Photo credit: (c) Cristian NISTOR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

In fact, the Olt River, having the second-largest flow in Romania, can be considered to be the first in the country that was fully regulated, with no less than 13 hydropower stations placed along its course, in Valcea County only, starting with the one in Robesti, continuing with the ones in Cornetu, Gura Lotrului, Turnu, Calimanesti, Daesti, Ramnicu Valcea, Raureni, Govora, Babeni, Ionesti, Zavideni and Dragasani, and with another one still being under construction in Caineni.

‘The Olt River, like any other mountain river, in fact, has always been difficult to handle, not only the localities situated in Valea Oltului (Oltul Valley), in the gorge area and in Tara Lovistei (Lovistea Land), but especially those in the south of the county, where every year, every autumn to be more precise, and every spring, when we are facing heavy rainfalls, the river overflows and submerges the arable land,’ said the Valcea Prefect, Dumitru Cornoiu.

Thus, in the mid-1970s, the authorities started a project known to those who studied geography back in the communist era as ‘the chain of hydropower plants on the River Olt.’ It is about a system of power stations that was meant to help in at least three ways: first of all, it was supposed to regulate the river course and also the river flow due to the dam and also to generate electricity by using the water force and irrigate the agricultural land by using the water from the reservoirs.

As a novelty, there is a fourth sector in which the hydropower system built on the Olt River seems to be useful, that is the tourism sector, as the lakes are also used nowadays for recreational purposes.

‘The basic, simplified, principle used in building a hydropower plant, is that the construction works will take several stages to complete. Thus, corresponding to the first stage will be the diversion of the watercourse to expose the riverbed so that the workers can build the facilities there, the second stage will be for the actual works at the dam and the dykes to be conducted, for bringing back the waters in their original riverbed, and also for collecting and redirecting the water flow through the plant, and, finally, the third stage will be for the installation of the hydro-aggregates and implicitly the commissioning of the facilities,’ said engineer Mihai Sporis, former director of Hidrolectrica Valcea.

Before 1989, these operations used to take three up to four years, at the most, to complete, given that construction works were carried out simultaneously at three hydropower stations. That’s why, 11 of the abovementioned facilities were made in approx. 10 years, during which time such brands of the Romanian industry as Energomontaj, Hidroconstructia, UCM Resita, Lugomet, Carmoet and also Hidroelectrica, got to be consolidated. In 1989, they began the construction works at the last hydropower unit ever built in the Valcea County, namely CHE Caineni, which today, due to the current bad economic shape of Hidrolectrica (undergoing insolvency) is subjected to a preservation procedure.

The history of the hydropower system actually began in Valcea in the mid-1960s, when the most complex hydropower system was based here, namely the Lotru-Ciunget power generation complex. Special engineering works were carried out on the Lotru River between 1965 and 1985, resulting in the building of 160 kilometres of adduction galleries and a complex diversion and power intake system, for storing the water from the limitrophe river basins in one single reservoir, Vidra, the third by size in Romania.

The average annual potential of the Lotru basin is of 1,243 GWh, out of which 510 MW are used by the CHE Ciunget power plant, representing the largest installed power used on Romanian rivers and the second one after the Iron Gates II. The energy recovery from the reserved flow which is the Vidra Lake is done by discharging the falling water flow in three stages between 1,289 m elevation and 300 m elevation, through the Ciunget, Malaia and Bradisor power plants, Ciunget and Malaia being built underwater.

For all these reasons, Valcea is nicknamed the capital of the hydropower system in Romania. It has the largest number of such complex hydropower plants in the whole country and two regulated rivers, Olt and Lotru. Unfortunately, tens and hundreds of workers lost their life while building these power generation complexes.

