Ioan "Ionel" Nicolae Romanescu (14 April 1895 – 1 November 1918) or Jean Romanesco in French was a Romanian pilot and aviation pioneer, he built and flew the first glider in Romania in 1910.

He bought books and magazines about the first flyers and dedicated his time to documenting, designing and building gliders and learning how to fly.

Finally, after much toil and successive design changes, in 1910, at the age of 15, he completed the glider under the supervision of professor Henri Auguste,[3] which he called no.

[1] In 1911, while on holiday, in the presence of his mother, brothers and friends, at the Movilă resort, which was later called Carmen Sylva and then Eforie Sud, he set off from the rocky shore of the beach with a new glider, a small and simple monoplane, which he could dismantle in 15 minutes and carry on his back.

On 12 October 1912, the editorial staff of the Parisian magazine confirmed the receipt of the documentation sent by the second-year student Ioan Romanescu from the boarding school in Iași-Romania, calling him "the youngest glider builder".

[1][2] In 1914, Romanescu returned to the "Carol I" High School in Craiova, and from 1 October he enrolled in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Bucharest, Mathematics department.

In 1915, with this new knowledge, he started working on a large biplane of the "Canard Voisin" type in the gymnasium of the Military School from Craiova.

Ioan Romanescu enlisted voluntarily in the aviation corps even after the outbreak of war in 1914 and even though he had not yet reached the age to be called to the army.

On departure, the French Mission agreed to take him, Radu Beller and Alexandru Danielescu, three Romanian aviators who enlisted in the Foreign Legion.

[1] Romanescu was anxious to get to the front and fulfill his duty as a soldier of the Foreign Legion, however, it will not be until 6 June when he left Paris after obtaining his pilot license.

"[1] On 1 November 1918, 10 days before the end of the war, the airplane of Corporal Ioan Romanescu, on patrol at 2000 m altitude protecting reconnaissance aircraft which were attacking the enemy infantry and supporting the advance of friendly tanks, was directly hit by a shell.

Captain Armand de Turenne, the commander of the squadron, recounted the event in a letter to his parents: "Corporal Romanescu was on an air patrol in the Sissonne-Rethel region with us when suddenly his aircraft disappeared from our sight.

After the end of the fighting - on 11 November - the command of the unit found the charred remains of an airplane near Attigny and next to it the grave of a pilot, and a cross with no name written on it.

[1] He was awarded posthumously with the Romanian Virtutea Militară medal and French Croix de Guerre avec palme.