Tour of Europe 1934

The tourist plane in 1934 was the fourth and final FAI - trophy of the international sightseeing flight (French: Challenge International de Tourisme ), which took place between 28 August and 16 September in Warsaw. The four European flights between 1929 and 1934 were the most important pre-war air competitions in Europe. In 1934 the competition was won by Polish pilots in the overall ranking.

The opening parade. From left: Polish crew, three planes, Czechoslovak crew, German crew. The Italian team has not yet arrived.

overview

Poland and the Polish Aero Club organized this sightseeing flight because the Pole Franciszek Ż Wirko won the last competition in 1932 . In June 1933 the competition rules for 1934 were announced. As in the previous competition, three categories were assessed: technology, an air race over Europe and a speed rating . The main idea of ​​the competition was to promote the construction of touring aircraft, but the quality of the aircraft was not the only important factor, the skills of the pilots were at least as important.

The opening ceremony was held at noon on August 28, 1934 at Mokotów Airport in Warsaw. The Italian team missed the opening because the participants got into bad weather on the way from Italy to Warsaw.

The number of teams and their planes decreased from 43 to 34 compared to the competition in 1932, as fulfilling the requirements of the tender became more and more complex. The participating aircraft were manned by two people, a pilot and a mechanic. In 1934 only teams from four countries were represented: Poland (12), Germany (13), Italy (6) and Czechoslovakia (3). The British pilot Walter MacPershon took part as a member of the Polish team. The French team withdrew their registration for the competition with 8 aircraft because their Caudron C.500 aircraft was not completed in the prescribed time and was too heavy. The competition was endowed with 100,000 French francs (FF) for the winner , the second won 40,000 FF, the third placed 20,000 FF, the fourth another 10,000 FF and the 15 pilots who followed were rewarded with 6,000 FF.

Planes

Fieseler Fi 97 by the pilot Wolf Hirth

The competition was a comparison between sport and touring aircraft, so the aircraft had to be able to take at least two people on board, have a short take-off and landing distance and complete an overland flight at a good cruising speed . On the occasion of this competition, the manufacturers of the participating countries, with the exception of MacPherson's modified De Havilland DH.80 Puss Moth , developed new aircraft. All aircraft were made of all-metal or composite construction, single-engine with 3 or 4 seats, a closed cabin, landing flaps and slats.

Polish PZL.26 from Ignacy Giedgowd in competition colors

Most of the aircraft were self-supporting low-wing aircraft: the German Bf 108A (4), Fieseler Fi 97 (5) and Klemm Kl 36 (4), the Polish PZL.26 (5) and the Italian Pallavicino PS-1 (2) or braced low-wing aircraft : the Czechoslovak Aero A.200 (2) and the Italian Breda Ba.39 (2) and Ba-42 (2). The main aircraft of the Polish crew made an exception - the braced high- wing RWD-9 (7), one of which was flown by a Czech pilot, and the Puss Moth. The only aircraft with retractable main landing gear were the Bf 108 and the PS-1.

De Havilland DH.80A Puss Moth from 1931

The German aircraft had starting numbers 12–26, the Italians 41–46, the Czechoslovaks 51–54 and the Poles 61–81. The start numbers were applied to the fuselage within a black framed, white square.

Technical competitions

The technical assessment of the aircraft to be compared began on August 29th. Since it was a competition between sport and touring aircraft, special attention was paid to a comfortable and well-arranged cabin, into which one also had to be able to enter easily. It was important to have a third or fourth seat and the comfortable arrangement of the seats, good instrumentation and operation, easy starting of the engine, simple procedure for creating the wings and construction of all-metal or steel fuselage with cladding. All of these features were rated with points. In order to assess the visibility from the closed cabin, a light was placed in a darkened hall in the middle of the cabin and then the lighting of the hall was assessed. The permissible curb weight was 560.56 kg and was exceeded by all German, two Italian aircraft and the Puss Moth and had to be achieved by removing equipment.

The technical assessment lasted until September 4th and most of the points were achieved by the Bf 108 (450–452 points), then the Pallavicino PS-1 (438), Fi 97 (428–431), Aero A.200 (429) and RWD-9 (427). The lower ranks were occupied by the Klemm Kl 36 - (394–407), PZL.26 - (383), Puss Moth (373) and the Bredas (323–346).

