By David Pântescu, VII B ”Varlaam Mitropolitul High School”, Iași
Did you know that modern airplanes we use to fly on vacation exist because of a Romanian? In 1910, at just 24 years old, Henri Coandă amazed everyone at an aviation show in Paris. He presented the «Coandă-1910«, the first airplane in the world that did not have a propeller, but used a jet engine instead. Back then, nobody had ever seen anything like it!
Henri Coandă was born in Bucharest in 1886. Since he was a kid, he was fascinated by the wind and mechanics, so he studied engineering in France. While others were just trying to make better propellers, he understood that the future belonged to much stronger engines that pushed air out of the back at high speed. Instead of using a regular propeller to pull the plane forward, Coandă designed a revolutionary system. His engine used a standard piston motor, but its job was to turn a giant internal fan called a compressor. This compressor sucked in huge amounts of air from the front, compressed it, and then pushed it out through two hot exhaust pipes at the back with incredible force. This created the thrust that moved the plane forward.
The story gets even more interesting during the first test. The plane accelerated so fast that it took off by itself. Since he was not a trained pilot, Coandă lost control and crashed, and the plane caught fire. He escaped safely, but he noticed something strange: the flames and hot gases stayed glued to the body of the airplane. This discovery is called the «Coandă Effect» today, and it is used on all modern aircraft to help them fly better. Even though the first flight ended in a crash, Henri Coandă proved to the whole world that flying without a propeller was possible and changed history forever.
Sources:
https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avion_cu_reac%C8%9Bie
https://leviathan.ro/primul-zbor-experimental-din-lume-al-unui-avion-cu-motor-cu-reactie/
https://www.itc-cluj.ro/capatana/valori/Portrete/coanda.htm