As a curiosity, in 1980 the former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu is said to have wanted a single huge hydropower station built at the Olt River gates, on the spot of where today is the CHE Cornetu power plant, explained Mihai Sporis. It would have been an immense construction, with a reservoir designed to measure approximately 40 km in length, to reach as far as to the border with Sibiu County. However, Ceausescu gave up the idea of this project, when he realized that he was supposed to relocate two localities and raise the road and the railway up to a height of 50 m, on the mountainside. At the same time, the geographical area known as the Lovistea Depression would have disappeared under the water.

The complex hydropower plants on the Lotru and Olt Rivers have severely changed the relief in the north of the Valcea County. There have been, of course, numerous disputes on this topic. Personalities in the ecology field claim that all these works have triggered a huge catastrophe for man, while determine the changing of the ecosystems here, the fauna and flora in the region being very much affected by the deforestations, detonations and the urbanisation process that took place in this region. It is said that many types of fish that used to migrate along the Olt River course disappeared, as the river was turned into a network of lakes linked through cascades to one another. The Ostrov Island from Calimanesti, a special spa and deondrological park, was also sacrificed, although it could have been saved, according to some opinions, on condition that the CHE Calimensti plant would have been located a little further than its current location, downstream the Olt River. There are, however, some ecologists, as for instance Professor Gheorghe Ploaie, Phd., who is saying that Valcea gained ‘no less than 7 new deltas, ecosystems, in the area of the reservoirs on the middle course of the Olt River, with a specific vegetation and fauna to the delta.’

Important transformation were also seen in demographic terms, with the opening of the construction sites in the 1970s-1980s having attracted here Romanians from all over the country, small towns such as Brezoi, Babeni or even some of the neighbours belonging to the Ramnicu Valcea Municipality have significantly increased in size.

Some archaeological sites and historic monuments also suffered because of the construction works at the hydropower plants, but, fortunately, three major objectives from the cultural and historic heritage of the area could be saved: the Roman camp Arutela and the ruins of the Old Cozia church were relocated and restored in new locations, while the Ostrov Hermitage church, rebuild by Neagoe Basarab back in the 16th century, was raised to a higher level, the same as a part of the Ostrov Island.

However, despite everything else, the Lotru-Ciunget hydropower complex and the ‘chain of hydropower stations on the River Olt’ represented an irrefutable economic achievement, which, among other things, contributed to the prevention of the natural disasters that used to periodically hit this region, when the Olt River overflowed its banks (and the same when the Lotru River overtopped its bank), which natural disasters were for the first time recorded in history related to the destruction of the Roman camp located on the left bank of the Limes Alutanus fortified line.

‘If the case would be that the Olt and Lotru rivers weren’t regulated, now, in the summer of 2014, we would have for sure witnessed a catastrophe, we would have seen a third of the county territory submerged, if not even more,’ concluded Prefect Dumitru Cornoiu. AGERPRES

Horezu Monastery
Photo credit: (c) Alex TUDOR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

“Adding to these the monasteries and the sketes that have in time become parish churches, Valcea at one point had 60 monastic centers, being one of the largest eparchies, founded in 1503. It was here that books were printed, libraries built, it was here that Brancovenesc-style painting and architecture found a large home, the Valcea cultural patrimony including several important exhibits of the Brancovenesc style”, says Florin Epure, Director of the Valcea Cultural Directorate.

It is said of these places that they are “a true garden of Romanian and universal Orthodoxy in which the seeds of Orthodox Christianity, the seeds of the ancestral faith sprout vigorously since the dawn of the creation of the Romanian nation”, as Vartolomeu Androni, the abbot of Cozia monastery recounts.

Cozia Monastery
Photo credit: (c) Liviu POPESCU / AGERPRES PHOTO

On the bank of the Olt river, at the exit from the resort at Calimanesti, lies, since the end of the 14th century, the foundation of Mircea the Elder, Cozia. Harmoniously proportioned, with rich ornamentations, it was built by local craftsmen and craftsmen brought from the Morava river valley, adorned by Georgian stonemasons and painted by masters of Byzantine fresco painting brought from Constantinople. Cozia is also the resting place of Mircea the Elder and Teofana, the mother of Mihai Viteazu. The monastery lies on the main road tying Ramnicu Valcea to Sibiu.