The short start competition was held from September 3rd to 4th. Here the teams had to fly over an 8 meter high barrier after starting from as short a distance as possible. The winner was the Czech Vojtěch Žaček, who flew over the obstacle with his Aero A.200 after just 74.5 m. This was followed by Jerzy Bajan (RWD-9) and Ján Ambruš with the second A.200. The Polish RWD-9 and PZL.26 and the German Fi 97 also did well in the competition while the Italians and the other German teams did very poorly. Some of them needed more than 100 m. In the European sightseeing flight in 1932 , the record was still 91.6 m.

Short start competition
	pilot	nation	plane	distance	Points
1.	Vojtěch Žaček	Czechoslovakia	Aero A.200	74.5 m	141
2.	Jerzy Bajan	Poland	RWD-9S	76.1 m	140
3.	Ján Ambruš	Czechoslovakia	Aero A.200	77.6 m	138
4th	Szczepan Grzeszczyk	Poland	PZL.26	78.2 m	138
5.	Gerhard Hubrich	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	78.3 m	138

After the technical assessment and the short start competition on September 4th, the German Bf 108s were in the lead: Theo Osterkamp (597 points), Werner Junck (596) and Otto Brindlinger (594), then Vojtěch Žaček (A.200, 594), Jerzy Bajan (RWD-9, 591) and Ján Ambruš (A.200, 591), followed by the Fi 97 and RWD-9.

This was followed by the short landing competition on September 4th and 5th. The aim was to come to a stop as short as possible behind an 8 meter high barrier. The best result with 75 m (210 points) was achieved by Hans Seidemann (Fi 97). In the first ten places there were several Fieseler, then the Polish RWD-9 and PZL.26 and MacPherson's Puss Moth. The Czech A.200 had the worst results, requiring over 117 m. Together with the Bf 108 and the Breda, the Czechs took the rearmost places. In 1932 the best value was 92.4 m.

Short landing competition
	pilot	nation	plane	distance	Points
1.	Hans Seidemann	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	75 m	210
2.	Tadeusz Karpiński	Poland	PZL.26	78.2 m	138
3.	Gerhard Hubrich	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	79 m	206
4th	Andrzej Włodarkiewicz	Poland	PZL.26	79.7 m	205
5.	Jerzy Bajan	Poland	RWD-9S	79.8 m	205
6th	Walter MacPherson	Poland / United Kingdom	DH-80A	80.8 m	203

The fuel consumption competition on a 594 km long sightseeing flight was held on September 5th. Here three Bf 108 won , which brought in 86-95 points, then five Poles with 73-79 points. The Italians also got good results, while the German Fi 97 and Kl 36 and the Czechs did badly.

Competition minimum fuel consumption
	pilot	nation	plane	kg / 100 km	Points
1.	Karl Francke	German Empire	Bf 108A	10.5	95
2.	Werner Junck	German Empire	Bf 108A	11.07	90
3.	Theo Osterkamp	German Empire	Bf 108A	11.48	86
4th	Jerzy Bajan	Poland	RWD-9S	12.11	79
5.	Szczepan Grzeszczyk	Poland	PZL.26	12.26	78

After all the exams had been completed on September 5, the overall leaders were: Jerzy Bajan (RWD-9S, 875 points), Tadeusz Karpiński (RWD-9S, 856), Hans Seidemann (Fi 97, 850), Gerhard Hubrich (Fi 97, 848), Stanisław Płonczyński (RWD-9, 844), then Karl Francke (Bf 108A), Jan Buczyński (RWD-9), Wolf Hirth (Fi 97), Szczepan Grzeszczyk (PZL.26).

A slow flight competition started on August 31, but could not be continued until September 2 due to unfavorable weather. Some teams didn't finish the competition until September 6th. The Pole Jerzy Bajan flew the slowest with his RWD-9 . The minimum travel speed was only 54.14 km / h. The other Poles also stayed below 60 km / h, followed by the Czechs and the German Kl 36 and Fi 97, the Italian Breda with over 75 km / h was not rated because its slat construction proved to be unsuitable in practice.

Competition slow flight
	pilot	nation	plane	Minimum trip	Points
1.	Jerzy Bajan	Poland	RWD-9S	54.14 km / h	83
2.	Jan Anderle	Czechoslovakia	RWD-9W	55.24 km / h	79
3.	Ján Ambruš	Czechoslovakia	Aero A.200	55.88 km / h	76
4th	Stanisław Płonczyński	Poland	RWD-9S	56.72 km / h	73
5.	Wolfgang Stein	German Empire	Terminal Kl 36	57.67 km / h	69
6th	Fritz Morzik	German Empire	Terminal Kl 36	57.78 km / h	68

Bajan's RWD-9 folding in the wings

On September 1, the competition took place in which the practicability of wing folding was assessed. Folding in the wings saves space in the hangar and was part of the tender requirements. The space requirement of the aircraft and the mechanics as well as the practical procedure were evaluated. The winners were known on September 6th: The first seven places were held by the RWD-9 with 36 points, followed by four Italians.

