Petru Gavrilescu (1870–1936)

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1870 A young inventor from Botesti (up to Falticeni), Romania, conceived before Vuia, Bleriot and Vlaicu, a flying machine called aeroplan.

This Moldavian peasant who had studied only the primary school had created agitation so that scholar Nicolae Iorga went to the village to see his “contrivances”.

Petru Gavrilescu’s mock-up of a flying machine had been patented at Universal Exhibition at Paris (1900) before Romanian and world aviation pioneers.  He had not been to Paris but went to Bucharest where famous pilot Louis Bleriot had come by plane, that who had crossed Straits of Dover in 1909.

Gavrilescu remained stunned. Bleriot’s plane looked exactly like the mock-up that the peasant had sent to Paris. He went back to Moldavia very upset. Aeroplan’s invention had been … taken.

1885-1900 The screwy peasant had invented in his workshop in Botesti: a gatling gun (12 cartridges), a wool spinning machine, a trap to catch mice, a stick revolver from the end of which a bayonet went out, a surveying machine for lifting plans and other discoveries of the smart young man.

1936 This year the misunderstood inventor died being very sad.