Alexandru Papană

الموسوعة الحرة

Alexandru "Alex" Papană (18 October 1906 – 17 April 1946) was a Romanian-Americanaviator and bobsledder who competed from the early 1930s to the late 1940s.

Bobsleigh career

Competing for Romania in bobsleigh, he won two medals in the two-man event at the FIBT World Championships with a gold in 1933 and a bronze in 1934. Papană also competed in two Winter Olympics, earning his best finish of fourth in the two-man event at Lake Placid, New York, in 1932. He retired from bobsledding after the 1936 Winter Olympics.

Aviation career

Papană obtained his pilot's license in 1928 while in Romania, and was already setting altitude records in 1931. At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, he competed in gliding (which was a demonstration sport), finishing a respectable 12th as the only representative from Romania. This earned him an invitation to an aerobatics competition in Los Angeles.

Papană accepted the offer, and he and his plane, a Bücker Bü 133B Jungermeister (one of only two versions of that variant ever produced) with the registration YR-PAX, were flown from Frankfurt, Germany, to New York, New York, aboard the Hindenburg airship in August 1936. He then flew across the United States from New York to Los Angeles, winning the race between the cities. In Los Angeles, he won the national air races that were held there. In December of that year, Papană finished second with the Jungermeister in a race from Miami, Florida, to Havana, Cuba.

At an airshow in Cleveland, Ohio, the following year, Papană was in a battle with fellow aviator Count Hagenburg that ended up crashing the count's aircraft. Papană offered Hagenburg his aircraft, but the count refused.

Papană's aircraft was damaged on the runway at an airport in Chicago, Illinois, in 1940. The plane was sold twice before being donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1973. The aircraft is now located at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.

قام بابانا لاحقًا باختبار الطائرات الشراعية لصالح شركة نورثروب كطيار تجريبي، وتم توثيق العديد من رحلاته في مجلة فلاينج . كما شارك في تجارب طائرة بي-61 بلاك ويدو التي شاركت في الحرب العالمية الثانية لصالح القوات الجوية للجيش الأمريكي .

أنشطة أخرى

كان Papană نشطًا أيضًا في شبابه كحارس مرمى ، ويتنافس مع فريق Colţea Bucureşti.

الحياة الشخصية

وُلد بابانا في بوخارست . تزوج مرتين. توفيت زوجته الأولى دينا، التي تزوجها عام 1938، أثناء الولادة في 5 سبتمبر من العام نفسه. ثم تزوج من جين هاكر في 30 أبريل 1945، لكن زواجهما في بيفرلي هيلز، كاليفورنيا ، لم يدم.

توفي في 17 أبريل 1946 بعد أن ترك سيارته على بُعد 27 كيلومترًا (17  ميلًا) جنوب لاس فيغاس، نيفادا . عثرت السلطات على جثة بابانا بعد ستة أيام، وعثرت على رسالة انتحار . توفي بابانا مسمومًا.

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