George Valentin Bibescu
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George Valentin Bibescu (born March 22, 1880, Bucharest, died July 2, 1941, Bucharest) was a Romanian early aviation pioneer.
George Valentin Bibescu, nephew of Gheorghe Bibescu, domnitor (ruler) of Wallachia, was born in Bucharest. Bibescu had an early interest in aviation; he flew a balloon named "Romania" brought from France 1905. Later he tried to teach himself how to fly a Voisin airplane, also brought from France, but without success. After Louis Blériot's demonstrative flight in Bucharest on October 18, 1909, he went to Paris and enrolled in Blériot's school in Pau and on January 23, 1910 obtained the International Pilot License number 20.
After returning from France, Bibescu organized the Cotroceni Piloting School in Bucharest where Mircea Zorileanu and Nicolae Capşa were licensed.
On May 5, 1912, G. V. Bibescu founded the Romanian National Aeronautic League.
Between 1927 and 1930, he was vice-president and between 1930 and 1941 president of the International Aeronautic Federation.
He was co-founder of the Romanian Automobile Club (1901), and of the Romanian Olympic Committee (1914). He died on July 2, 1941 in Bucharest.
He married Martha (Marte) Lahovary. They had one daughter, Valentine, born 27 August 1903. Valentine married Dmitri Ghika-Comăneşti in 1925.
During World War II the Nazis expelled Marta and she fled by train to Paris. Valentine stayed to work as a nurse in the hospitals. After the Soviets drove out the Nazis, Valentine was imprisoned in the Soviet Gulag and it took her mother ten years to obtain her release.
