Aurel Vlaicu
Aurel Vlaicu (born November 19, 1882 in Binținți , † September 13, 1913 in Băneşti) was a Romanian engineer, pilot, aircraft designer and aviation pioneer.
life and work
Aurel Vlaicu was born in Transylvania in 1882 in the Binținți municipality (Hunedoara district). He attended high school in Orăştie , made his Abitur in Sibiu and studied from 1902 at the Technical University of Budapest and later at the Technical University of Munich , where he received the engineering diploma in mechanical engineering in 1907. He then worked as an engineer at Opel in Rüsselsheim until early 1909 .
Vlaicu returned to Binținți in 1909 and first built a glider . He moved to Bucharest , where he built his first powered aircraft, Vlaicu No. I , which first flew in June 1910. On October 17, 1910, he performed a flight on the grounds of the Băneasa racecourse near Bucharest. The newly founded Royal Romanian Air Corps then bought the A Vlaicu I as the first military aircraft .
The improved version A Vlaicu II took off for the first time in April 1911 on the airfield in the Bucharest district of Cotroceni . Vlaicu won first prize at the International Flight Week from June 23 to 30, 1912 at Aspern Airfield in Austria and four other placements against international competition from seven countries. The Wiener Zeitung Neue Freie Presse reported on bonuses worth 4400 kroner .
On September 13, 1913, Aurel Vlaicu had an accident with the Vlaicu II near Câmpina while attempting to cross the Carpathian Mountains, probably as a result of a heart attack.
Posthumous honors
In 1919, his home village Binținți was renamed Aurel Vlaicu in his honor. In 1948 the Bucharest-Băneasa airport was named after Aurel Vlaicu and in the same year he was made a member (membri post-mortem) of the Romanian Academy . In 1977 the film "The keen aviator Vlaicu" was shot. In July 2005, a banknote with his likeness was issued.
Other facilities and locations that bear the name of the aviation pioneer are:
- Universitatea "Aurel Vlaicu" in Arad
- Piața Aurel Vlaicu, a place in Timișoara
- Piata Aurel Vlaicu, in Bucharest
- Piata Aurel Vlaicu, in Sibiu
- Monument to Aurel Vlaicu, on the site of Cimitirul Șerban Vodă in Bucharest
The national airline of Romania , TAROM , christened an Airbus A318 -111 on November 3, 2006 with the name Aurel Vlaicu .
Trivia
Between 2004 and 2008, a replica of the A Vlaicu II was built by the Fundația Aerospațială Română in Bucharest, which was shown and flown at various commemorative events. In 2009 this aircraft was awarded a bronze medal at the World Air Games (WAG) in Turin.
Web links
- Despre Aurel Vlaicu, la Aviatori.ro on aviatori.ro
- Aurel Vlaicu on Pagina Municipiului Orăștie
Individual evidence
- ^ ÖNB, ANNO, Neue Freie Presse, 1912-06-28, page 11 , accessed on April 9, 2019
- ^ ÖNB, ANNO, Neue Freie Presse, 1912-07-01, page 7
- ↑ Personalități românești ale științelor naturii și tehnicii, Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, București, 1982, p. 408.
- ^ Membri post-mortem on acad.ro
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Vlaicu, Aurel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Engineer, pioneer in aviation history |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 19, 1882 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Binținți |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 13, 1913 |
| Place of death | Câmpina |