page_title: Traian Vuia
section_title: Flying experiments
hierarchical_section_title: Traian Vuia / Flying experiments
caption_attribution_description: Traian Vuia's flying machine 17:17, 17 December 2003 w:User:Bogdangiusca 300×293 30 KB Traian Vuia - aircraft
context_page_description: Traian Vuia or Trajan Vuia 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. He is credited with a powered hop of 11 m made on March 18, 1906, and he later claimed a powered hop of 24 m. Though unsuccessful in sustained flight, Vuia's invention influenced Louis Blériot in designing monoplanes. Later, Vuia also designed helicopters.
  A French citizen from 1918, Vuia led the Romanians of France in the Resistance during World War II. He returned to Romania just before his death in 1950.
context_section_description: By December 1905 Vuia had finished construction of his first airplane, the "Vuia I".  This was a high-wing monoplane constructed entirely of steel tubing.  The basic framework consisted of a pair of triangular frames, the lower members forming the sides of the rectangular chassis which bore four pneumatic-tyred wheels, the front pair steerable. The wing was mounted on the apices of these frames and resembled those of Otto Lilienthal's gliders, with a number of curved steel tubes radiating outwards from centres at the apex of each of the side frames, braced by wires attached to a pair of kingposts, and covered in varnished linen.  Pitch control was achieved by varying the angle of attack of the wing.  A trapezoidal rudder was mounted behind and below the wing. It was powered by a carbonic acid gas engine driving a single tractor propeller. The 25 hp engine had to be adapted by Vuia himself as a suitable engine was not available.  Liquid carbon dioxide was vaporized in a Serpollet boiler and fed to a Serpollet engine. The fuel supply was enough for a running time of about five minutes at full power. The aircraft was constructed for Vuia by the Parisian engineering company of Hockenjos and Schmitt.
  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 March 18, 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 damaged against a tree. On August 9 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.
  In August 1906 he modified the aircraft, reducing the camber of the wing and adding an elevator. In this form it is sometimes called the Vuia I-bis.
  The British aviation historian Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith described this aircraft as "the first man-carrying monoplane of basically modern configuration", yet "unsuccessful" because it was incapable of sustained flight.
  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. At the time Europe was aware of the efforts of the Wright brothers who on December 17, 1903, had flown their Wright Flyer from level ground using a dolly undercarriage running on a guide rail, though few yet recognised the achievement. The Wrights had made sustained and controlled flights in a complete circuit by September 1904.
  The main characteristics of the Vuia I:
  Span : 8.70 m (28.7 ft)
  Length : 5.65 m (18.6 ft)
  Height : 2.90 m (9.5 ft)
  Lifting surface : 20 sq.m (217 sq.ft)
  Engine (using carbonic acid as fuel): 25 hp
  Propeller: 2-bladed, 2.2 m (7 ft 2 in) diameter, designed by Victor Tatin.
  Weight: 241 kg (531 lb) including fuel and pilot
  In 1907 Vuia built the Vuia II, using an Antoinette 25 horsepower (19 kilowatts) internal combustion engine.  This aircraft had the same basic configuration as the Vuia I-bis, but was both smaller and lighter, with a total weight (including pilot) of 210 kg (460 lb) and a wingspan of 7.9 metres (26 ft). Vuia succeeded in making a brief powered hop on July 5, travelling 20 m (66 ft), but damaging the aircraft and suffering slight injuries on landing. No further attempts were made to fly the aircraft.
  Charles Dollfus, former curator of the Air Museum in Paris, wrote that aviation pioneer Alberto Santos Dumont's use of wheels on his aircraft was influenced by Dumont's having seen Vuia's flight attempts.
caption: Traian Vuia in his Vuia I flying machine in 1906
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