Traian Vuia
Traian Vuia | |
---|---|
Austro-Hungarian Empire | |
Died | 3 September 1950 | (aged 78)
Resting place | Bellu Cemetery, Bucharest 44°24′21″N 26°05′59″E / 44.40583°N 26.09972°E |
Nationality | Romanian[1] |
Occupation | Inventor |
Known for | Early flying machine |
Traian Vuia or Trajan Vuia (Romanian pronunciation: [traˈjan ˈvuja]; 17 August 1872 – 3 September 1950) was a Romanian inventor and aviation pioneer who designed, built, and tested the first tractor monoplane. He was the first to demonstrate that a flying machine could rise into the air by running on wheels on an ordinary road.[2] He is credited with a powered hop of 11 m (36 ft) made on 18 March, 1906, and he later claimed a powered hop of 24 m (79 ft).[3][4] Though unsuccessful in sustained flight, Vuia's invention influenced Louis Blériot in designing monoplanes.[5] Later, Vuia also designed helicopters.
A French citizen from 1918, Vuia led the Romanians (especially Transylvanians) of France in the Resistance during World War II. He returned to Romania just before his death in 1950.[6]
Education and early career
Vuia was born to Romanian parents—Simion Popescu, a priest, and his second wife, Ana Vuia—living in
From 1884, he attended the Roman Catholic high school in Lugoj and graduated in 1892.[7] He then enrolled in the School of Mechanics at the Polytechnic University of Budapest where he received his engineering diploma. He then joined the Faculty of Law in Budapest, Hungary, where he earned a PhD in law in May 1901 with the thesis "Military and Industry, State and Contract Regime."[8]
He returned to Lugoj, where he studied the problem of human flight and designed his first flying machine, which he called the "airplane-car". He attempted to build the machine, but due to financial constraints decided to go to Paris in July 1902, hoping to find someone interested in financing his project, possibly balloon enthusiasts. He met with considerable skepticism from people who believed that a heavier-than-air machine could not fly. He then visited Victor Tatin, the well-known theoretician and experimenter who had built an aircraft model which flew in 1879. Tatin was interested in the project, 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 16 February 1903, but 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."[9]
Undeterred, Vuia applied for a French patent on 15 May 1903, and obtained patent No. 332106 for his design.[10][11] He began to build his first flying machine in the winter of 1902–03. Overcoming more financial difficulties, he also started construction of an engine of his own design for which he was granted various patents, the first in 1904.[11][12]
Flying experiments
By December 1905, Vuia had finished construction of his first airplane, the "
Vuia chose a site in Montesson, near Paris, for testing. At first, he used the machine without the wings mounted so he could gather experience controlling it on the ground. The wings were put on in March and on 18 March 1906, it lifted off briefly. After accelerating for about 50 m (160 ft), the aircraft left the ground and travelled through the air at a height of about 1 m (3 ft 3 in) for a distance of about 12 m (39 ft), but then the engine cut out and it came down. Caught by the wind, it was blown against a tree and damaged.[6][16] On 19 August a longer hop of 24 m (79 ft) at a height of about 2.5 m (8 ft) was made, ending in a heavy landing which damaged the propeller.[17]
In August 1906, he modified the aircraft, reducing the
The French journal L'Aérophile emphasized that Vuia's machine had the capability to take off from a flat surface, without assistance such as an incline, rails, or catapult.[20] At the time Europe was aware of the efforts of the Wright brothers who on 17 December 1903, had flown their Wright Flyer from level ground using a dolly undercarriage running on a guide rail into a 30 km/h (20 mph) headwind, though few yet recognised the achievement. The Wrights had made sustained and controlled flights in a complete circuit by September 1904.[21]
In 1907, Vuia built the Vuia II, using an
Charles Dollfus, former curator of the Air Museum in Paris, wrote that aviation pioneer
Documentation
Vuia made his first powered hop on 18 March 1906, on a flat field at Montesson, near Paris, France. The flight took place in the presence of his mechanic and two close friends. The airplane, Vuia 1, lifted one meter off the ground and flew for 12 meters. Accounts of this test published at the time, and of his later airborne tests, until 19 August 1906, are based on letters he wrote to L'Aérophile, the official journal of the Aéro Club of France.[25] Vuia made the first known public demonstration of his airplane on 8 October 1906, when he became airborne for four meters, witnessed by Ernest Archdeacon and Édouard Surcouf.[18] Another journal of the period, Flight, credited him with a five-meter hop on 8 October 1906, as the earliest entry in a list of his tests shown in a table of "the performances which have been made by the most prominent aviators of the last few years."[26]
Later career
Between 1918 and 1921, Vuia built two experimental helicopters on the
He is buried at Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest, Romania.[28]
Legacy
Another invention by Vuia was a steam generator with internal combustion that generates very high pressure—more than 100 atm (10 MPa)—that is still used today in thermal power stations. Traian Vuia and one of his partners, Emmanuel Yvonneau, patented several types of gas generators.[8][29]
On 27 May 1946, Vuia was named an honorary member of the Romanian Academy.[30]
His birthplace, Bujoru, in Timiș County was renamed Traian Vuia after his death.
