Justin Capră facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Justin Virgilius Capră
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Capră in 2011
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| Born | 22 February 1933 Măgureni, Prahova County, Romania
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| Died | 19 January 2015 (aged 81) Ploiești, Romania
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| Citizenship | Romanian |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Aeronautical engineering |
Virgilius Justin Capră (February 22, 1933 – January 19, 2015) was a clever Romanian engineer and inventor. He was known for his ideas about making machines more efficient, especially cars and engines. He also claimed to have invented the jet pack.
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Life and Early Inventions
Justin Capră was born in Măgureni, a place in Prahova County, Romania. He studied to become an aeronautical engineer, which means he learned how to design and build aircraft.
Capră said he created over a hundred inventions during his life. However, official records only show two patents in his name. A patent is like a special document that proves you invented something and gives you rights to it.
Fuel-Efficient Vehicles
Justin Capră was very interested in making vehicles that used less fuel. He worked on many different types of machines:
- He designed 72 cars that were very good at saving fuel.
- He also created 15 unusual engines.
- He worked on seven different aircraft designs.
One of his early ideas was a motor built around 1949–1950 that could respond to voice commands. Imagine telling your car what to do!
The Virgilius Car
In 1955, Capră built a unique two-wheel car. He named it the Virgilius. This car used an airplane engine and could go very fast, up to 300 kilometers per hour (about 186 miles per hour). It was also quite light, weighing only 250 kilograms (about 550 pounds).
The Soleta Car
Another one of his famous cars was called the Soleta. He made a model of it in 1973. The Soleta was unusually small and incredibly fuel-efficient. It used only 0.5 liters of gasoline to travel 100 kilometers. That's like driving from one city to another on just a tiny bit of fuel!
Later in his life, Capră continued to develop new ideas. He focused on making battery-powered motors. He wanted these motors to be more efficient and lighter, which would be great for electric vehicles.
The Jet Pack Controversy
Perhaps Justin Capră's most famous claim was that he invented the jet pack. A jet pack is a device that lets a person fly through the air using powerful jets of gas.
Capră's Claim
According to Capră, he first suggested his jet pack idea to the Romanian Academy in 1956. He said he finished building it in 1958. When the Academy wasn't interested, he offered his idea to the American Embassy. Because he approached the embassy, he was put in jail by the government at the time.
Capră claimed he flew his jet pack and even received a patent for it in 1958. He later showed pictures of a device that looked like a jet pack. However, he couldn't prove exactly when he built it, if he truly flew it, or when the photos were taken. He also never explained how he learned to fly it, how long he stayed in the air, or why there were no official records of his flight from that time.
Conflicting Stories
Even with these unanswered questions, many people in Romania believe that Capră invented the jet pack. He did build two devices that looked like jet packs. The second one was made in the mid-1960s, and he said this was the groundbreaking model. He also admitted that his 1958 design didn't actually work.
Capră claimed that an American jet pack design only appeared in 1962, four years after his own. However, records show that a team from Bell Laboratories applied for a patent in 1960. Another team from Thompson Ramo Woolridge in Ohio filed their patent in 1958, the same year Capră said he filed his in Romania.
Despite the doubts about Capră's claims, many Romanians still believe that at least one of his jet packs flew before Bell's. Some Romanian sources even say that "the Americans" stole his design. It's possible that Capră saw the Bell model fly and then copied it, as he had no clear proof of building anything before 1967.
His second jet pack model is now in a museum in Bucharest. However, it's likely he never actually flew this one either. Later in his life, he began to say that he beat Bell by two years.
Justin Capră lived in Filipeștii de Pădure in his later years. He passed away in Ploiești on January 19, 2015.
