Aurel Vlaicu (1882-1913)

Aurel Vlaicu is born on the 19th of November 1882 in Bintinti outside Orastie city, Hunedoara County

In 1902, he finishes the high school in Orastie and takes the Baccalaureate at Sibiu. In 1907, he finishes his engineering studies at the Munchen University in Germany earning his engineer diploma.

In 1910, after working as an engineer at Opel in Russelheim he returns at Orastie and begins the construction of his first airplane "Vlaicu I". The airplane is extremely well built, stable and very maneuverable, and wins him several prizes at the international contest abroad in the company of other aviatic pioneers from that time, like Rolland Garos.

In 1912, at the international flight competition held in Aspern-Vienna, he is awarded the first Prize of the competition for target launching, and the second Prize for steady point landing. In contrast with other aeroplanes, his aircraft design solutions originality resided in the arrow-shaped body, the front placement of the depth rudder and of the low rudders, the variable elevation airplane wing adopting, during the flight, the form closest to the optimum, a tandem propeller, which, because of their rotation opposite to one another, had a mutual compensation of the torsion couple, the existence of a detachable undercarriage, and of a speed reduction unit between the aircraft engine and the propeller. Open field of view for the pilot, regardless of the course of flight, was characteristic of his own made aeroplanes.

In 1913, he finishes "Vlaicu III", the first all-metal aeroplane in the world. On the 13th of September, he dies at Campina, close to Ploiesti, during a flight with his own airplane "Vlaicu II" over the Carpathian Mountains.