry was well-
renowned all over Europe.
Romanian plane factories I

21.  In 1968, Ceausescu declares the independence of aviation
from the Moscow’s communism and re-opens the plane
factory ICA in Brasov, which gets back its former name
IAR after the Romanian revolution in 1989. There are
important planes and helicopters built in this factory.
 Aerostar Bacau is another plane factory from Romania
where in 1974 there was built the first Romanian subsonic
jet plane.
 Avioane Craiova is another Romanian plane factory which
was open 30 years ago and built several subsonic planes.
 These factories are still working today building aircrafts.
Romanian plane factories II

22. ROMAERO BANEASA is an aerospace company opened in
1991 near Bucharest that integrates two major activities: aero-
structure manufacturing and maintenance and repair for civil
and military transport aircrafts. It is the largest company in the
Romanian Aerospace Industry with 90 years of tradition in this
field and it is located near the Baneasa and Coanda Airports.
ROMAERO BANEASA

23. 
Our students visiting
ROMAERO plane factory

25. 
Dumitru Prunariu
(born September 27, 1952)
Dumitru Prunariu was enrolled in
the Romanian Air Force Officers Training
School in 1977 and he became the only
Romanian and the 103rd human being who
flew in the Outer Space.
He was selected for spaceflight training in 1978
as a part of the Intercosmos Program and he performed a joint
space flight with the Russian cosmonaut Leonid Popov in
May 1981, when they completed an eight-day space mission
on board of Soyuz 40 and in the Salyut 6 space laboratory,
where they performed scientific experiments in the areas
of astrophysics, space radiation, space technology, space
medicine and biology.

26.  ARCA is an NGO that promotes aerospace projects as well as
other space-related activities. Its main objective is the
exploration and colonization of space and it builds and
launches the most cost effective space vehicles. ARCA has
gained an experience unique in the world using the lowest
budgets compared to their space achievements.
ARCA
Romanian Cosmonautics and Aeronautics Association

27.  ARCA has created a family of orbital rockets and a suborbital
plane, using cheap, safe and accessible technologies based on
the Executor engine series, first having a thrust to weight ratio
of 110, being the third in the world for this criteria, and second
being the cheapest first stage engine ever created.
ARCA
Romanian Cosmonautics and Aeronautics Association

28.  The future starts now… the greatest adventure… of our
history… higher… faster… further… we write history together.
ARCA
www.arcaspace.com
Romanian Cosmonautics and Aeronautics Association

29.  He was one of the most experienced pilots in the Romanian
aviation and after a career of piloting, at his retirement, he
volunteered to fly in humanitarian actions, such as the
transportation of doctors to harvest organs for transplants. On 20
January 2014, being in such a mission with 5 doctors on board,
due to extreme weather conditions, he forced a landing in a forest
in the Carpathian mountains. His experience helped him to save
the lives of passengers during the crush. Unfortunately he and
another doctor lost their lives while waiting to be rescued from
the cold weather. The help arrived too late for them, after 6 hours
from the impact. He is considered to be a hero for saving the lives
of the doctors in the forced landing.
Adrian Iovan
(1958-2014)

30. 
The modern history of Romanian Aviation starts with
Traian Vuia, Aurel Vlaicu and continues with Henri
Coanda, but the Romanian contributions in the world
of aviation have also other names of great inventors,
scientists, engineers, aircraft constructors and pilots that
can stay with pride in the aviation hall of fame along
with inventors from the other countries of the world.
AT THE END...

31. 
 Teachers:
 ANDREI SORINA MONICA
 JIGAILA MARILENA
 and students from our school
Thank you for watching!