Royal Romanian Naval Aviation


The Royal Romanian Naval Aviation was the air arm of the Royal Romanian Navy. The Naval Aviation was founded in the 1920s, its first floatplanes and flying boats being of Romanian origin. These were followed by imports from Italy and Germany, resulting by the time of the Second World War in a sizable and active force of over 70 watercraft.

Development

The first Romanian seaplane squadron was founded in the late 1920s. It consisted of four native-built RAS-1 Getta reconnaissance flying boats. The first Romanian seaplanes were essentially floatplane versions of the SET 7 biplane, a total of eight being built for the Romanian Naval Aviation.

Italian flying boats

Before the war, Romania acquired seven Savoia-Marchetti S.55 double-hulled flying boats as well as eleven Savoia-Marchetti SM.62 biplane flying boats. Five of the latter were licence-built locally at the IAR factory in Brașov. In 1941, twelve CANT Z.501 were also purchased. The twelve Z.501s formed Escadrila 101, with more acquired later for Escadrila 102, which also possessed an unspecified number of Savoia-Marchetti S.56. An unspecified amount of Savoia-Marchetti S.59 was also acquired before the war.

German floatplanes

For training purposes, three Heinkel He 42 were purchased. Before the war, 24 Heinkel He 114 were also acquired, followed by an unspecified amount of Arado Ar 196 during the war.

List of seaplanes

Flying boats

Floatplanes

Operational history

The most notable achievements of the Romanian Naval Aviation during World War II were the sinking of two Soviet submarines by a single Z.501 in August 1941, followed by the capture of a Soviet armed merchantman by a group of Heinkels in October. Romanian seaplanes monitored Soviet Navy locations and movements for the Luftwaffe bombers, which, with assistance from Escadrila 102, extirpated Soviet submarines from the Black Sea by late-autumn 1941.
A slight defeat came in the autumn of 1943, when a Z.501 was shot down by Soviet ace Grigoriy Rechkalov.