Lieutenant Rodrig Goliescu (1882 - 1942) built by his original plans the model of "avioplan", the first airplane with a tubular fuselage. The model, with a length of 1.2 m was successfully tested in 1909, having a take off angle of 30 degrees! The originality of this aircraft was the shape of the fuselage, designed for minimum drag and acting as a tube fan, similar to the way the modern vertical take off aircraft and helicopters are designed. This shape reduced drag and increased the efficiency of the propeller. Helped by the Minister of Education, Spiru Haret, who also helped Aurel Vlaicu, in 1909 he went to France to acquire an engine for his aircraft. In Paris he sent a survey "Laws of air dynamics" to the French Academy, study that was published in "La France automobile et aйrienne" magazine, on 15 May 1909. Goliescu patented his invention in France (patent no. 402329). In the same year he learned to fly and he built an updated version of his aircraft, this time in full size. The aircraft had a half cylinder fuselage, but still the air from the propeller flowed through as in the first model. He flies with his aircraft for the first time, in November 1909, on Juvissy airfield, near Paris, and he reaches an altitude of about 50 m. It was for the first time to fly an aircraft with a tubed propeller. After his flights, only in 1932, the Italian engineer Stipa will build an aircraft with a "barrel fuselage", but the concept will reach its dedication after the Second World War, being successfully implemented in helicopters like SA-365 Dauphin, RAH-66 Comanche or the new X-35.
Permission to reprint this article and the two photographs was arranged by Mihai Radu
ONLINE RESOURCES If you search the internet using Google on "Rodrig Goliescu", you will find about 7 links. One is in Romanian, another in Italian, (I think), but several important ones are available in English. Perhaps the most interesting is:
This one has a section on "History" which has links to biographies of Traian Vuia, Henri Coanda, Rodrig Goliescu, Aurel Vlaicu and Hermann Oberth. You will find some
comprehensive stories of these pioneer flyers and some wonderful photographs. You can access the site by clicking on the title. To go directly for the Goliescu page, click on:
This page offers a short, but helpful revue of his life and career and includes a portrait of him and a photograph of his plane, the avioplan. You can access the site by clicking on the title above.
Rodrig Goliescu died in 1942
Editor's Note:
If you have any information on this pioneer aviator please contact me.
E-mail to Ralph Cooper
