Outstanding performances of School members

Outstanding performances of the members of the outstanding School of the members of the Aviation School "Mircea Cantacuzino"

• For the first time, in the winter of 1928, the students of the school mounted skis instead of wheels on the Klemm airplane, following the innovation being able to land and take off from the snow.
• On July 5, 1928, Smaranda Brăescu made a jump from a height of 6,000 m, thus becoming the first Romanian parachutist who, at the time, was in an honorable fourth place in the world.
• In 1929, Ioana Cantacuzino became the first woman holder of the title of aviator pilot in Romania.
• In July 1930, Ionel Ghica, fails to cross the Balkans, collapsing due to the fog, but although injured, he reaches the nearest town. Thus, he manages to break the national non-stop distance record - 1,900 km - and the national speed record over a distance of 2,000 km in a straight line.
• On May 19, 1932, in the USA, Smaranda Brăescu ascends by plane to 24,000 feet (7,400 m), and jumps with a parachute, becoming the winner of the world parachute descent record
• On July 2, 1932, Ionel Cociașu, a former student of the school, sets Romania's first world record in the field of aviation, in the two-seater light aircraft category, with 8 hours 17 minutes 42 seconds. The Romanian record is inscribed to this day on one of the walls of the imposing building of the International Aeronautical Federation in Paris.
• On March 30, 1932, Ionel Ghica takes off with the single-seater SET named "Foisor" on the route Bucharest - Konia - Baghdad - Basrah - Buchir - Gwadah - Karachi - Jodpur - Allahabad - Calcutta - Aykyav - Rangoon - Bangkok - Saigon and returns on a close route, thus totaling 25,000 km of flight in difficult conditions, a performance that is among the great achievements of the era.
• On September 6 and 7, 1935, in Poland, Gheorghe Balş became the holder of the first two records in the history of Romanian gliders: the first, a flight lasting 6 hours and 15 minutes, and the second, a height gain of 700 meters from the place of take-off.
• In 1936, according to the "Darea de Seamă" document, the "Mircea Cantacuzino" aviation school could be proud to have trained a third of the Gr. I pilots and almost half of the Gr. II pilots in the entire country.
• In 1937, Virginia Duţescu became the first woman in Romania to follow a training program in the field of aerial acrobatics, later standing out at numerous aviation rallies.
• In September 1938, the air contest of the Little Understanding takes place. The first four places were ranked in order: Eng. Lindner, Eng. Cociașu, the Ionescu spouses and Eng. Frim, again students of the "Mircea Cantacuzino" Aviation School.
• At the International Contest of Little Understandings (1938), Eng. Frim improves the performance of a Nardi airplane, putting a valve between the two tanks to avoid drawing false air and save the fuel with which he flies the distance Prague - Bucharest - Belgrade - Prague and wins in the last leg, in which 37 aviators participated, the cup offered by the organizers to the youngest competitor.
• During the Second World War, the only medical squadron in the world with female pilots trained at the "Mircea Cantacuzino" Aviation School operates, among which we find Nadia Russo, Viginia Thomas, Mariana Drăgescu, Virgina Duțescu, Marina Știrbey and Smaranda Brăescu.
• In just 5 weeks, between June 29 and August 5, 1943, Bâzu Cantacuzino achieves a real front record: that of shooting down 15 enemy planes. He is the only pilot who managed to shoot down a German FW-190 aircraft, being placed by some foreign publications on the sixth place as combative value in the world at war, with 60 victories achieved.
• The engineer Radu Manicatide creates an impressive series of airplane prototypes, among which we mention the IAR-817 (1955), MR-2 (1956), IAR-818 (1960), IAR 818H, IAR-821 (1967), IAR-821B, IAR-822 (1970), IAR-823, being awarded for his activity with the "Paul Tissandier" international diploma, the State Prize in 1957 and 5 Orders of Romania.