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Romanian engineer
"The fields of science are so vast and appealing, noted in a letter the scientist H. Coandă, in 1963, that I could not refrain myself to achieve them almost all. If in streamlined I have some famous, this does not mean that I didn’t found some interesting things in other directions, both in biology, electronics, crystallography, space studies, hydrodynamic, water study in general, optics, thermodynamics, nuclear and so on . . . ". This gives us the best, the vastness of the scientific outlook of this great scientist-inventor.
Of course, history of science and technology presents him primarily as the inventor and creator of the world's first jet, the pilot who first lifted from the earth such a device and this more than three decades before jet aircraft to impose worldwide. But keep in mind the extraordinary diversity of his creation, as expressed his testimony.
Son of General Constantin Coandă, Henri Coandă was born in Bucharest in 1886, attending high school "St. Sava" in Bucharest and then studied in Military High School in Iasi, where he took the Baccalaureate in 1903, as head of the class. Captivated by technique, he didn’t dedicate himself to weapons career, but mastered in many foreign higher education institutions (Polytechnics Berlin-Charlottenburg, University of Liège, Institute of Electrical Montefiori, School of Aerospace and Mechanical engineering in Paris). The last one, he graduated it as an engineer for aviation in 1909, the first graduate class. Otherwise, he was caught very early by the aviation. In Iasi high school he built – 18 years old - the model of a rocket powered aircraft. During 1909-1910, Henri Coandă designed and then built the world's first jet plane, introducing the concept of "turboprop". The airplane invented by the Romanian engineer was exposed to the Second International Aeronautical Exhibition in Paris in 1910 (where two devices exhibited from twelve were Romanian!). This airplane was experienced in the same year, near Paris, in Yssy-les-Moulineaux. An aviation magazine in French capital writes: "one of the few devices that everything is new".
Coandă’s aviation activity continues, building in 1911, the world's first twin-engine aircraft. Then he went to England, where, in Bristol factories, he manufactured the original plane "Bristol-Coandă". In 1916, he created a plane with two propulsion propellers mounted at the ends of the fuselage. Coandă's inventive genius is manifested in various fields. Given the lack metal during World War I, he invented oil tanks made of reinforced concrete. He builds also prefabricated housing, using a new material invented by him. He creates a new tubular transport system, high speed, a facility seawater desalination, etc.
His name remains tied up to the "Coandă effect", patented it in 1934. It is the fact that a fluid stream, as it touches a wall, remains adherent to the wall. But the jet can be controlled to stick to the wall, by another fluid stream. Thus, it was reached to the pneumatic components used in automation. His passion didn’t limited to science and technology. He loved literature, philosophy, art (he was also a talented sculptor-lover), it like to sing the cello. He was an all-round athlete, especially practicing athletics. He kept, up to an advanced age, a phrase slim and full of confidence and optimism.
But his main concern was science and technology. Author of over 250 inventions, Henri Coandă was a particularly fertile inventive genius. Coandă effect, for example, found utilization in various applications, such as the industrial noise reduction devices for certain categories, spraying insect’s fungicide, reducing recoil of firearms etc. Interesting experiments have been undertaken by scientist in flight study, he projected the so-called "lenticular aerodyne". Member of the Academy RSR (1970) and other scientific societies at home and abroad, H. Coandă was the originator of the prestigious Institute for Scientific and Technical creation (INCREST) in Bucharest.
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variant spelling:
Coanda, Henri
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Curriculum vitae
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* 1886
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Bucuresti
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born
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1909
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Paris
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1910
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Paris
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1916
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Bristol England
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1970
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Bucuresti
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† 1972
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Bucuresti
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died
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