Henri Coandă is remembered for building what may have been the world's first jet aircraft.
However, he was not one to rest on his accomplishments and continued to develop the concept.
Unfortunately, product diversification would prove to be a dismal failure, so Coanda returned to designing aircraft for his revolutionary and improved engine. In 1922, The Romanian Air Force took notice and ordered a service test squadron of his new jet-powered biplane right off the drawing board.
Initially, exhaust from the new engine caused brush fires on grass airfields of the time. This was solved by restricting use of the prototype jets to dirt landing strips.
While the Coanda jet biplane was the fastest, most maneuverable plane in the air and was well armed with four machine guns, its range was limited due to poor fuel economy. Many inside the Romanian Air Ministry thought this would be the prototype's undoing.
The Air Ministry had underestimated the craze for good BBQ which was sweeping the country. It's not hard to see why BBQ is so popular.
Unfortunately, the Romanian Air Ministry also underestimated the appetite of its own Air Force.
The Service Test Squadron was supposed to be flying the Coanda jet biplane under rigorous testing to find the capabilities and limits of the prototype aircraft.
However, they discovered the exhaust from the Coanda engine could BBQ huge amounts of beef in no time. Soon the Service Test Squadron became victims of "mission creep".
Each week, fewer and fewer flight hours were logged as the Service Test Squadron was burning up all its fuel in copious BBQ consumption. This would spell doom for the advanced Coanda jet biplane.
The Service Test Squadron was disbanded after only six months and the entire program was cancelled. Henri Coandă spent the rest of his life trying to reverse-engineering his jet engine into the world's most powerful vacuum cleaner and died a broken man. Nothing is left of the first jet fighter except for this limited-run eastern-bloc plastic model.
Brian da Basher
