Legendary Aviators - Constantin Cantacuzino

Romfilatelia and Romanian Post introduce into circulation on Tuesday, November 11th, 2025, a tribute postage stamp issue, entitled ‘Legendary Aviators. Constantin Cantacuzino’, dedicated to a heroic pilot of the Romanian military aviation, an emblematic personality who embodied courage, sacrifice and the desire for freedom and national sovereignty.

The issue consists of a postage stamp, a perforated souvenir sheet, a First Day Cover and a philatelic folder with a special product in a limited run printing.

Constantin Cantacuzino, the son of Mihai Cantacuzino and Maria Rosetti (who, after her husband’s death, married George Enescu), was admiringly regarded as the prince of Romanian aviation. Born in Bucharest in 1905, he was a descendant of a noble family of long-standing tradition.

Alongside his passions for sports, motor racing, and motorcycling, he discovered aviation at an early age.

At the age of 25, he obtained his pilot’s license. In 1939, he was the winner of the National Aerobatics Championship.

He was part of the team of pilots for the national airline LARES (Liniile Aeriene Române în Exploatarea Statului, in English: Romanian State-Operated Air Lines) and, thanks to his professionalism, became the head of LARES Company. He left this relatively comfortable position and volunteered to join the fighter pilots on the Eastern Front in the summer of 1941. He was part of Fighter Squadron 53 and participated in air battles, managing to shoot down five Soviet bombers. For a period of time, as chief pilot of LARES, he carried out over 30 transport missions in the war zone.

In May 1942, he was assigned to Pipera for training and conversion as a fighter pilot on the Messerschmitt 109E aircraft. In 1943, he returned to the combat squadrons, belonging to the 7thFighter Group. The group operated on Soviet territory, carrying out missions to protect reconnaissance and bomber aircraft. During these operations, Constantin Cantacuzino distinguished himself as the first and only Romanian pilot to have carried out night fighter missions (a total of eighteen).

After a period between April 1943 and May 1944, during which he was engaged in aerial combat against the USSR, he served with the 9th Fighter Group, taking part in battles against Horthy’s Hungary and Nazi Germany.

Having completed over 600 combat missions and credited with more than 60 enemy aircraft shot down, Constantin Cantacuzino ranks among the best aviators of his time.

After the war, he returned to the LARES Company, serving as a pilot. It is noteworthy that in 1947 he was the pilot who flew the Romanian Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. In the following years, he began to feel the harsh effects of the communist regime’s persecution – first through the confiscation of his properties, and later through surveillance and temporary bans on flying outside the country’s borders.

Sensing an imminent danger of arrest, he took advantage of his authorization to operate a Bucharest–Milan flight and remained in Italy, handing over the aircraft to his co-pilot and requesting political asylum.

He initially settled in France and later in Spain, where he remained until the end of his life. In his adopted country, he continued to demonstrate his exceptional flying skills, taking part in air shows and earning high praise both from the Romanian diaspora and from aviation specialists.

In order to earn a living, he took a job with a utility aviation company. He passed away at the age of only 52, after falling ill with a stomach ulcer. He was buried in a cemetery in Madrid, far from the country he loved and served with courage during the World War II.

The postage stamp with the face value of Lei 11 features a photographic image of pilot Constantin Cantacuzino in his military aviation uniform, alongside the fighter aircraft Messerschmitt Bf 109 G bearing the insignia of the United States Air Force, the aircraft with which the ‘prince of aviation’ achieved most of his victories.

The perforated souvenir sheet, with the face value of Lei 30, depicts Constantin Cantacuzino in a fighter pilot uniform, alongside a panorama featuring the trajectory of an aircraft performing a looping manoeuvre during an aerobatic flight.

The First Day Cover reproduces the aircraft used by Constantin Cantacuzino for aerobatics.

Romfilatelia thanks the specialists from the Ministry of National Defence, the Romanian Air Force, and the National Museum of Romanian Aviation for their documentary support granted in the development of this postage stamp issue.