Faculty History

In the whole world aviation history, Romanians proved their outstanding vocation. Some aviation pioneers are Romanians: Traian Vuia, Aurel Vlaicu, Henri Coandă. In 1910 Aurel Vlaicu built in a hangar in Bucharest the airplane Vlaicu-II. This unique hangar with a glass ceiling is now part of the heritage of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering.

The Faculty of Aerospace Engineering was established in 1933 by Acad. Elie Carafoli as a section of the Faculty of Mechanics. Although with a low number of students, the section set excellent quality standards, involving highly advanced research facilities. Among these, there is one of the most important wind tunnels in the world at the time.

In this tunnel, all aircraft types manufactured by the national aeronautical industry were experimentally validated, including the IAR-80, one of the performers of WWII fighter planes. Important personalities of the Romanian Aviation were educated in this elite school: Acad. Virgiliu Constantinescu, Acad. Radu Voinea, Prof. Nicolae Tipei, Prof. Liviu Librescu.

In 1971 the Faculty of Aerospace Constructions was established as a separate entity, under the leadership of Dean Prof. Victor Pimsner. Shortly after it was renamed Faculty of Aircraft, and later Faculty of Aerospace Engineering.

The faculty has developed in tight correlation with the national aerospace industry, which had a blooming period from the beginning of world aviation until 1945, when Romania, as a WWII loser country, lost its right to its own aeronautical industry. Romania’s recovery in this field has arrived in early 1970s, with the creation of the National Institute of Aerospace Research by Acad. Henri Coandă (today’s INCAS) and of the aircraft manufacturing plants in Bucharest, Brașov, Craiova and Bacău.

The astronaut Dumitru Dorin Prunariu, one of the top alumni of the faculty made history in 1981, when he completed the first space flight of a Romanian, on board of Soyuz spacecraft, and again in 1991 when he funded the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA). Since 2011, Romania is an European Space Agency member state, with significant achievents in space research.

The University Politehnica of Bucharest is the oldest and the most prestigious technical school in Romania, which its 200 years anniversary expected in 2018. The Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, by the excellent professional standards of its graduates along many generations, earned its right to proudly represent the values and the exigences of the university.