Ioan "Ionel" Nicolae Romanescu (14 April 1895 – 1 November 1918) or Jean Romanesco in French was a Romanian pilot and aviation pioneer, he built and flew the first glider in Romania in 1910.
Early life Born at Liège on 14 April 1895, he was the son of Nicolae P. Romanescu. When he was 5 years old, he returned to Craiova with his mother. In his early years, he studied at the "Javait" Institute, from the Boys' School no. 3 "Ion Heliade Rădulescu" and at the Carol I High School. He passionately loved science, especially mechanics from a young age. He was passionate about cars, motorcycles and airplanes. He bought books and magazines about the first flyers and dedicated his time to documenting, designing and building gliders and learning how to fly.
First aircraft projects He set up a small workshop in the attic of the house in which he built the tail and the wings of a biplane, from the rows of perches, a few pieces of wire and pieces of tin cut and drilled with primitive tools. He would abandon this first project and begin to build a monoplane named no. 2. Finally, after much toil and successive design changes, in 1910, at the age of 15, he completed the glider under the supervision of professor Henri Auguste, which he called no. 3. It was a biplane on skates with which, pulled with a rope by two schoolmates, he rose to a height of 70 cm on the Hippodrome from the Bibescu Park. In 1911, while on holiday, in the presence of his mother, brothers and friends, at the Movilă resort, which was later called Carmen Sylva and then Eforie Sud, he set off from the rocky shore of the beach with a new glider, a small and simple monoplane, which he could dismantle in 15 minutes and carry on his back. This was the first glider flight made on the Romanian shore of the Black Sea. In order to divert him from the dangerous passion of gliding, his parents sent him to the "Costache Negruzzi" Boarding High School in Iași. However, only a few months after arriving at the new school in April 1912, he took flight with a new biplane that he built there. While at his new school, he would set up the first glider club in the country, and also meet and befriend another aviation enthusiast, Horia Hulubei. He would design another glider, also a biplane, which he called "H. Rallet 5". This aircraft was used by gliding enthusiasts to make flights from Copou Hill, or from being towed by a car. He was 17 when his glider flights were officially recognized by the publication La Revue Aerienne. On 12 October 1912, the editorial staff of the Parisian magazine confirmed the receipt of the documentation sent by the second-year student Ioan Romanescu from the boarding school in Iași-Romania, calling him "the youngest glider builder". In 1914, Romanescu returned to the "Carol I" High School in Craiova, and from 1 October he enrolled in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Bucharest, Mathematics department. Arriving in the capital, he carefully researched the construction of the French airplanes of the Romanian armed forces. In 1915, with this new knowledge, he started working on a large biplane of the "Canard Voisin" type in the gymnasium of the Military School from Craiova. Through the innumerable modifications brought by him, it was going to be a novelty in the field of aviation. Construction of the airplane continued in 1916 and he planned to take the airplane to Bucharest for testing and patenting.
Military service during World War I Unfortunately for the plans of the young inventor, Romania entered the war on 27 August 1916. Ioan Romanescu enlisted voluntarily in the aviation corps even after the outbreak of war in 1914 and even though he had not yet reached the age to be called to the army. The war did not give him time to carry out aviation projects. Still, in his free time between patrol missions, he pursued the refinement of his inventions, seeking to develop a fast airplane for post-war times. On the Romanian front, he flew as an observer during the Battle of Turtucaia. However, he wanted to become a fighter pilot, so he was transferred to the flight school at Bârlad, then at Botoșani. Due to the lack of airplanes in the Romanian Air Corps, he could not participate in the summer campaign of 1917. He remained in the flight school for further training, which was later transferred to Odessa. While at Odessa, he would fly in a Nieuport fighter for the first time, fulfilling his dream of piloting an airplane. After the October Revolution, he was arrested on 29 January 1918, together with 37 other officers and Romanian pilots, being imprisoned on the battleship Ekaterina Velikaya. They would be released on 15 February, after negotiating with the bolsheviks. Romanescu acted as a translator between the representatives of the French Military Mission and the Russians. On departure, the French Mission agreed to take him, Radu Beller and Alexandru Danielescu, three Romanian aviators who enlisted in the Foreign Legion. Arriving at Murmansk, they signed a commitment to the Foreign Legion for the duration of the war. The pilots arrived in Le Havre, then traveled to Bordeaux and then to Paris. Romanescu was anxious to get to the front and fulfill his duty as a soldier of the Foreign Legion, however, it will not be until 6 June when he left Paris after obtaining his pilot license. While in Paris, he designed a "small, high-speed aircraft meant to bring practical services of any kind after the end of the war", which he called "La mouche" and submitted to the French Ministry of War for patenting. Before leaving, he left the plans of the aircraft to Louis Béchereau. The French engineer proposed that Romanescu should stay in Paris in order to build it, but Romanescu refused.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
