Gheorghe (George) Balș

After finishing high school, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law in Bucharest and in 1930, he became a founding member of the Mircea Cantacuzino Association for the Development of Air Tourism.

In 1934, he also received a C license and attended a gliding instructor course at the famous gliding school in Bezmiechowa, Poland. He was the first in a series of Romanian gliding pioneers to have received a flight instructor certificate, followed by Eugen Cernescu, Gheorghe Goşman, Nicolae Blebea, Vasile Scorţea and others.

In 1936, he competed in the first Romanian air race, organised by the “Tempo” newspaper on the Bucharest – Constanţa – Galaţi – Chernivtsi route. During this period, he published gliding propaganda articles in “România Aeriană”, the magazine of the Romanian Royal Aeronautical Federation (F.A.R.R).

In July 1941, he started active service on the front line within the 112th Liaison Squadron. He dies during a mission on the 15th November 1942, his plane being shot down by enemy anti-aircraft machines two kilometres outside the town of Surovkino. In 1943, Gheorghe Balș was posthumously awarded the Golden Cross with Swords of the Aeronautical Virtue, and the Star of Romania