COLUMBA (1911)
Dumitru (Tache) Brumarescu named his plane Columba because it looked like a pigeon in flight. The machine had certain novel devices, for instance a supplementary horizontal airscrew in front of the fuselage, whose purpose it was to facilitate the take-off. Also on the forward side of the machine were the elevator, and the tractive propeller. Two air tanks were provided to pressure the aircraft’s floatability, when necessary. The design of this original combination of aircraft, helicopter and amphibian was patented at the Romanian Office of Inventions under No. 1,844/1909 and its scale model was on show at Liberty Park in Bucharest, where it aroused the
lively interest of specialists and newspapermen.
With the backing of the Romanian journalists’ trade union and of scientists such as Dr. C. I. Istrate and Dr. Mina Minovici, Brumărescu left for Paris where the model of his machine was on show at the International Aeronautical Salon, at the same time as Coanda’s aeroplane. After returning from Paris, where he attended the courses of a flying school, Brumărescu succeeded in building his machine. It is worth noting that the 50-HP Gnome engine of Brumarescu’s machine
was bought with money resulting from a subscription and a subsidy given by the Minister of Public Education, Professor Spiru llaret.
The flight test was carried out on the field of Cotroceni on May 27, 1911, the machine being piloted by its builder. After a run on the ground, the plane made several hops of about 2 m each, and then struck the soil and was damaged. Because of lack of funds and official support, Dumitru Brumarescu was unable to repair his machine and discontinued his aviation experiments.
