Homologated record at 6,929 m, then hiding under a false name

In the research of the 1990s, she was born on 21 May 1897 at Hantesti, Buciumeni commune, then in Tecuci county. In the records she was Maranda Braescu, and, in Mihai Andrei's Carpatair telling, she had come into the world with her twin brother Paul Panait. Accounts differ on the number of children in the family, so this page gives none. Her later documents hide her age: the school card says 23 May 1904, the American licence of 8 October 1932 shows her aged 27, meaning 1904 or 1905, and the British certificate says 23 May 1905.

Her first flight is said to have been at Tecuci: some accounts say 1923, at the urging of her brother Tache, a wartime air observer, others 1918, with Dumitru Naidinescu. When she asked for her own place at the military flying school, the answer was that women were not allowed in aviation. She moved to Bucharest, worked for Astra Romana and studied at the Belle Arte Academy, ceramics section, from 1924 to 1928.

In the Romanian accounts, from 1927 she is said to have written to the German engineer Otto Heinecke, a parachute maker. With 60,000 lei raised through loans she is said to have left for Berlin, bought a Schroeder parachute for 40,000 lei and, after training under Heinecke, jumped for the first time on 5 July 1928, from 600 metres over Staaken airfield. She is said to have taken the parachutist licence: Romania's first licensed woman parachutist.

On 26 October 1928, at the Baneasa meeting, she is said to have made her first jump on home soil: a simultaneous jump beside Heinecke and the American Leslie Irving, both parachute makers. One aviation volume gives 28 October instead. When she is said to have asked the authorities to back a record from 6,500 metres, they are said to have asked 25,000 lei for petrol and oil.

A campaign of demonstration jumps is said to have followed, to raise the America money, through Bucharest, Brasov, Galati, Iasi, Cluj and other cities, between 1929 and 1930. The file gives no independent dates, pilots or planes for each jump, so this page does not list them as verified facts.

On 17 August 1930, at the Satu Mare meeting, in a hard wind and heavy turbulence, she is said to have crashed on landing: a double leg fracture and broken ribs. Hospital in Satu Mare is said to have followed, then nearly 6 months in bed. In the spring of 1931 she is said to have begun again.

She is said to have wanted a Potez 25 flown by Romeo Popescu, who in the same account held the national aircraft altitude record at 10,550 metres, but he was tied up with a speed record. The Pipera commanders are said to have named Lieutenant Alexandru Papana. The plan is said to have called for gradual jumps from 3,000 metres; Papana is said to have proposed the direct jump from 6,000.

On the morning of 2 October 1931 three Potez 25s are said to have left Pipera: the record plane and two escorts, with a sporting commissioner and a doctor. With no oxygen sets, the crews are said to have climbed through hypoxia until Papana held the plane above 6,000 metres. Braescu, standing on the gunner's seat, is said to have launched herself into the void.

After 21 minutes 25 seconds she is said to have landed by Sărățuica station, over 10 km from the drop point, in a strong wind. In the same account, she recovered after nearly 3 hours. The American women's record of 5,384 metres is said to have been beaten by 616 metres. She is said to have received the Virtutea Aeronautica, Gold Cross.

The Universul daily is said to have opened a subscription list, and in December 1931 she is said to have sailed for New York. In the spring of 1932 she is said to have trained around Sacramento, with Fred Hammer, in a rented plane described as a Cessna, fitted for high altitude.

Record day is said to have brought one mishap after another: the pilot's oxygen is said to have run out at 6,000 metres, then hers, then the plane is said to have sat far from the drop zone. The money is said to have run out before the record, and the Romanian community of San Francisco is said to have raised more. On 19 May 1932 she is said to have climbed to the reported reading of 24,000 feet and jumped. The descent is said to have lasted over 25 minutes.

Anghel Ciucur's account says the barographs went to Washington, where the temperature and pressure corrections are said to have given 22,733 feet. The arithmetical margin over the earlier record invoked, of 21,171 feet, is 476 metres. She is said to have been declared absolute world champion, in the same account. Earhart began her solo flight across the Atlantic on 20 May 1932. The American newsreel announced the 24,000-foot figure; the archive copy is catalogued 23 May.

After the record she is said to have crossed America to New York and joined the Curtiss Wright flying school at Roosevelt Field. On 20 August 1932 she is said to have flown at the Montreal demonstration, in a formation of 30 planes. On 8 October 1932 she is said to have taken private pilot licence no. 27166, presented in the Romanian accounts as the first American licence of a woman of Europe.

On 24 March 1933 she is said to have returned to Bucharest. King Carol II is said to have awarded her the Virtutea Aeronautica, Gold Cross with two bars. From fresh subscription lists she is said to have ordered a Miles Hawk M.2H, christened “Aurel Vlaicu”, asked for with a closed cabin. She is said to have brought it home in 1935, leaving England on 21 August and landing at Bucharest on 11 October. On 25 March 1935 she is said to have taken British licence no. 12660.

The plane, serial 150, is said to have become YR-ADB on 10 March 1936, in the same account. The raids said to have followed are dated differently across the secondary sources: the Rome–Tripoli crossing, of about 1,100 km in about 6 hours 10 minutes, appears now in 1935, now in 1936, now in 1937, and the file reproduces no flight log. This page gives it no exact date. Later she is said to have bought a Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun, serial 1548, taken over on 2 November 1938 as YR-MDI.

She is said to have instructed at the 1st Parachute Battalion at Baneasa. In the war she is said to have flown as a volunteer with the White Squadron on the eastern front, then on the western front, where the secondary sources give different units: 13, 180 or the Sanitary Squadron, depending on the source. For her front service she is said to have received the Queen Marie Cross, 3rd class, in 1943.

After the war she is said to have signed, with other public figures, the memorandum condemning the rigging of the November 1946 elections. The document is said to have reached the Soviet delegation. She is said to have been sentenced in her absence to 2 years in prison and to have gone into hiding, in Neculai Staicu's reconstruction: 14 months at Rachiteni, then through Iasi villages, at Miclauseni monastery, operated under a false name at Roman.

In Neculai Staicu's research, at the end of 1947 she is said to have hidden at Cluj, with the nuns of the Congregation of Our Lady, as Maria Popescu. She is said to have died on 2 February 1948, aged 50, in Professor Iuliu Hatieganu's clinic. She is held to have been buried in the Central Cemetery, plot II B, number 1550, but the ending is not known with certainty: one archive note even speaks of a departure for France. The grave carries her true name today, and so does the Bacau parachute battalion, since 1996.