Description

Traian Vuia was born on Romanian territory on August 17th, 1872 in Surducul Mic village (in present Traian Vuia village), in the Timis County.
He went to primary school in his village, and after that he graduated in 1892 the high-school in Lugoj.
In the same year, he joined the Polytechnic University of Budapest.
After one year, because of financial problems, he decided to continue his studies with the Law Faculty, being awarded the degree of Doctor of Juridical Sciences in 1901.

Pushed by his passion for achieving mechanical flight, he went to Paris in 1902, to study the construction of heavier-than-air aeroplanes.
He prescuted to Science Academics a project of his own invention, "Airplane-automobile ", on February 16, 1903.

By August 17, 1903 he had received the French patent for his airplane-automobile.
He designed and constructed, between 1903 and 1906, a monoplane with a steel tubular frame and rain-proof flax wings, stretched over a metallic frame and having a carbonic anhydride engine, a single propeller and a undercarriage on pneummatic wheels.

On the 18th of March 1906 at Montesson, Traian Vuia flew this monoplane, to mark the first flight in the world exclusively taken based only on the flying control instruments.
Still preoccupied with solving the mechanical flight problems, he designed and constructed, between 1918 and 1922, two prototypes of helicopters.