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courtesy of Aurelian Simionescu, 8-16-06 |
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via email from Aurelian Simionescu, 8-16-06 One of them is Polihroniade (Poly) Vacas. The caption reads: "On March 10, 1911 Polihroniade Vacas flew with a Farman airplane from Bucharest to Roman via Buzau part of the spring military maneuvers (exercises?)." From other online source I learned that Poly Vacas was a young relative of Cherkez (the founder of Chitila Piloting School), and that he was born in Braila, probably in 1893. Best regards, Aurelian P.S. There are also three WW1 pilots featured with photographs in the same online publications (attached): Radu Irimescu, Constantin Mincu and Ion Muntenescu. Muntenescu died in combat in November 1917 and was decorated post mortem with Romanian "Military Virtue". A forth name is Nicolae Tanase. If you want to include them too, I can provide you with translations of the short captions. |
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via email from Dave Lam, 12-7-06 Irimescu received his pilot's license (#95 as a "locotenant" - I think that is Lieutenant equivalent) on 28 July 1916 at Chitila. On 17 Oct 1916, a flight of five aircraft, piloted by Irimescu, Antanasiu, Giossanu, Cholet, and Mincu, bombed the rail station at Sistov, destroying a munitions dump. Later, he commanded a squadron equipped with Farmans (Escadrilei Farman-5), and received an award which seems to have been French, with a Romanian title of "Crucea de Razboi" (seems to be "war Cross"). In 1932 he became the Romanian Undersecretary of State for Aviation, and in 1935 he moved to the Defense Ministry. Dave |
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If you have any more information on this pioneer aviator please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper |
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