Traian Vuia (August 17, 1872 - September 3, 1950) was a Romanian inventor, designed and built the world's first self-propeling heavier-than-air aircraft.
Traian Vuia was born in the village Surducul Mic in the Timiş county of western Romania, near the border to Hungary, now called after his name.
After the graduation of high-school in Lugoj in 1892, he enrolled to the Polytechnic University of Budapest, School of Mechanics where he got his engineering diploma. He then joined the Faculty of Law in Budapest. In May, 1901 he was awarded the Ph.D. degree in Law by the Faculty of Law in Budapest with the thesis "Military and Industry, State and Contract regime.".
After graduation, he returned to Lugoj, where he continued studying the problem of human flight and he designed his first flying machine which he called the airplane-car and tried to build this machine, but due to financial constraints, decided to go to Paris, in July, 1902, where he thought he'll find someone interested in financing his project, starting with ballon enthusiasts, but many believed that a flying machine with a density greater than air's could not fly. He then went to Victor Tatin, a known theoretician and experimentator that built in 1879 an aeromodel.
Tatin was imediatly interested in Vuia's project, but also tried to persuade him that there is nothing he can do, since Vuia's project did not have a suitable engine and it will not be stable enough. But Vuia continued to trust his project, so he sent it to the Académie des Sciences of Paris on February 16, 1903, presenting the possibility of flying with a heavier-than-air mechanical machine and his procedure for taking off, but it was rejected for being an utopia, adding the comments:
The problem of flight with a machine which weights more than air can not be solved and it is a only a dream.
| Traian Vuia's flying machine (March 18, 1906) |
In spite of all these refusals, Vuia did not gave up and applied for a patent granted on August 17, 1903 and published on October 16, 1903. Vuia begun to build the flying machine in the winter of 1902-1903. He encountered many difficulties, most important being of financial nature, but he succeeded to surpass them. In the autumn of 1904, he began building the engine, also his own invention. In 1904, he got a patent for his invention in Great Britain.
This aircraft was called Traian Vuia 1 and it was a single-plane airplane with a high-wing., which was completely built in December 1905. He found a place in Montesson, near Paris, where he could test his airplane, the first experiments started in 1905, at first he used the machine only as a car, without the wings mounted on it, so he could gather experience in driving it, then on March 18, 1906 "Vuia I" was set to take off. He accelerated and after about 50 meters, the plane left the soil and flew at about one meter in height for about 12 meters then the propeller stopped and the aircraft landed.
Many newspapers in France, the US, Great Britain wrote about the first man to fly with a heavier-than-air machine with their own take off systems, propulsion units and landing gear. In August 1906, he built the "Vuia I bis" airplane and made several experiments.
In 1907, his "Vuia II" airplane, with an Antoinette 25 HP engine, was exhibited at the first Aeronautical Salon in Paris.
Between 1918 and 1921 he built two experimental helicopters on the Juvissy and Issy-les-Moulineaux aerodromes, contributing to the developement of vertical take-off.
Another great invention of his was a steam generator with internal combustion that could generate steam with very high pressure (more than 100 atm), that is still used today in all thermal power stations.
On May 27, 1946 he was named as a Member of Honor in the Romanian Academy.