Gallery
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Vuia I
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Vuia I
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Vuia II
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Vuia II
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Vuia helicopter
See also
- History of aviation
- List of aviation pioneers
- Early flying machines
- Alberto Santos-Dumont
- Clement Ader
- Du Temple Monoplane
- Richard Pearse
- Gustave Whitehead
- John Joseph Montgomery
References
- ^ Vuia was born to ethnically Romanian parents in the Kingdom of Hungary in territory that became part of Romania.
- ^ Chanute, Octave (October 1907). "Pending European Experiments in Flying". The American Aeronaut and Aerostatist. 1 (1): 13. Archived from the original on 28 June 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
- ^ Mola, Roger A (August 2009), "The Birthplaces of Aviation. It didn't all happen at Kitty Hawk", Air & Space Magazine, archived from the original on 11 May 2014, retrieved 24 February 2014
- ^ Angelucci, E. and Matricardi, P.; "World Aircraft: Origins–World War 1", Sampson Low (1977).
- ^ Gibbs-Smith, Charles Harvard (1965). The world's first aeroplane flights (1903–1908) and earlier attempts to fly. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. p. 31.
- ^ a b Orna 1956, p. 366.
- ^ a b Barbu, Andrei (16 December 2019). "Traian Vuia, primul om din lume ce a conceput și zburat cu un aparat mai greu decât aerul: un aeroplan-automobil". Universul Argeșan (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
- ^ a b "Traia Vuia History", Early Aviators, archived from the original on 18 April 2012, retrieved 14 October 2010.
- ^ "Traian Vuia". Hargrave: The Pioneers. Centre for Telecommunications and Information Engineering, Monash University. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
- ^ Aéroplane automobile (French Patent), Espace net, FR332106, archived from the original on 26 July 2020, retrieved 18 March 2014.
- ^ a b "Traian Vuia – a Century of Aviation". Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
- ^ Romanian Aviation Pioneers Archived 24 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine Romanian Coins
- ^ "L'Aéroplane sur Roues de M, Vuia". l'Aérophile (in French): 54–5. February 1906. Archived from the original on 24 August 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2014..
- ^ Orna 1956, p. 365.
- '^ "Ten Years Ago", Flight, vol. VIII, no. 43, p. 908, 19 October 1916, archived from the original on 3 December 2013, retrieved 28 September 2010 – via Flightglobal,
excerpts from the
Auto, Flights precursor and sister journal. - ^ Romanian Academy Library. Archivedfrom the original on 10 March 2012. Retrieved 18 March 2012.
- ^ "L'Aéroplane à Moteur de M. Vuia". L'Aérophile (in French). September 1906. pp. 195–6. Archived from the original on 16 February 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- ^ a b "L'Aéroplane Vuia" [The Vuia aircraft], L'Aérophile (in French), vol. 14, pp. 242–43, October 1906, archived from the original on 16 February 2016, retrieved 18 June 2014
- ^ Gibbs-Smith, Charles Harvard (3 April 1959), "Hops and Flights", Flight, vol. 75, no. 2619, Iliffe & Sons, p. 469, archived from the original on 25 September 2019, retrieved 26 September 2010 – via flightglobal.com
- ^ "L'Aéroplane sur Roues de M. Vuia" [Mr Vuia's aircraft on wheels], L'Aérophile (in French), vol. 14, p. 53, February 1906, archived from the original on 24 August 2014, retrieved 19 June 2014.
- ^ Gibbs-Smith 1970, pp. 100–2.
- ^ "L'Aéroplane Vuia No.2". l'Aérophile (in French): 194. June 1907. Archived from the original on 16 February 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- ^ "Essais de L'Aéroplane Vuia No.2" [Trials of the Vuia No.2 aeroplane]. l'Aérophile (in French): 196. July 1907. Archived from the original on 16 February 2016. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- ^ Gibbs-Smith 1970, p. 144.
- ^ Orna 1956, p.365
- ^ "Progress of Mechanical Flight", Flight, p. 12, 2 January 1909, archived from the original on 18 March 2015, retrieved 28 September 2010
- ^ Patent (PDF), US, 1423636, archived (PDF) from the original on 1 February 2014, retrieved 30 December 2013.
- ISBN 978-2-7233-0529-7.
- ^ "Steam generator patent". Archived from the original on 10 June 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
- ^ Member list, Romanian Academy, archived from the original on 17 October 2013, retrieved 31 December 2013.
Bibliography
- Gibbs-Smith, Charles Harvard (1970). Aviation: an historical survey from its origins to the end of World War II. London: ISBN 9780112900139.
- Orna, Bernard (30 March 1956). "Modest Experimenter – Vuias Powered Flights: the Successes of a Little-known Pioneer". Flight. pp. 365–66.
External links
- Patents of Trajan Vuia on Espace net.
- Trajan Vuia on Early aviators.
- Aviation Timeline 1906, Century of flight.
- The Traian Vuia 1 on historicwings.com.