Aurel Vlaicu - Legacy

Legacy

During his short career Aurel Vlaicu built three original, arrow-shaped airplanes. All his planes had flight controls in front, two coaxial propellers, NACA-like ring around the engine, and tricycle-landing gear with independent suspension and brakes.

At the time of his death, a two-seated monoplane Vlaicu Nr. III, contracted by Marconi Company for experiments with aerial wireless radio, was only partially built. After Vlaicu’s death, the plane was completed by his friends Giovanni Magnani and Constantin Silişteanu, and several short experimental flights were made during 1914. Further tests were hindered by the unusual controls of the aeroplane which no other pilot was familiar with. In 1916, during the German occupation of Bucharest, Vlaicu III was seized and shipped to Germany. The airplane was last seen in a 1942 aviation exhibition in Berlin.

Vlaicu was posthumously elected to the Romanian Academy in 1948.

The second largest airport in Romania Aurel Vlaicu International Airport, and a YR-ASA registered TAROM Airbus A318-111 are named after him. A museum was established in his home village, now named Aurel Vlaicu. The 50 Romanian lei banknote has a portrait of Vlaicu on front, and on reverse a drawing of one of his airplanes and a cross-section through the Gnome rotary engine of the airplane.

In the video games, DotA and Dota 2, the hero Gyrocopter is named Aurel after Aurel Vlaicu.