2. Henri Coanda
Academician and Romanian engineer
Pioneer of aviation – he brought his
contribution to the development of the
development of aviation before the I World
War.
Physician
Inventor of the jet engine and discoverer of the
effect that bears his name – the Coanda Effect.
4. Coanda’s life I
He was born on 7 June 1886 in Bucharest.
While being a student at the Military High School
from Iasi, he designed and built a series of
pyrotechnic rockets with the obvious purpose to
experiment the jet propulsion of the heavier than air
aircrafts.
He graduated as an artillery officer, but he was more
interested in the technical problems of flight,
therefore he continues his studies at the Polytechnic
School from
Charlottenburg, then at the Superiour School of
Electricity from Liege and Superiour School from
Montefiori.
In 1909, after graduation, he left to Paris where he
attended the Superior School of Aeronautics which
he also graduated the following year.
6. Coanda’s life II
In 1910, at the International Event of Aeronautics, he
displayed his plane with a jet engine designed and built all
by himself. At the end of the exhibition, he went with his
plane on the field from Issy les Moulineux where he flew
with it and reached an amazing speed which frightened him
– this is considered to be the first flight of a plane with a jet
engine.
Between 1911 - 1914 Henri Coanda worked as technical
manager and engine director of the Bristol Aeroplane
Company, England where he designed several airoplanes,
one of them winning a prize at the British Military Airplane
Competition.
During the World War I, at the request of the French
government, Coanda designed a series of planes, among
which an aircraft with two propellers mounted close to the
tail, thus becoming one of the first constructors of bi-
engine planes in the world.
8. Coanda’s life III
In 1934 he discovered the Coanda effect – “the
procedure or device for the deviation of a
fluid into another one”
In 1969 he returned to Romania where he
reorganized the Department of Aeronautical
Engineering of the Polytechnic Universit of
Bucharest.
Although he was in his 80s, Coanda kept being
active as a researcher in order to make
improvements in different domains: medical,
optic, acoustic.
Henri Coanda died on 25 November 1972, and
many of his amazing patens are to be found
at the Technic Museum “Prof. Dr. Leonida”
from Bucharest.
10. The main innovations which made
Coanda’s plane unique at the
exhibition from Paris 1910
The plane used a 4-cylinder piston engine to power a rotary
compressor which was intended to propel the craft by a
combination of suction at the front and airflow out the rear
instead of using a propeller (the jet engine)
The main struts of the wings were made of steel, not wood
There were slit flaps at the slats
The profile of the wings had a sharp curve of constant
thickness on the whole surface
The wings had different sizes and the superior one was
staggered forward
The plane was a “sesquiplan” because the inferior wing was
six times smaller than the superior one
The fuel and oil tanks were situated on the superior wing
The wings were fastened on the fuselage with only two
pairs of mullions made of steel tubes
12. The Inovations of the new plane with jet
engine
The air absorbed by the compressor of the engine
was thrown backwards with a tremendous speed, this
way the propulsion of the plane was created.
The fuel tanks of the plane were placed in the
superior side of the aircraft.
The cloth was replaced with a painted plywood in
order to oppose a force as small as possible.
The wings were equipped with a damper at the slats.
The landing gear was partially retractable.
14. Inventions and discoveries
1910:The Coanda-1910, an experimental aircraft
constructed for air-reactive propulsion
1911: An aircraft powered by two engines driving a single
propeller
He invented a new decorative material for use in
construction, beton-bois, which was used at the Palace of
Culture from Iasi
1926: Working in Romania, Coandă developed a device to
detect liquids under ground, useful in petroleum
prospecting. Shortly thereafter, in the Persian Gulf region,
he designed a system for offshore oil drilling
Probably the most famous of Coandă's discoveries is the
Coandă Effect
A modular system of sea water desalination and
transformation to fresh water, based on solar energy, a
clean, ecological and adaptable system
15. Quote by Henri Coanda in the book
"The Prowling Mind of Henri Coanda"
written by Harry G. Stine
"These airplanes we have today are no more than
a perfection of a toy made of paper children use
to play with. My opinion is we should search for a
completely different flying machine, based on
other flying principles. I consider the aircraft of
the future, that which will take off vertically, fly
as usual and land vertically. This flying machine
should have no parts in movement. The idea
came from the huge power of the cyclons.“
16. Henri Coanda – pioneer of Romanian and world
aviation
250 patents
17. International Recognition
On 3 April 1960, in
a festivity organized
by the United
Nations for
Education, Science
and Culture, he was
awarded the Order
of Merit for
Scientific Research,
and a year later he
was awarded the
Military Medal of the
French aeronautics
as well.