A German (Bf 108) and an Italian (PS-1) aircraft were damaged in technical competitions and had to give up. After the technical competitions, the top positions were occupied by the RWD-9 and Fi 97 while the Bf 108, Kl 36 and PZL.26 were rather average. The Italian planes could not convince and only occupied the lower ranks with 559-801 points.

Final result of the technical competition
	pilot	nation	plane	Points
1.	Jerzy Bajan	Poland	RWD-9 S.	994
2.	Tadeusz Karpiński	Poland	RWD-9S	954
3.	Stanisław Płonczyński	Poland	RWD-9S	953
4th	Hans Seidemann	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	939
5.	Gerhard Hubrich	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	936
6th	Jan Buczyński	Poland	RWD-9S	920
7th	Stefan Florjanowicz	Poland	RWD-9W	919
8th.	Wolf Hirth	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	915
8th.	Ján Ambruš	Czechoslovakia	Aero A.200	915
8th.	Jan Anderle	Czechoslovakia	RWD-9W	915

Air races over Europe

The second main part of the competition was a 9,537.4 km long air race over Europe and North Africa on a given route: Warsaw - Königsberg - Berlin - Cologne - Brussels - Paris - Bordeaux - Pau - Madrid - Seville - Casablanca - Meknès - Sidi Bel Abbes - Algiers - Biskra - Tunis - Palermo - Naples - Rome - Rimini - Zagreb - Vienna - Brno - Prague - Katowice - Lviv - Vilnius - Warsaw. A total of eight checkpoints were set up, including in Tangier , Messina and Castelfranco Veneto . The flight route was longer and more difficult than in the previous European sightseeing flights. The highest average speed and compliance with the flight route were assessed. Anyone who arrived at the checkpoints more than three nights after the expected arrival or flew less than 130 km / h cruising speed was disqualified.

The race started on September 7th between 5:00 and 5:30 am. The Bf 108A were able to fly a clear lead and were the first to fly over Berlin. The 24 fastest aircraft reached Paris that day after 1752.4 km (10 Poles, 8 Germans, 3 Czechs and 3 Italians). The German Wolfgang Stein (Kl 36) and the Italian team captain Ambrogio Colombo (Ba-42) had to retire due to engine damage, some other teams also had technical problems, but were able to fix them.

On the next day (September 8th) some crews had problems in the morning with poor visibility to find the Bordeaux airfield . The very fast Bf 108A were particularly affected. In between, these even had to land due to the weather and reduce their speed. Theo Osterkamp and Gerhard Hubrich had problems with the local police because they simply landed safely in an open field, they couldn't find an airfield. Ernst Krüger damaged his Klemm Kl 36 during such a safety landing and was unable to restart the race. 14 crews reached Seville that day , nine stayed in Madrid . Two crews remained in Bordeaux, including Stanisław Płonczyński (RWD-9). Andrzej Włodarkiewicz and Szczepan Grzeszczyk (PZL.26) meanwhile reached Casablanca (3715.2 km).

On September 9, all remaining teams reached Africa with Andrzej Włodarkiewicz and three Bf 108A in the lead. 18 crews reached Algiers that day. 9 Poles, 6 Germans and 3 Czechs flew 4774 total kilometers up to here. The last two teams reached Meknes that day , including Stanisław Płonczyński. Some crews have already had to give up: Fritz Morzik (the winner of 1929 and 1930 in class 36) had to stop three times because of a defective fuel pump. Szczepan Grzeszczyk also had to give up his PZL.26 in Sidi Bel Abbes due to engine problems and previous stopovers. A Kl 36 had a damaged wing and had to stay on the ground in Spain, the Pole Tadeusz Karpiński (RWD-9) was disqualified in Seville for falling below the minimum speed, the Italian pilot Pierro de Angeli fell ill and could not continue to fly. On September 10, the last ones reached Algiers, these remaining 24 crews finished the first part of the race, with the Pole Stefan Florjanowicz (RWD-9) giving up there due to engine damage.