Further up from Cozia, also on the bank of the Olt river, pilgrims, after stopping at the Schitul de sub Piatra (The skete under the rock), also known as Cozia Veche (Old Cozia), which was restored in 1995 upon the 1602 original foundations, can pray at the Cornet Monastery, built in 1666 by high boyar Mares Bajescu and his wife Maria. The monastery, situated in a piedmont, was in danger of demolition at the end of the 19th century, when the railroad to Sibiu was built. Finally the decision was made to construct a tunnel, and as such the monastery lies directly above the railroad.

In Calimanesti we may find the Ostrov Skete, the church between the waters, a monastery that was raised, together with the island on which it was standing, by 4 meters to not be affected by the flooding following the building of the Calimanesti Dam. Ostrov is a princely foundation, being raised on the orders of ruler Neagoe Basarab and his wife, Despina Doamna between 1521-1522′

Also near Calimanesti lies the Turnu Monastery, raised in 1676 by the Archbishop of Ramnic, Varlaam, who later became the Wallachian Metropolitan, with the aid of merchant Ene of Pitesti. Within the monastery, pilgrims can pray in the small cells dug into the rocks where at one point in history recluse monks would pray.

The ecclesiastic heritage of Calimanesti also includes the Stanisoara Monastery, situated at the base of the Cozia Massif, attested in 1747 and redone by two monks from Mount Athos, Sava and Teodosie. Above the monastery one may view the giant waterfall made by the Pausa river in its narrow road toward the Olt river, while near the overhang of the waterfall lies the former Pausa Skete, built in 1654-1658, believed to be the foundation of Lady Balasa, the wife of ruler Constantin Serban.

On the road towards Ramnicu Valcea, in the Muereasca commune, lies the church “of the curse”, in fact named the Frasinei Monastery, the only place of worship in the country where women have no access and where monastic life is organized by extremely severe principles, just as in the Mount Athos monasteries. Dating back to the early 19th century, the current monastery is the foundation of Saint Calinic from Cernica. It was finished in 1863, that being the time when Saint Calinic issued the command that no woman is to cross the threshold.

Across the Olt river, in Daesti, is the former skete of Fedelesoiu (today a parish church), a princely ensemble carefully restored in recent years, initiated by ruler Grigore Ghica and finished by Metropolitan Varlaam in the period when the Brancovenesc style in art was in full swing.

The northern entrance of Ramnicu Valcea is guarded by the former skete Cetatuia (The little citadel), where it is said that ruler Radu de la Afumati was killed, while the southern entrance by the Troianu Monastery, built between 1840-1842 by Hrisant, the abbot of the Hurez Monastery. It was here that the troops of General Magheru sought refuge during the 1848 Revolution, the new church guarding the Troianu Hill being a replica of the Cozia Monastery.

On the road that leads to Olanesti, pilgrims can stop at the Saracinesti Monastery, a place of worship that lies on the confluence of the Cheia and Olanesti rivers. Founded in 1688 on the lands of the Saracinesti boyars, the monastery opens the road to the holy land of the monasteries that lie on the river Cheia at the base of the Capatanii Mountains (Head Mountains) — Iezer, Pahomie, Bradu and Patrunsa.

The Iezer Monastery is a princely monastery attested during the times of ruler Radu the Great and Neagoe Basarab, and restored first by ruler Mircea Ciobanu and Lady Chiajna in 1559, and later by Saint Antonie of Iezer, whose stone-carved cell is often sought out by pilgrims.

Iezer Skete
Photo credit: (c) Alex MICSIK / AGERPRES PHOTO

The Pahomie skete was raised by monk Pahomie, who, according to the writings of that time, was former Ban (Governor) Barbu Craiovescu, the founder of the Bistrita Monastery, the skete being restored in 1864 by hieromonk Pahomie (Iordache Pascoveanu) and ‘haiduc’ (outlaw) Sava.

