Aurel Vlaicu, inventive engineer and pioneer of Romanian and world aviation, was born on November 6/19, 1882, in Bințeţi, near Orăştie, Hunedoara County. In his honor, his hometown is called today Aurel Vlaicu.
He attended the Reformed College of Calvin High School in Orăştie, which since 1919 was called "Aurel Vlaicu High School", taking his baccalaureate in Sibiu in 1902. He continued his engineering studies at the University of Budapest and the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. , graduated as an engineer in 1907. After that, he worked as an engineer at the Opel plants in Rüsselsheim. In 1908 he returned to Bințiţi where he built a glider. With this, Aurel Vlaicu performed, to the astonishment, but also the pride of his countrymen, a number of flights in 1909. In the autumn of 1909 he moved to Bucharest, where, at the Army Arsenal, the construction of his first plane, Vlaicu I, began. , unique for the beginnings of world aviation, in June 1910. In 1911 he built a second plane, Vlaicu II. With this plane, Aurel Vlaicu, in 1912, won five memorable prizes (one first prize and four second prizes) at the air rally in Aspern, Austria. The competition, held between June 23 and 30, 1912, brought together 42 pilots from 7 countries, including Roland Gaross, the most famous pilot of the time. The Viennese newspaper Neue Freie Presse reported on Vlaicu's flights: "Wonderful and brave flights were performed by the Romanian Aurel Vlaicu, on an original airplane, built by the pilot himself, with two propellers, between which the aviator sits. Every time this car turned instead , as if coming over his head, the world rewarded the Romanian with stormy applause, acclaiming him with unimaginable enthusiasm. "
On September 13, 1913, during an attempt to cross the Carpathian Mountains by plane Vlaicu II, the ingenious and fearless Aurel Vlaicu collapsed near Câmpina and apparently lost his life due to a heart attack.
Vlaicu's passion for flying, which deserves the world's full attention, has transcended the boundaries of sacrifice, and through the 100 years since the flight of the Vlaicu I plane, kept alive in the tiny space of the postage stamp, it has transcended the boundaries of time!
Mihaela Tămăşdan