The competition continued on September 11th in Algiers, 23 crews reached Tunis that day, and on September 12th they set off across the Mediterranean to Palermo . This flight was accompanied by the Italian Navy and French flying boats, 22 crews reached Rome that day and an Italian pilot retired from his home country due to engine damage.

On September 13th the weather was bad, but two planes reached Prague after 7924 km. The day fastest was Theo Osterkamp on Bf 108A, while two other Bf 108A had to make a stopover near Trieste due to the deteriorating weather and spent the night in Zagreb .

On September 14th, 16 crews finished the race in Warsaw to the cheering of the waiting crowd. The first one that day was Ignacy Giedgowd (PZL-26) from Poland. Among the first to arrive were five Poles, six Germans, three Czechs and two Italians. The fastest Pole to date, Andrzej Włodarkiewicz (PZL-26), had to land at Tarnów near Lemberg and retire due to engine problems, as did Walter MacPherson (Puss Moth).

On September 15, the last three crews reached Warsaw: Werner Junck and Karl Francke with their Bf 108A and Piotr Dudziński on PZL.26. The last to drop out was Jan Balcer (PZL.26) because of a compressor damage off Vilnius . Fritz Morzik (Kl 36), Tadeusz Karpiński (RWD-9) and Andrzej Włodarkiewicz (PZL.26) finished the race that day after they were unable to repair their aircraft due to technical problems.

Only 19 of the 32 crews that started finished the race with intact aircraft. The Czech team was completely at the finish with their A.200, as was the German Fieseler Fi 97. The expected good result of the Bf 108A was clouded by slow flight phases and stopovers due to the weather. The best results were achieved by the pilots who managed to fly the highest possible average speed over the entire race. The highest number of points was awarded to crews who persevered in the race, kept the route and did not spend a night outside one of the mandatory airfields.

Final result of the air race
	pilot	nation	plane	Average speed	Points
1.	Georg Pasewaldt	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	215.33 km / h	880
2.	Ignacy Giedgowd	Poland	PZL.26	213.33 km / h	880
3.	Ján Ambruš	Czechoslovakia	Aero A.200	211.12 km / h	880
4th	Piotr Dudziński	Poland	PZL.26	211.05 km / h	880
5.	Theo Osterkamp	German Empire	Bf 108A	208.74 km / h	875
6th	Hans Seidemann	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	208.28 km / h	874
7th	Stanisław Płonczyński	Poland	RWD-9	206.89 km / h	868
8th.	Jerzy Bajan	Poland	RWD-9	205.15 km / h	861
9.	Jan Anderle	Czechoslovakia	RWD-9	203.69 km / h	855
10.	Kurt Bayer	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	203.47 km / h	854

After the technical competition and the air race, Jerzy Bajan held first place in the overall classification with 1855 points. Second was Stanisław Płonczyński with 1821 points, Hans Seidemann third with 1813 points, followed by two Czechs: Ján Ambruš (1795 points) and Jan Anderle (1770). The Bf 108A pilots were disappointing 12th ( Werner Junck - 1733), 13th ( Theo Osterkamp - 1729) and 15th (Karl Francke - 1715).

Fast flight competition

The last competition was the fast flight on a 297 km long triangular course. It was launched on Sunday, August 16 at 4:00 p.m. from Mokotwskie Airfield in Warsaw, every km / h over 210 km / h was awarded a point.

The fastest three aircraft were the German Bf 108A with Theo Osterkamp in the lead with an average of 291 km / h. The next three places went to the Polish RWD-9: Stanisław Płonczyński, Jan Buczyński, Jerzy Bajan and Henryk Skrzypiński, who was tied with Hans Seidemann (Fi 97). The Pole Ignacy Giedgowd (PZL.26) and the Italian Ernesto Sanzin (Ba-39S) had to land due to engine problems and were left empty-handed.

