About Traian Vuia Traian Vuia (Romanian pronunciation: traˈjan ˈvuja; August 17, 1872 - September 3, 1950) was a Romanian inventor, who designed, built and flew the first self-propelling heavier-than-air aircraft in Europe, in 1906. After the graduation of high-school in Lugoj in 1892, he enrolled in the Polytechnic University of Budapest, School of Mechanics where he got his engineering diploma. He then joined the Faculty of Law in Budapest. In May, 1901 he was awarded a Ph.D. degree in Law by the Faculty of Law in Budapest with the thesis "Military and Industry, State and Contract regime".After graduation, he returned to Lugoj, where he continued studying the problem of human flight and he designed his first flying machine which he called the airplane-car and tried to build this machine, but due to financial constraints, decided to go to Paris, in July, 1902, where he thought he would find someone interested in financing his project, starting with balloon enthusiasts, but many there believed that a machine with a density greater than air's could not fly. He then went to Victor Tatin, a known theoretician and experimentator who built an aircraft model in 1879. Tatin was immediately interested in Vuia's project, but also tried to persuade him that there was nothing he could do, since Vuia's project did not have a suitable engine and it would not be stable enough. But Vuia continued to believe in his project, so he sent it to the Académie des Sciences of Paris on February 16, 1903, presenting the possibility of flying with a heavier-than-air mechanical machine and his procedure for taking off, but it was rejected for being utopian, adding the comments: