Ionel Cociașu

Ionel Cociașu studied engineering in Toulouse, France, which gave him the opportunity to come into contact with aviation.He is trained to become a civilian pilot at the first air tourism school in Romania, founded by Mircea Cantacuzino, guided by Octav Oculeanu.

In 1930 he is buying, together with Ioana and Mircea Cantacuzino, a Klemm plane registered YR-TIK, aircraft that turned him into the creator of a lasting closed circle world performance in the category of airplanes weighing less than 280 kg. with a time of 8 hours and 17 minutes on the route Bucharest – Urziceni – Buzău -Ploieşti – Bucharest. This performance gave Romania the first world air sports performance in history. On 1 August, based on the data recorded by the sealed barographs that the stewards had put on board the aircraft, the World Air Sports Federation ratified the flight duration as a world record. Ionel Cociaşu was decorated with the “Golden Cross of the Aeronautical Virtue”.

In February 1935 he succesfully performed a flight on the route Bucharest – Bombay, flying alone on a Klemm aircraft. În februarie 1935, efectuează cu succes un zbor pe ruta București – Bombay, pilotând singur o avionetă Klemm. The Romanian record establighed by Cociașu lies inscribed on one of the walls of the magnificent building of the World Air Sports Federation in Paris.