Ioan Nicolae Romanescu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ioan Nicolae Romanescu | |
|---|---|
 Ioan N. Romanescu, in the cockpit of a Nieuport | |
| Born | 14 April 1895 Liège, Belgium |
| Died | 1 November 1918 (aged 23) Sissonne-Rethel region, France |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance |  Romania France |
| Service | Romanian Air Corps (1914-1917) Aéronautique Militaire (1918) |
| Years of service | 1914-1918 |
| Rank | Corporal |
| Unit | Escadrille Spa.12 (1 October - 1 November 1918) |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | Virtutea Militară (posthumously) Croix de Guerre (posthumously) |
Ioan "Ionel" Nicolae Romanescu (14 April 1895 – 1 November 1918) or Jean Romanesco in French was a Romanian pilot and aviation pioneer, he built and flew the first glider in Romania in 1910.[1][2]
First aircraft projects
Born at Liège on 14 April 1895, he was the son of Nicolae P. Romanescu. When he was 5 years old, he returned to Craiova with his mother. In his early years, he studied at the "Javait" Institute, from the Boys' School no. 3 "Ion Heliade Rădulescu" and at the Carol I High School. He passionately loved science, especially mechanics from a young age. He was passionate about cars, motorcycles and airplanes. He bought books and magazines about the first flyers and dedicated his time to documenting, designing and building gliders and learning how to fly.[1]
He set up a small workshop in the attic of the house in which he built the tail and the wings of a biplane, from the rows of perches, a few pieces of wire and pieces of tin cut and drilled with primitive tools. He would abandon this first project and begin to build a monoplane named no. 2. Finally, after much toil and successive design changes, in 1910, at the age of 15, he completed the glider under the supervision of professor Henri Auguste,[3] which he called no. 3. It was a biplane on skates with which, pulled with a rope by two schoolmates, he rose to a height of 70 cm on the Hippodrome from the Bibescu Park.[1]
In 1911, while on holiday, in the presence of his mother, brothers and friends, at the Movilă resort, which was later called Carmen Sylva and then Eforie Sud, he set off from the rocky shore of the beach with a new glider, a small and simple monoplane, which he could dismantle in 15 minutes and carry on his back. This was the first glider flight made on the Romanian shore of the Black Sea.[1]
In order to divert him from the dangerous passion of gliding, his parents sent him to the "Costache Negruzzi" Boarding High School in Iași. However, only a few months after arriving at the new school in April 1912, he took flight with a new biplane that he built there.[1] While at his new school, he would set up the first glider club in the country, and also meet and befriend another aviation enthusiast, Horia Hulubei. He would design another glider, also a biplane, which he called "H. Rallet 5". This aircraft was used by gliding enthusiasts to make flights from Copou Hill, or from being towed by a car.[4]
He was 17 when his glider flights were officially recognized by the publication La Revue Aerienne. On 12 October 1912, the editorial staff of the Parisian magazine confirmed the receipt of the documentation sent by the second-year student Ioan Romanescu from the boarding school in Iași-Romania, calling him "the youngest glider builder".[1][2]
In 1914, Romanescu returned to the "Carol I" High School in Craiova, and from 1 October he enrolled in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Bucharest, Mathematics department. Arriving in the capital, he carefully researched the construction of the French airplanes of the Romanian armed forces. In 1915, with this new knowledge, he started working on a large biplane of the "Canard Voisin" type in the gymnasium of the Military School from Craiova. Through the innumerable modifications brought by him, it was going to be a novelty in the field of aviation. Construction of the airplane continued in 1916 and he planned to take the airplane to Bucharest for testing and patenting.[1]
