Engineer and inventor Aurel Vlaicu, who was among the first pilots in Romania, began the design of the third in his series of powered aircraft in the second half of 1911. The design was based on his earlier
A Vlaicu II. A
nacelle underneath a
parasol wing housed the pilot and a
Gnome Gamma engine. Gears, chains and shafts drove two propellers, one in front of and one behind the wing; these turned in opposite directions to cancel each other's torque. Like Vlaicu's other designs, the A. Vlaicu III did not have
ailerons. The pilot turned the aircraft by using the
rudder, controlled by moving a
tiller left or right; to control the
elevators and make the aircraft go up and down, a steering wheel attached to the tiller was turned left or right. At the time of Vlaicu's death in the crash of the A Vlaicu II in 1913, two A. Vlaicu IIIs were under construction for delivery to the
Marconi Company. The British company was supposed to receive one for performance evaluation and experimentation with aerial radio, the other was supposed to remain in Romania. After Vlaicu's death, one of the two aircraft was completed by his friends
Giovanni Magnani and
Constantin Silisteanu; and was ready to fly in May 1914. ==Operational history==