Mokotów Airport
The Mokotów Airport ( polish Lotnisko Mokotowskie ) was a Warsaw Airport from 1910 to 1947. He was on the pole Mokotowskie , a terrain south of downtown. It was Warsaw's first airport and one of the first in Europe.
history
Until the establishment of the airfield, flight demonstrations had already taken place on a makeshift basis at the Mokotów racecourse, which is also located on Pole Mokotowskie . The French Georges Legagneoux first demonstrated an aircraft designed by Gabriel Voisin there on September 16, 1909 . However, the plane did not take off properly and the audience asked for the entrance fee to be returned. After an annoying fence between the racecourse and the adjacent area had been removed, the French pilot was able to show a 1,500-meter flight the following day. The next aircraft was demonstrated on November 15 and 16, 1909 by the Belgian Baron Pierre de Caters . The machine stayed in the air for three minutes and made several turns. These two flights from the pioneering days of aviation laid the foundation for the creation of an airport.
In 1910 the tsarist governor of the capital of Congress Poland allowed the newly founded airline "Awiata" (Polish: Towarzystwo Lotnicze "Awiata" ) to set up an airport with construction facilities and the first civilian pilot school in Poland. Under the owner of the "Awiata", the important Warsaw entrepreneur Stanisław Lubomirski , a facility was built on the Mokotowskie, a military training area previously used by Russian units.
On March 15, 1911, the Polish pilot Michał Scipio del Campo took off for the first time from the new airfield on a 17-minute flight over Warsaw. He used an Etrich pigeon . Czesław Tański constructed his "Łątka" in the new hangar. This is also where Czesław Zbierański and Stanisław Cywiński's aircraft , called “Zbierański i Cywiński”, was also flown from Campo on its first flight.
Until the beginning of the First World War, the airfield was a popular sports and civil airfield. Aviation pioneers like the Russian Henryk Segno taught here . The Pilot School Awiata decreed in time over seven aircraft: three double-decker Company Farman , two monoplane type Etrich and two Blériot models. On May 28, 1913, the Polish lieutenant Aleksander Perkowski had an accident here. After take-off and a flight of several minutes, it fell from a height of about 100 meters. The seriously injured rescued died on the way to the hospital.
First World War and post-war period
During the First World War, the airfield was occupied and used by German troops. 21 new hangars - also for airships of the Parseval type - a training building and various farm buildings were built. As early as the end of the war, consideration was given to liquidating the airfield due to the limitation of further expansion and to relocating the capital's flight operations to three other locations: sport aircraft should therefore be handled at an airfield in Młociny , military aircraft in Okęcie and commercial aircraft in Gocław .
In 1919, however, the facility was initially used as a military airfield (this is how I Pułk Lotnictwa had its hangars and accommodation) and by the Polish aircraft industry. In 1921, the Polish Ministry of Railways reopened a civil flight operation here, which was henceforth called the “flight station”. From here, the Paris – Strasbourg – Prague – Warsaw line of the French airline Compagnie Franco-Roumaine de Navigation Aérienne was served. In the first year of flight operations, travelers and administration were accommodated in discarded rail cars in the southern end of the airfield. In 1922, a terminal building was built around the current intersection of Wawelska Street and Niepodlegości Avenue. The station was first operated by the Aerolloyd company, from 1925 by Aerolot and from 1929 by the Polskie line Lotnicze LOT , which received the IATA code LO in 1930 . Initially, the Polish company Bucharest, until 1927 also Athens , Beirut and Helsinki were served .
In 1926, pilot Bolesław Orliński and his mechanic Leonard Kubiak flew the distance route Warsaw – Tokyo – Warsaw for the first time. In 1927 it was finally decided to make Okęcie the city's main airport . From 1934, he took over all of the scheduled air traffic that had previously been handled at Pole Mokotowskie. Since 1927 the Mokotów airfield was the seat of the Academic Aviation Club Warsaw ( Akademicki Aeroklub Warszawski ), whose name was changed to Aeroklub Warszawa in 1931 .
On January 1, 1928, the aircraft manufacturer Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze "PZL" was founded as a state company. The "PZL" emerged from the Central Warsaw Aircraft Workshop "CWL" ( Centralne Warsztaty Lotnicze ), which was built in 1919 on the site of the Mokotów airfield. Initially, mainly license productions of foreign models were made. Under the later management of Zygmunt Puławski , his own designs such as the successful PZL P.7 or PZL P.11 fighters were also created .
The era of great aviation competitions
In 1931, the airfield was the take-off and landing site of Stanisław Skarżyński's great flight around Africa, during which he covered a total distance of 25,770 kilometers with his Polish PZL Ł-2 (registration: SP-AFA) between February 1 and May 5, 1931 .
In 1934 the place tourist plane of the International Aeronautical Federation ( "FAI") in Warsaw since the previous competition in August 1932 in Berlin, the Pole Franciszek Żwirko with his engineer Stanisław Wigura had won on a RWD. 6 In June 1933 the competition rules for the 1934 European sightseeing flight were announced. As before, three categories were rated: technique, speed and performance in a long-distance flight over Europe. The opening ceremony was held at noon on August 28, 1934 at the Mokotów airfield in Warsaw. The Italian team was not yet present at the opening because their participants got into bad weather on the flight from Italy to Warsaw. The winning team was again provided by the Polish team: the first place was the pilot Jerzy Bajan with his mechanic Gustaw Pokrzywka, the runner-up Stanisław Płonczyński with S. Ziętek. Both had flown an RWD-9. Warsaw would have had the right to host the next European tour (1936); however, it refused this for financial reasons. Since the other participating countries no longer wanted to host the competition, the Warsaw European tour was the last of the series. The challenge cup remained with the Polish Aero Club.
