Henry Coanda was born on June 7, 1886 in
Bucharest, Romania. He was a Romanian academician and engineer, aviation pioneer and the inventor of the modern jet aircraft.
Biography and Career :
Since childhood he was fascinated by "the miracle of the wind" as he later will remember.
He studied at "Petrache Poenaru" school in Bucharest and after that three years he studied at "Saint Sava" high-school. When he was 13 years old his father sent him at the Military School in Iasi. He graduated it in 1903 with the rank of sergeant major and he continues his studies at the School of Artillery, Military, and Naval Engineering in Bucharest.
Sent with an artillery regiment to Germany in 1904, he enrolled in the Tec
hnische Hochschule in Charlottenburg, Berlin. Being passionate by technique problems, specially by aircraft techniques, he build a missile-airplane for the Romanian Army.
Between 1907 and 1908 he studies in Belgium, at the Liege Montefiore technique institute. When he returns in Romania he decides to leave the military career. Celebrating his "freedom", he makes a long journey with his automobile (Isfahan- Teheran-Tibet). After that he leaves again in France at Paris where he joins the newly founded Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Ingenieurs en Construction Aeronautique. He graduates it one year later as head of the first class of aeronautical engineers
Supported by engineer Gustave Eiffel and by science man Paul Painleve, he built in his workshop the first "hermojet" powered aircraft (Coanda-1910). He presented it in 1910 at the International Aeronautic Salon in Paris.
Between 1911 and 1914 he worked as a director at the Aviation Factories in Bristol, England. There he built many propeller planes designed by him. In the following years he returns to
Paris where he built three different models of propeller airplane, including the Coanda-1916, with two propellers mounted close to the tail. He also built the first aerodynamic train. Another of his experiments used a wind tunnel with smoke and an aerodynamic balance to profile wings. This led to the discovery of the aerodynamic effect now known as the Coanda Effect (the Coanda Effect was patented in 1934).
He returns for good in Romania in 1969 as director of INCREST (Institute for Scientific and Technical Creation). He passed away in November 25, 1972 at the age of 86.
Quotes :
- "These airplanes we have today are no more than a perfection of a child's toy made of paper."
-" ... we should search for a completely different flying machine, based on other flying principles."
-"I imagine a future aircraft, which will take off vertically, fly as usual, and land vertically. This flying machine should have no moving parts. This idea came from the huge power of cyclones."
Awards :
- 1956: In New York, Coanda was honored as the inventor of the first jet airplane: one speaker lauded him as "the past, present and the future of aviation."
- 1965: At the Internai¾ional Automation Symposium in New York, Coanda received the Harry Diamond Laboratories Award.
- Award and Grand Gold Medal "Vielles Tiges".
- UNESCO Award for Scientific Research
- The Medal of French Aeronautics, Order of Merit, and Commander ring
Henri Coanda Lists
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