In Olanesti, in the hamlet of Gurguiata, in a secluded place, hieromonk Sava founded the Bradu skete in 1784, the skete being host today to a nun community.

Further up from the Pahomie skete, in the midst of the Buila-Vanturarita National Park, lies Patrunsa skete, built in 1740 by Bishop Climent of Ramnic, reminding of his place of birth where his mother had taken refuge to escape a Turkish invasion. In the 1950’s and 60’s the skete was host to many anticommunist partisans who had found in it a place of refuge and prayer.

A place of particular charm is the Jgheaburi Skete, hidden in the beech forests of Stoenesti, and reachable from Cheia. Jgheaburi is a monastic center ever since the 14th century, cared for, among others, by ruler Matei Basarab in 1640.

Towards the Baile Govora is one of the oldest monasteries in Wallachia, the Govora Monastery, considered by some historians to predate the Basarab dynasty, among its founders or caregivers we may find rulers Mircea the Elder, Dan II, Vlad II Dracul (father of Vlad the Impaler) and Radu the Elder, the latter ordering a full reconstruction of the monastery in 1496. It is here that Matei Basarab brings a printing press and the first literary work written in Romanian, the Pravila of Govora, is printed here in 1640.

Another legendary monastery on the territory of Valcea county is the Dintr-un Lemn Monastery (One-piece-of-wood Monastery). It dates back to the mid-16th century, when it was built, according to tradition, from the wood of a single oak tree. Probably one of the secular oaks that surround the monastery to this day. The stone church of the monastery was built by Preda Brancoveanu, a high boyar during the rule of Matei Basarab.

One-piece-of-wood Monastery 
Photo credit: (c) Alex TUDOR / AGERPRES PHOTO

One-piece-of-wood Monastery 
Photo credit: (c) Alex TUDOR / AGERPRES PHOTO

Further on from this place of worship, also in the Francesti Commune, is another famous monastery, the Surpatele Monastery, an older foundation of the Buzesti boyars, restored by Maria Brancoveanu, wife of ruler Constantin Brancoveanu, and a popular destination for the pilgrimages of several wives of Wallachian rulers.

On the road to Horezu, pilgrims can stop in Costesti commune, host to two important monastic centers, Bistrita and Arnota, as well as the former sketes of Papusa, Peri, Gramesti and 44 de izvoare (44 founts).

Bistrita, build in 1494, was built by the Craiovesti boyars, It was here that Governor Barbu Craiovescu brought, in 1497, from Constantinople, the relics of Saint Gregory the Decapolite. Bistrita Monastery was since its inception also a powerful Romanian cultural and spiritual center and a renowned printing center, as early as the beginning of the 16th century. It was here that ruler Neagoe Basarab received his education and also where he met Milita Despina Brancovici, a descendant of the Brankovic family that ruled over the Serbian Despotate of those times that later became his wife. Above the monastery, in the Cave of Saint Gregory the Decapolite, two rupestral churches, one well hidden deep in the cave, as old as the monastery which used it as a vault for its precious items in case of invasions, and another built in 1635 30 meters high in the Bistrita Gorges, in a spacious chamber in which one may descend via a stone-carved stairway.

Up high on the mountain is the princely necropolis of Arnota, where ruler Matei Basarab wished to be buried. The monastery that serves as a necropolis was raised between 1633-1637. The earthly remains of Matei Basarab ultimately reached Arnota, as his will dictated, however not until four years after his death.

Arnota Monastery
Photo credit: (c) Alex MICSIK / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The depression at the base of the Capatanii Mountains ends with the crown pearl, Horezu Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site and princely necropolis, where the empty grave of its founder, ruler Constantin Brancoveanu, still awaits his earthly remains. Among the historical monuments that adorn Romania, Horezu Monastery and its sketes are considered to be the masterpieces of the Brancovenesc style.

