The biplane with a jet engine… in 1910

The Coandă was the world’s first “jet” aircraft, a bold leap toward the future of flight. Though it never truly took to the skies, it stood as a remarkable testament to the genius of its 24-year-old creator, Romanian engineer Henri Coandă.

Unveiled at the Paris Air Show in October 1910, the aircraft featured an innovative propulsion system: a piston engine that powered a centrifugal blower mounted in the nose. This was unlike anything the aviation world had ever seen.

Beyond its groundbreaking engine, the Coandă impressed onlookers with its sleek, elegant design. It minimized struts and wires, and for the first time, the entire aircraft was sheathed in wood, giving it a smooth, modern look. Unfortunately, the blower’s thrust was too weak to lift the aircraft, but the Coandă 1910 still marked the dawn of jet-powered flight.

During this period, France remained the heart of aviation innovation, constantly experimenting with bold new ideas that would shape the future of flight. Among the most groundbreaking creations of this era was an aircraft designed by Henri Coandă, a brilliant young Romanian engineer.

His machine,  aptly named the Coandă, was nothing short of revolutionary. Presented at the Salon de l’Aéronautique in Paris in October 1910, it is often regarded as the world’s first “jet” aircraft. Coandă, only twenty-four at the time, powered his biplane using a piston engine that drove a centrifugal compressor mounted in the nose. This was a concept far ahead of its time.

Although the aircraft never managed to fly, producing only about 450 pounds of thrust, it amazed spectators with its elegant, streamlined structure. For the first time, an airplane featured a fully wooden skin and minimal struts and bracing wires, marking a major step forward in aircraft design. Coandă continued to experiment the following year, creating another unusual aircraft powered by two cross-mounted 70-hp Gnome rotary engines driving a four-blade propeller. Unfortunately, this design also failed to succeed. After these setbacks, Coandă moved to England in 1912, joining the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company (later Bristol), where his inventive spirit would continue to influence aviation for years to come.

Decades later, after true motorjets and turbojets had been successfully demonstrated, Henri Coandă began sharing a series of conflicting accounts about his early experiments. He claimed that his 1910 aircraft had been the first motorjet, with actual fuel combustion in the airstream, and even that he had briefly flown it in December 1910, only to crash and see the aircraft destroyed by fire.

However, aviation historians have largely disputed these claims. They pointed out that there was no evidence the engine ever achieved combustion in the airstream and no proof the aircraft had left the ground at all. In 1965, Coandă presented new drawings he said would prove his design had a combustion system. But researchers quickly noted that the sketches had been heavily altered and were inconsistent with the original 1910 plans.

Most experts ultimately concluded that Coandă’s “turbo-propulseur” produced only a weak stream of plain air, not the powerful, fuel-burning jet thrust he later described, making his aircraft a fascinating but unrealized step toward the jet age.