The A Vlaicu III was the world's first metal-built aircraft, designed and built in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

prior to World War I. It was the third powered aircraft designed by pioneering Romanian aviator

Aurel Vlaicu Aurel Vlaicu (; 19 November 1882 – 13 September 1913) was a Romanian engineer, inventor, airplane constructor and early pilot.Gheorghiu, 1960 Early years and education Aurel Vlaicu was born in the village of Binținți in Transylvania, Aust ...

Design and development

Engineer and inventor Aurel Vlaicu, who was among the first pilots in Romania, began the design of the third in his series of powered aircraft in the second half of 1911. The design was based on his earlier A Vlaicu II. A

nacelle A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...

underneath a

parasol wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

housed the pilot and a

Gnome Gamma The Gnome 7 Gamma was a French designed, seven-cylinder, air-cooled rotary aero engine. Powering several pre-World War I era aircraft types it produced 70 horsepower (52 kW) from its capacity of 12 litres (680 cubic inches ...

engine. Gears, chains and shafts drove two propellers, one in front of and one behind the wing; these turned in opposite directions to cancel each other's torque. Like Vlaicu's other designs, the A. Vlaicu III did not have

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

s. The pilot turned the aircraft by using the

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

, controlled by moving a

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

left or right; to control the

elevators An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They are ...

and make the aircraft go up and down, a steering wheel attached to the tiller was turned left or right. It was the world's first metal-built aircraft. At the time of Vlaicu's death in the crash of the A Vlaicu II in 1913, two A. Vlaicu IIIs were under construction for delivery to the

Marconi Company The Marconi Company was a British telecommunications and engineering company that did business under that name from 1963 to 1987. Its roots were in the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company founded by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 ...

. The British company was supposed to receive one for performance evaluation and experimentation with aerial radio, the other was supposed to remain in Romania. After Vlaicu's death, one of the two aircraft was completed by his friends

Giovanni Magnani Giovanni Magnani (''fl.'' 1913) was a Romanian-Italian entrepreneur who lived in Bucharest at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1911 he fabricated a set of propellers for '' A Vlaicu II'' airplane, thus becoming the first propeller manufactur ...

and Constantin Silisteanu; and was ready to fly in May 1914. A Vlaicu III 01

Operational history

Two test 'hops' covering a ground distance of 200–300 metres (220-330 yards) at a maximum altitude of about were made in 1914 by pilot Petre Macavei at

Cotroceni Cotroceni is a neighbourhood in western Bucharest, Romania located around the Cotroceni hill, in Bucharest's Sector 5. The nearest Metro stations are Eroilor, Academia Militară, and Politehnica. History The Hill of Cotroceni was once covered ...

airfield. Military authorities of the time refused permission to continue the tests. At a later date, pilots

Mircea Zorileanu Mircea is a Romanian masculine given name, a form of the South Slavic name Mirče (Мирче) that derives from the Slavic word ''mir'', meaning 'peace'. It may refer to: People Princes of Wallachia * Mircea I of Wallachia (1355–1418), ...

and

Gheorghe Negrescu Gheorghe is a Romanian given name and surname. It is a variant of George, also a name in Romanian but with soft Gs. It may refer to: Given name * Gheorghe Adamescu * Gheorghe Albu * Gheorghe Alexandrescu * Gheorghe Andriev * Gheorghe Apostol ...

obtained permission from the Romanian Minister of War to modify the controls of the aircraft and continue the experiments, but it never flew again. In 1916, during the German occupation of Bucharest, an A Vlaicu III was seized and shipped to Germany. It was last seen in 1942 at an aviation exhibition in Berlin by Romanian military officers. However, no mention of it is made in records of the Berlin exhibition.Gheorghiu, Constantin C. (1960). Aurel Vlaicu, un precursor al aviaţiei româneşti. Bucharest: Editura Tehnică.

Specifications

References

*Hundertmark, Michael; Steinle, Holger (1985). ''Phoenix aus der Asche - Die Deutsche Luftfahrt Sammlung Berlin''. Berlin: Silberstreif Verlag. {{ISBN, 978-3924091026. High-wing aircraft Aurel Vlaicu Romania in World War I Rotary-engined aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1914

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications

See also

References