In 1934, 1935 and 1936 the airfield was the starting point for the international balloon sport event Gordon Bennett Cup . The Pole Franciszek Hynek was able to repeat his previous year's victory in Chicago here in 1934. His copilot was Wladyslaw Pomaski . In 57 hours and 54 minutes the balloon had flown 1,650 kilometers to Tiszkino near Stalingrad . In the following year (1935) the Pole Zbigniew Burzyński , who had already been co-pilot of Hynek in 1933, won the "SP-AMY Polonia II".
In 1935, extensive residential development was planned for the former airport site on Pole Mokotowskie. The new district to be created should be named after Józef Piłsudski . The Temple of Divine Providence , which had been planned for 150 years, was also to be built here. These plans were not implemented; Mokotów airfield remained in existence until 1947 and was mainly used as a sports and military airfield. The airport also remained a center for the training of pilots, mechanics and observers.
Second World War and cessation of flight operations
In 1939, when the Second World War broke out , the airfield once again played an important role. Here the Brygada Pościgowa (a regiment originally stationed in Kraków with two squadrons and a total of five squadrons equipped with PZL-P.11 and PZL-P.7 fighters) formed with the 152nd Eskadra Myśliwska (one with different types the PZL P.11 equipped fighter squadron, which was subordinate to the Modlin Army) and the 41st Eskadra Rozpoznawcza (a reconnaissance squadron from Toruń equipped with aircraft of the PZL.23 Karaś and PZL.43 types ) from September 9, 1939 Zespół Lotniczy Obrony Warszawy . The units starting here were used in the defensive battle around Warsaw.
During the occupation of Warsaw by the German troops, air traffic at Mokotów airfield almost completely came to a standstill. After the end of the war, the airfield was renamed Mokotów II . It was mainly used for the parades to celebrate Victory Day on May 9th. In 1947 the complex was finally cleared, partly built on (including today's main thoroughfare Aleja Niepodległości and the new building of the Polish National Library ) and redesigned as the Pole Mokotowskie Park. A memorial on a small hill in the park reminds of the history of the airfield.
Web links
- Lotnisko Mokotowskie at Varsovia.pl (Polish)
- Photo of the flight of Pièrre de Caters in Warsaw in 1909
- Aerial photo montage of the Zeppelin hangar (1916)
- Aerial view of the preparations for the 22nd international balloon competition in Warsaw in 1934
- Historical photo of the reception building near Przewodnik po Warszawie (do 1944 roku)
Remarks
- ↑ Georges Legagneoux (1882-1914) was a French pioneer in aviation.
- ↑ Pierre de Caters (1875-1944) was a Belgian aviation pioneer.
- ↑ Michał Scipio del Campo (1887–1984) was a Polish pilot, engineer and pioneer of Polish aviation.
- ↑ Czesław Zbierański (1885-1982) was a Polish major, engineer, aircraft designer and pilot.
- ^ Stanisław Cywiński (1884–1939) was a Polish engineer and aircraft designer.
- ↑ The airfield Młociny , as airfield Bielany , was an airfield, which was abandoned in the 1950s.
- ↑ The Gocław airfield was closed in the 1970s.
- ↑ 1st Air Squadron
- ^ The Akademicki Aeroklub Warszawski was founded on October 19, 1927. The current headquarters of the club is in Warsaw-Babice ( Bielany ).
- ↑ From left to right: Polish team (seven high - wing RWD-9 and five low- wing PZL.26 ), Czech team (one high-wing RWD-9 and two low- wing Aero A.200 ), German team (thirteen low-wing Messerschmitt Bf 108 , Klemm Kl 36 and Fieseler Fi 97 ). The Italian team had not yet arrived due to bad weather and missed the ceremony.
- ↑ Stanisław Jakub Skarżyński (1899-1942) was a Polish pilot and officer who was known for several long-haul flights.
- ↑ Franciszek Żwirko (1895-932) was a Polish military and sports pilot. In Poland there are numerous streets named after him and his engineer and copilot Wigura.
- ↑ Stanisław Wigura (1903-1932) was a Polish aircraft engineer and designer and was one of the founding members of the aeronautical faculty at the Warsaw University of Technology .
Individual evidence
- ↑ according to itemsThe Polish Airforce 1918-1939. at Polandinexile.com (in English)
- ↑ a b c according to Information Lotnisko Mokotowskie. ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the City of Warsaw (in Polish)
- ↑ a b c d acc. Article Historia Pole Mokotowskiego. ( Memento of March 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) on Polamokotowskie.pl (in Polish)
- ↑ a b c according to Article Lotnisko Mokotowskie. on the website of the Warsaw Aviation Seniors Club (in Polish: Warszawski Klub Seniorów Lotnictwa ) (in Polish)
- ^ Henryk Segno (1882–1964), acc. Website ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the museum in Czeladź (in Polish)
- ↑ according to Timeline of balloon flight history: 1900–1950. at Ballonfahrer-online.de
Coordinates: 52 ° 12 ′ 39 ″ N , 21 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ E