Alexandru “Dudu” Frim

A senior officer’s son and Alexandru Ioan Cuza’s great grandson, Alexandru Frim was born in Râmnicu Sărat, on 9 March 1908. He graduated from the Ferdinand High School in Bacău, and in 1926, following the death of his father, he moved with his mother to Bucharest where he enrolled at the Polytechnic School. In 1931, after receiving a scholarship from the Polytechnic Sports Association, he received a pilot’s license at the Mircea Cantacuzino School of Aviation in Băneasa.

In 1934, he wins the World Bobsleigh Championship in Engelberg, Switzerland.

In 1937, Frim took part in several competitions, through which the International Competition of the Little Entente where he – the youngest competitor – was awarded the winners’ cup and, in 1938, he finishes third in the competition the “Mircea Cantacuzino” Cup.

He graduated the Training School in Buzău as hunt and bomb pilot. Since 1938, he became the IAR factory’s test pilot and in 1939 he wins the cup of the Brasov Airclub and also the Grand Prix of the Aviation.

During World War II, Frim shot down a B-17 (nickname”The Flying Fortress”) being awarded for this the Aeronautical Virtue decoration, Knight Class.

He was arrested in 1950 based on a Ministerial Order, without being trield or convicted in any way. All this time, he was unable to find the reason for his imprisonment. During his detention years in the communist prison camps, the only explanation he was provided was that it was a reeducation administrative penalty.

In the early 1980s, he was in search of a publisher for the manuscript of a work entitled “Pe aripi, pe roţi şi patine” (On Wings, Wheels and Skates). Unfortunately, no one knows what happened to the manuscript after Frim’s death.\