Anastase Dragomir

Lore & Background

Anastase Dragomir was born on 6 February 1896 in Brăila, Romania, the sixth child of his family. He worked in France at several aircraft factories, where he developed a system to save pilots and passengers in case of accidents. On 3 November 1928 he applied for French patent #678566, titled 'Nouveau système de montage des parachutes dans les appareils de locomotion aérienne,' which was issued on 2 April 1930. The invention described a system where each passenger had their own parachute, allowing the assembly to detach from the plane with the seated passenger passing through an opening.

After several attempts, Dragomir obtained financing and built his 'catapulted cockpit.' The invention was tested in a Farman airplane piloted by Lucien Bossoutrot at Paris-Orly, France airport on 28 August 1929, and French newspapers later reported its success. He then returned to Romania, where with aviation engineer captain Constantin Nicolau he repeated the experiment in an Avia airplane at Băneasa Airport in Bucharest on 26 October 1929. He continued refining his invention, obtaining Romanian patent #40658 in 1950 for a 'parachuted cell' and Romanian patent #41424 in 1960 for a transport aircraft equipped with ejection cabins. He died in Bucharest in June 1966.

Reader's Guide

Anastase Dragomir's significance lies in his early contributions to ejection seat technology, specifically his 'catapultable cockpit' patent with Tănase Dobrescu. While his work was preceded by Everard Calthrop's 1916 compressed air ejection seat and others, Dragomir's system was tested successfully in both France and Romania in 1929. His patents, including French patent #678566 and later Romanian patents, show a sustained effort to improve aircraft safety. However, the article notes that the photograph on the stamp associated with him shows the independently designed British Martin-Baker ejection seat, indicating that his designs did not become the standard. His legacy is as a Romanian inventor who pursued a novel approach to pilot escape, though his system was not the first or the one ultimately adopted widely.

Did You Know?

• Anastase Dragomir was the sixth child of his family.
• His French patent #678566 was applied for on 3 November 1928 and issued on 2 April 1930.
• The first test of his catapulted cockpit was at Paris-Orly airport on 28 August 1929, piloted by Lucien Bossoutrot.