As such, the monastic map of Valcea County looks highly alike to the map of Athos. Great rulers and great boyars wanted to show through their foundations that this land was truly blessed.AGERPRES

Photo credit: (c) Liviu POPESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

“Anyway, one is for certain as regards the promotion of Romanian language in Valcea. The unrelenting scriptorium activities of the calligraphers and miniaturists from the monasteries of Cozia, Bistrita, Govora, the diligence of the translators and the books printed here have all been part of the programmatic efforts pursuing the replacement of Slavonic with Romanian,” says philologist and Professor Ion Soare.

A conclusive example in this respect is provided by the work of monk Mardarie from Cozia, the “Slavonic-Romanian Lexicon and the Meaning of Names” put out in 1649, the first dictionary preserved until today, with 4,574 Slavonic entries accompanied by their correspondent in Romanian.

Voivode Matei Basarab brought in 1637 a print shop to the Govora Monastery and founded here the “first school of culture in Wallachia, providing it with an income of 1,000 ducats, an amount the Prince was offering the abbot of the Govora Monastery, Meletios, for keeping the school and the print shop up and running, for the prints, as well as for paying the teachers,” relates historian Florin Epure, director of the Valcea County Cultural Directorate.

In 1640, the first Romanian language book on the territory of Wallachia is put out by the Govora print shop: the Church Code of Laws, also known as the Small Code of Laws (because of its format) or the Govora Code.

“The book was printed in seven months thanks to the diligence of Meletius the Macedonian, who had lived in the spiritually uplifting atmosphere of the Zographou Monastery of Mount Athos, and who had learned the technique of printing at the monasteries headed by Metropolitan Petru Movila and with hieromonk Stephen from Ohrid,” says Florin Epure.
The Code of Laws is a collection of laws both for clerics and laymen.

“There are various opinions that Valcea is also the place where the first printed book in the entire Romanian territory appeared. It’s the ‘Euchologion’ of Makarios, the first Slavonic edition of the most important book of the Orthodox liturgical services; the Bistrita Monastery and the Dealu Monastery in Targoviste are in a dispute as to where the first printed book was put out. According to a title deed released by Voivode Mihnea, the book appeared on November 10, 1508. A documented fact is that in 1861 writer Alexandru Odobescu found at the Bistrita Monastery located in Valcea County seven copies of Makarios’s ‘Euchologion’,” reports Archimandrite Veniamin Micle in his book “Hieromonk Makarios, the Romanian typographer (1508—1512),” p. 40.

“With its possessions of liturgical treasures, estates, incomes from custom dues and tax exemptions, with its important library dating from the sixteenth century, the Bistrita-based monastery founded by the noble family of the Craiovesti has been for Wallachia what Neamt has been for Moldova,” adds historian Florin Epure.

In 1861 Alexandru Odobescu “reports having found in Bistrita 150 manuscripts of which 80 in Slavonic, 40 in Romanian and 30 in Greek,” and in 1884 historian, archaeologist and epigrapher Grigore Tocilescu collected from Bistrita “two hundred sixty two books in Romanian, Greek and Slavonic, as well as Slavonic and Romanian manuscripts” (as states Archimandrite Veniamin Micle in his book “The Bistrita Monastery of the Oltenia Region,” p. 241).

This is where the most important Romanian school comes into being in the sixteenth century. In 1620 monk and chronicler Mihail Moxa writes at Bistrita the first universal history titled “The Chronograph of Wallachia.” The manuscript is currently kept in Moscow. Its importance resides in the fact that after approaching in the beginning problems of universal history, the author gets in the end to talk about the history of Romanians, presenting, among others, the battle given by Mircea the Elder at Rovine (this description is considered to be the source of inspiration for poet Mihai Eminescu’s ‘Third Epistle’). To accomplish his work, Mihail Moxa used important documents of that time: “The Chronicle of Constantine Manasses” (12th century), the “Chronographikon syntomon” by Patriarch Nikephoros of Constantinople”,”The New Serbian Chronicles”,”The Bulgarian Anonymous Chronicle.”

