Those Magnificent Romanian Women And Their Flying Dreams

It is often said that Romanians have wings – you have probably heard of the world aviation pioneers Traian Vuia, Aurel Vlaicu and Henri Coandă (also renowned for the famous Coandă effect in aerodynamics).

Travelling to Romania, you will surely remember at least one of these pioneers, as the most important airports in the country are named after them.

However, as March is Women’s History Month, it is a joy for us to celebrate the Romanian women that changed the world they lived in, reminding everyone that courage is just a matter of opening your wings.

The first heroine of flight in Romania was Smaranda Brăescu, who, in the 1920s gained the patent of first woman parachutist in Romania and the fourth in Europe. Performing her first jump, she felt, as she later stated in her memoirs, “like a child after a little, beautiful madness.”

Later on, in 1929 and 1930, she suffered two accidents and had to spent six months in the hospital. Restored, she immediately started a hard-working preparation for breaking the European and world record in parachute jumping. And in 1931 she managed to become the European parachuting champion, and only a year later world champion, in Sacramento, USA – after a 25-minute jump made with a Romanian parachute, from a height of 7200 meters. This record was surpassed by only a few meters, over 20 years later – by a Romanian as well, Traian Demetrescu-Popa, who jumped from 7,250 meters.

After her great success in California, Smaranda Brăescu arrived in New York in 1934 to take piloting courses. The “Queen of Heights”, as she was often named, thus became the first European woman to be patented as a pilot in the USA.

Smaranda Brăescu’s wings were opening more and more. After becoming a pilot, she set the first record for crossing the Mediterranean Sea in 6 hours and 10 minutes, covering the distance of 1100 km, between Rome and Tripoli.

Around the same period of the 20^th century, another Romanian lady, Irina Burnaia, spread her wings in the fascinating field of aviation.

Irina Burnaia (Irina Cioc, by her real name) was actually a lawyer and during a plane travel to the Romanian city of Constanța she was so impressed by the flight that she decided to become a pilot.

And she did! She was the second patented aviator in Romania, gaining her civilian pilot’s license in 1933 and being the first woman to cross the Carpathian Mountains flying a plane. After this raid, on November 7^th 1934, she registers the plane with which she flew by the code YR-INA, after her name.

However, not all wings were created equal, and the third famous Romanian woman who changed the world with courage, hard work and determination did it in a completely different way than her predecessors.

Yes, it’s Nadia Comaneci – the first gymnast in the world who won a perfect 10 in 1976 at the Montreal Olympics!

The mark displayed by the scoreboard was actually 1.00, as the record was unprecedented and at that time the scoring devices were not equipped for the grade 10.

Nadia Comaneci is the winner of five Olympic gold medals and is considered one of the best athletes of the twentieth century and one of the best gymnasts in the world of all time, named the “Goddess of Montreal”, the first gymnast of the modern era winning an absolute 10.

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