Fast flight competition
	pilot	nation	plane	speed	Points
1.	Theo Osterkamp	German Empire	Bf 108A	291 km / h	81
2.	Karl Francke	German Empire	Bf 108A	287 km / h	77
3.	Werner Junck	German Empire	Bf 108A	283 km / h	73
4th	Stanisław Płonczyński	Poland	RWD-9S	255 km / h	45
5.	Jan Buczyński	Poland	RWD-9S	254 km / h	44
6th	Jerzy Bajan	Poland	RWD-9S	251 km / h	41
7th	Henryk Skrzypiński	Poland	RWD-9W	243 km / h	33
7th	Hans Seidemann	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	243 km / h	33
9.	Piotr Dudziński	Poland	PZL.26	241 km / h	31
10.	Gerhard Hubrich	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	239 km / h	29
10.	Georg Pasewaldt	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	239 km / h	29
12.	Wolf Hirth	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	237 km / h	27
12.	Ján Ambruš	Czechoslovakia	Aero A.200	237 km / h	27
12.	Jan Anderle	Czechoslovakia	RWD-9W	237 km / h	27
15th	Kurt Bayer	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	236 km / h	26th
16.	Vojtěch Žaček	Czechoslovakia	Aero A.200	224 km / h	14th
17th	Armando François	Italy	PS-1	223 km / h	13

The Bf 108A were able to improve their positions here, but they could not change the first four places in the overall classification: Bajan - Płonczyński - Seidemann - Ambruš - Osterkamp - Junck.

Bottom line

The Polish pilots - winners of the European sightseeing flight in 1934: pilot Jerzy Bajan (left) and mechanic Gustaw Pokrzywka (right) with Marshal Józef Piłsudski (center).

The closing ceremony was held on September 16 after the high-speed flight competition. The winner was the Polish team around Jerzy Bajan and his mechanic Gustaw Pokrzywka. Her success was not only a result of her flying skills, but also the good flight performance of her RWD-9 . Due to the victory, the Polish team would have had the right to host the next European tour in 1936, but refused for financial reasons. The FAI offered to host the other participating nations, but they also declined. The European sightseeing flight in 1934 remained the last and the challenge cup was allowed to stay with the Polish Aero Club.

	pilot	nation	plane	License plate / start number	Points: technical + racing + speed	= total
1.	Jerzy Bajan	Poland	RWD-9 S.	SP-DRD / 71	994 + 861 + 41	1896
2.	Stanisław Płonczyński	Poland	RWD-9 S.	SP-DRC / 75	953 + 868 + 45	1866
3.	Hans Seidemann	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	D-IPUS / 19	939 + 874 + 33	1846
4th	Ján Ambruš	Czechoslovakia	Aero A.200	OK-AMB / 52	915 + 880 + 27	1822
5.	Theo Osterkamp	German Empire	Bf 108A	D-IMUT / 14	854 + 875 + 81	1810
6th	Werner Junck	German Empire	Bf 108A	D-IJES / 16	895 + 838 + 73	1806
7th	Jan Buczyński	Poland	RWD-9 S.	SP-DRE / 72	920 + 836 + 44	1800
8th.	Jan Anderle	Czechoslovakia	RWD-9 W	OK-AMD / 54	915 + 855 + 27	1797
9.	Georg Pasewaldt	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	D-IDAH / 22	885 + 880 + 29	1794
10.	Karl Francke	German Empire	Bf 108A	D-IGAK / 15	899 + 816 + 77	1792
11.	Piotr Dudziński	Poland	PZL.26	SP-PZL / 61	875 + 880 + 31	1786
12.	Kurt Bayer	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	D-IBYR / 18	902 + 854 + 26	1782
13.	Wolf Hirth	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	D-IVIF / 17	915 + 819 + 27	1761
14th	Vojtěch Žaček	Czechoslovakia	Aero A.200	OK-AMA / 51	890 + 845 + 14	1749
15th	Henryk Skrzypiński	Poland	RWD-9W	SP-DRB / 76	883 + 826 + 33	1742
16.	Gerhard Hubrich	German Empire	Fieseler Fi 97	D-IZUH / 21	936 + 763 + 29	1728
17th	Ignacy Giedgowd	Poland	PZL.26	SP-PZM / 62	839 + 880 + 0	1719
18th	Armando François	Italy	Pallavicino PS-1	I-FRAN / 42	801 + 747 + 13	1561
19th	Ernesto Sanzin	Italy	Breda Ba-39 S	I-LUDO / 46	559 + 723 + 0	1282

See also

• Tour of Europe 1929
• Tour of Europe 1930
• Tour of Europe 1932

literature

• Marian Krzyżan: Międzynarodowe turnieje lotnicze 1929–1934 , Warsaw 1988, ISBN 83-206-0637-3 (Polish language)

Web links

Commons : Challenge International de Tourisme 1934  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• History of the Bf 108A with reference to the competition aircraft from 1934 , accessed on May 16, 2010.
• Technical Memorandums No. 760 - Technical Aspects of the 1934 International Touring Competition (PDF; 2.3 MB)