Beyond the competition for the honor of having released the first printed book, what is clear to the historians is that the print shop in Ramnic placed the town on the chart of major cultural centers as an ancient Wallachian pole of printing efflorescence.

“It all starts on March 16, 1705, when Anthimos of Iviria is appointed Bishop of Ramnic,” says Ion Soare.

Setting off for Ramnic — where he will stay until January 27, 1708 — from Snagov, where he had been serving as abbot of the local monastery, Anthimos of Iviria took with him a part of the printing equipment from Snagov. These presses that could print both in Romanian and Greek rolled out numerous books, which will build the fame of the city of at the foot of the Capela hill as a true “capital of master typographers,” as historian Nicolae Iorga puts it.

The first book to appear in the new Ramnic print shop is the Greek-language “Tome of Joy” (1705), which is a response on behalf of the Orthodox Church to the expansionist trend of Catholicism and Calvinism. As many as 58 typographers, engravers, correctors and typesetters were known in the period 1705-1825, during the lifetime of the print shop. Some great scholars will work here, leaving a strong mark on the spiritual life of the Romanian society. Thus, two remarkable figures in Ramnic are master typographer Mihail Istanovici, or Bishop Damaschin of the Ramnic Archdiocese, one of Oltenia’s spiritual leaders to leave a rich legacy.

“Multilingual and well-read, Damaschin stands out through his immense activity as a translator, but also through his fortitude in defending the rights of the Romanian Church in front of the Austrian conquerors. Other first-rank scholars of the Romanian Orthodox Church are Bishops Innocent, Clement — a former disciple of Damaschin — Chesarie and Filaret,” says historian Florin Epure.

After 1742, Ramnic becomes the second printing center of Wallachia and stays as such until the end of the eighteenth century. The print shop in Blaj and the letterpress used to print the Cyrillic books put out in Blaj in the second half of the eighteenth century originate from Ramnic.

“The print shop in Ramnic was a hotbed from where written culture irradiated not only among the Romanians, but also to their south-western neighbors, who place it on a forefront position in the history of Serbian culture and literature, acknowledging the unstinting support they received in times of hardship from the Romanian people. Metropolitan Pavel Nenadovic who obtained in 1751 the authorization to open a print shop at Sremski Karlovici, turned to the Ramnic Diocese where three of his typographers were trained,” adds Professor Ion Soare.

The dissemination range of the Ramnic-printed books was far-reaching, with all three Romanian principalities feeling the tremendous irradiation power of this cultural center, as it penetrated as far as to northern Transylvania and the south of Banat, contributing to the strengthening of the Romanian cultural unity.

Cozia, Govora, Bistrita and Ramnic are the centers where the Romanian language was born in hard labor, in a period when the Romanians were not allowed to write in the language of their dreams, in which they sang their ballads, laments, or told their ancient tales.

“The fact that the Romanian language came into existence in written form led to the subsequent explosion of the Enlightenment in the mid-nineteenth century, to the appearance of the Vacaresti family of writers — precursors of modern Romanian literature — of Alecsandri and essentially, of landmark poet Mihai Eminescu. It actually paved the way for the emergence of Romanian literature,” concludes historian Florin Epure.AGERPRES

IAR 111 ‘Excelsior’ supersonic mothership
Photo credit: arcaspace.com

ARCA’s story begins in 1998, when a few aerospace engineering students visiting Sibiu city (not far from where the Memorial House of rocketry and astronautics founding father Hermann Oberth sits) vowed to give the until then lacklustre Romanian aerospace research some impetus. One of these enthusiasts was ARCA president Dumitru Popescu. In 1999, ARCA was legally registered as a non-governmental association.

