The beginnings of the Romanian air force

As I mentioned before in this topic, in April 1910, at Chitila, an airport was built, modern for that time. Then a piloting school was improvised. Among the people to graduate as "first series" was Poly Vacas. Actually, they were self-teaching themselves, as the instructor had a very serious accident form the first day of the courses.
Then Poly Vacas, when he was only 18 years old, took part to the maneuvers in 1911. His airplane, built in Chitila, carried him in flight to Roman, where the maneuvers proceeded. This plane realized a record for that era: the sixth flight in the world over 400 km.
In 1912 Poly Vacas was using a "Maurice Farman", nicknamed "Taxi-cab", photographed in Băneasa and shown before in this topic.
In 1913 he volunteered as pilot for the campaign in Bulgaria, and was enlisted in the second aviation section, composed from the pilots and the airplanes of the Aerial League, which offered to the army 12 war airplanes, the last model, and eight excellent aviators.
During the campaign in Bulgaria, pilot Poly Vacas crossed several times over the Balkan Mountains.
His portrait in the right, in the attached photo, shows him as he looked in 1939, when he was 46 years old and he worked for L.A.R.E.S. - Liniile Aeriene Romane Exploatate de Stat (The Romanian Aerial Lines Managed by State).

Photography from: Realitatea Ilustrata (The Illustrated Reality), year XIII, no. 646, 6th of June, 1939

This post has been edited by Florin on November 10, 2005 12:16 am

I dont think the Wright airplane had mechanical help on the day of its historical flight. Certainly not the weight you mention:



edit, source: http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/archives/ffc...nesustains.html

This post has been edited by Imperialist on May 23, 2006 10:40 am

You are right, if we have to trust the books and the articles, and let trust them, because otherwise we'll end in not believing in anything.
You have to know that I learned about this after I posted my message you quote. I was in a library, during a lunch break, and I opened a book which simply was in my way. It was regarding the planes of the Wright brothers, and it seems they added the exterior mechanical system later. This means that flight in 1903 was performed without exterior help. I understood then why some people questioning this achievement insisted on the very strong winds of that area, not on the exterior mechanical help. According to them, it is recorded that the test day was very windy, and for the very first airplanes a strong wind could make a lot of difference.
(...And those who argue the priority are not Romanians, but Brazilians, who promote Santos Dumont as the first one, "forgeting" that Traian Vuia was before Santos Dumont with a half of year, and there are photos with Santos Dumont as witness right near Traian Vuia's plane, while the latter was preparing the apparatus for test flights.)

Returning to your answer, I should post something like that myself, but I didn't. I just felt sad for believing in something for such a long time, and then suddenly to discover that it was wrong.

This post has been edited by Florin on July 15, 2006 05:24 am

Interesting video posted on YouTube by "bansaraba":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyEvqPvQrCI&feature=related

And this one gives you a feeling about that era:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMhdksPFhCM&feature=related

This post has been edited by Florin on October 16, 2012 07:31 pm

Hehe, my project from 2 years ago resurfaced... Unfortunately no footage with Vlaicu was discovered in the meantime. Maybe films with the Aspen competition still exist, but no one knows that (perhaps) Vlaicu is in them?