A French-Romanian works at Brașov

Romania wanted an air force that did not depend on foreign factories. So on 1 November 1925 the government, with the French firms Blériot-SPAD and Lorraine-Dietrich and the Astra works of Arad, founded Industria Aeronautică Română at Brașov in Transylvania. It built both airframes and engines, starting with licence-built Morane-Saulnier and Potez types. The first aircraft to carry the IAR name, the IAR CV 11 fighter designed by Elie Carafoli, flew in 1930, and in 1935 an IAR 16 set a Romanian altitude record of 11,631 metres. By 1938 the state had bought out the French and IAR was wholly Romanian.

The IAR 80 and the Liberators

When Romania demanded metal aircraft, only Poland’s PZL would sell the know-how, and IAR licence-built 95 PZL P.11f fighters from 1936, then the P.24. From that experience Ion Grosu’s team produced the IAR 80, a low-wing all-metal fighter first flown on 12 April 1939 and judged comparable to the Hurricane and early Bf 109. About 450 were built. On 1 August 1943 IAR 80s rose against the 178 B-24 Liberators of Operation Tidal Wave over the Ploiești refineries. At its peak in 1942 IAR employed 7,000 people and built an aircraft a day, more than 1,000 aircraft and 2,000 engines between 1927 and 1944.

Bombed, then made to build tractors

American raids on 16 April and 6 May 1944 forced the works to disperse across the country. After Romania changed sides in August 1944, Soviet troops seized the aeronautical stock and set IAR to repairing lorries. On 12 October 1945 a contract to build tractors ended aircraft production; on 26 December 1946 the first Romanian tractor, the IAR-22, rolled out of the former aero-engine repair hall. In 1948 the works became Uzina Tractorul Brașov, and after 23 years Romania’s premier aircraft maker was gone.

Reborn at Ghimbav: Alouettes and Pumas

Aircraft returned in 1968, when a new works was set up at Ghimbav from a former glider workshop, first as ICA and later again as IAR. Licences from France transformed it. From 1971 it built the IAR 316B, an Alouette III, of which some 250 were completed; on 22 October 1975 the first IAR 330 Puma flew, and about 167 followed, around a third exported, to customers including Pakistan, the UAE, Sudan and Ivory Coast. With Elbit, IAR later produced 24 IAR 330 SOCAT anti-tank Pumas. Since 1968 it has built more than 360 helicopters, more than 800 gliders and motor gliders and about 136 light aircraft.

Bell walks away, Airbus moves in

In the late 1990s Bell agreed in principle to buy 70 per cent of IAR, linked to a plan to build the AH-1RO Dracula attack helicopter locally; in November 1999 Bell abandoned it. Instead IAR formed Eurocopter Romania with the European helicopter maker, holding 49 per cent, and attempts to privatise IAR itself failed in 2007 and 2008. The company remains largely state-owned and now concentrates on maintaining, overhauling and upgrading helicopters, with about 1,200 specialists. Its neighbour, now Airbus Helicopters Romania, announced a 52 million euro plan in 2015 to build the H215M Super Puma at Ghimbav.

Fabrieken

• Brașov works · Brașov, Transylvania — Original airframe and engine works 1925–1945; bombed 1944, then a tractor factory
• Ghimbav works · Ghimbav, beside Brașov-Ghimbav airport — Re-established 1968; helicopter production and overhaul

Mensen

• Elie Carafoli · aeronautical engineer — Designed the IAR CV 11
• Ion Grosu · design team leader — Led the IAR 80 design

Records en primeurs

• IAR 16: Romanian altitude record of 11,631 m, 1935
• Of 21 aircraft types built at IAR to 1945, 15 were its own designs