ARCA’s headquarters and yards are located in the Pausesti-Maglasi commune, ten kilometers from Ramnicu Valcea. This is where the Romanian dream of the first home-built supersonic aircraft developed by Romanian engineers is taking wing.

“ARCA appeared out of the necessity to create and do positive things, to do applied research and strive for reaching as high as possible, because our major goal is to go to the outer space, this is where we started from,” explains Dumitru Popescu.

ARCA’s achievements are already well known. Among them, the Demonstrator 2 Rocket, equipped with the world’s first engine made of composite, reusable material, and which was successfully launched on September 9, 2004 from the Cape Midia Air Force Polygon. This was the first 100 percent Romanian-made civil rocket. Then there is Stabilo — the suborbital manned vehicle that has accomplished two missions so far, the second completed in 2007, at 12,000 m above the Black Sea. Also worth mentioning is the suborbital rocket HELEN 2, a technological demonstrator for the Google Lunar X Prize Competition.

Actually, the main objective of ARCA’s spatial program is the launch of a lunar probe capable of beaming images from the Moon down to the Earth.

“There were 20 teams left in the contest, who are allowed to use only 10 percent government funding, the rest of 90 percent must come from private funds. ARCA has so far used only private funds, as the Romanian Government and local and county administrations did not get involved in sponsoring it,” says Dumitru Popescu.

Another ARCA first rank achievement is HAAS II, a three-stage rocket built for the Lunar X Prize Competition, which is capable to place a 400 kg payload into low Earth orbit. ARCA started to build the IAR 111 Excelsior supersonic jet as a carrier for the HAAS II rocket, for taking it to the launching altitude. This is the first Romanian supersonic aircraft and will also be used for the development of spatial technologies, for space tourism.

The second engine of the supersonic being built at Pausesti-Maglasi was completed to an extent of 50 percent; overall, four complete aggregates and 12 combustion chambers need to be built. The Executor engine uses liquid oxygen as oxidizer and kerosene as fuel. The engine’s vacuum thrust is 23 tonnes-force and its maximum operation time during flight is 190 seconds. Thanks to the extensive use of composite materials and duralumin, the Executor engine weighs only 210 kg, which results in a thrust / weight ratio of 110, the best ever achieved by a European engine. ARCA expects an even better ratio after the completion of the tests.

“Executor is ARCA’s most important program so far. When the tests are completed, we will have a high technology product, a top-notch achievement at European and global scale. We pride ourselves with the fact that this is a privately-financed Romanian program. Executor will allow us to approach orbital flights. We were very particular about building all engine components at ARCA’s site. As we don’t depend on subcontractors, costs are lower and we have greatly increased the speed of execution. Moreover, any necessary change regarding performance enhancement will be easily and rapidly implemented,” says the ARCA president.

The latest achievement of the ARCA team was announced on February 13, 2014, when the electrically-powered unmanned air vehicle Air Strato took off for the first time, rose to the altitude of 25 meters, and then landed. Air Strato was powered by four electric engines, two of which had the role to reduce the take-off distance. Suspensions were installed on the landing gear for difficult track tests.

“The aircraft was equipped with 10 percent of the power accumulators required for the commercial version, so we added ballast to simulate the take-off weight. The additional engines were installed in order to increase the thrust on grassy field and reduce the take-off distance. The suspensions on the landing gear ensured a smooth run. It took just 30 m to take off using the engines at maximum thrust. The aircraft’s climb rate was impressive,” said ARCA flight dynamics engineer Teodor Diaconu.

Air Strato is an automatic, electrically powered machine that can reach heights of up to 18 km and has a flight range of seven hours with internal accumulators and three days, respectively, when using solar panels. It can carry a variable load of more than 30 kg, consisting of surveillance equipment and scientific instruments.

So, it is not long until the first Romanian supersonic will take to the skies, propelling Ramnicu Valcea to the constellation of international aeronautics centres, thanks to a team of dreamers who hone technological marvels here, in Pausesti-Maglasi. AGERPRES