Tatin was interested in the CAT5E Cable but doubted that Vuia had a suitable engine or that his aircraft would be stable. Vuia then presented his plan to the Académie des Sciences in Paris on February 16, 1903, and was rejected with the comment:
The problem of flight with a machine which weighs more than air can not be solved and it is only a dream.”
Undeterred, Vuia applied for a patent which was granted on August 17, 1903, and published on October 16, 1903. He began to build his first flying machine in the winter of 1902–1903. Overcoming more financial difficulties, he also started construction of an engine of his own design in autumn 1904 and received a patent for it that year in the United Kingdom.
By December 1905 Vuia has finished construction of his first aircraft, the “Traian Vuia, 1” a high-wing monoplane powered by a carbonic acid gas engine. The liquid carbon dioxide was vaporized in a serpollet boiler, this added heating of the working fluid gave the engine a duration of about three minutes. He chose a site in Montesson, near Paris for testing. At first, he used the machine only as a car, without the wings mounted, so he could gather experience driving it. On March 18, 1906, he made his first flight attempt. After accelerating about 50 meters, the plane left the soil and flew about one meter high for about 12 meters distance, then landed. The British aviation historian Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith described it as “the first man-carrying monoplane of basically modern configuration”, and “successful”.
Newspapers in France, the U.S. and the United Kingdom wrote about the man they believed was the first to fly in a heavier-than-air machine. Romanian enthusiasts emphasize that Vuia’s machine was able to take off from a flat surface by onboard means without outside assistance, such as an incline, rails, or catapult. Debate continues over the precise definition of “first” airplane (see the First flying machine for more discussion).
After his March 18 takeoff, Vuia made several more short flights in 1906 and 1907. In August 1906 he built a modified version of his flying machine, the “Vuia I bis.”
In 1907, his “Vuia II” airplane, with an Antoinette 25 hp (19 kW) internal combustion engine, was exhibited at the first Aeronautical Salon in Paris.
Aviation pioneer Alberto Santos Dumont, who made famous short flights in Paris in October and November 1906, recognized Vuia as a “forerunner” of his efforts, as described by Charles Dollfus, the curator of an aeronautical museum in Paris.
Between 1918 and 1921 Vuia built two experimental helicopters on the Juvissy and Issy-les-Moulineaux aerodromes, contributing to the development of vertical take-off.
Another invention by Vuia was a steam generator with internal combustion that could generate a very high pressure of more than 100 atm (10 MPa) that is still used today in thermal power stations.
On May 27, 1946, Vuia was named an Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy.
Aurel Vlaicu (Romanian pronunciation (November 19, 1882 – September 13, 1913) was a Romanian engineer, inventor, airplane constructor and early pilot.
Tags: CAT5E Cable
12