1910 · Flight · Prototype
Coandă-1910 experimental aircraft
Henri Coandă
The idea
Coandă exhibited his unusual experimental aircraft at the Paris aeronautical salon in 1910.
The aircraft’s public exhibition is documented. Its later reputation as the first jet to fly is disputed; the Smithsonian’s aviation historian separates the exhibited machine from the uncorroborated flight story.
A life behind the work · 1886–1972
Henri Coandă
Born in Bucharest, Coandă spent part of his childhood in Paris before attending military school in Romania. Engineering studies took him through several European cities and into the first graduating class of Paris’s aeronautical school in 1910. That year he exhibited an experimental aircraft with an unusual propulsion system. He later designed aircraft for Bristol and pursued inventions involving fluid flow, prefabricated buildings and water treatment. His claimed 1910 jet flight remains disputed. Returning to Romania in 1970, he continued working until his final years.
Biography & sources ↗