Irena Kempówna

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Irena Kempówna-Zabiełło (born October 20, 1920 in Warsaw , Poland , † June 17, 2002 in Basel ) was a Polish glider pilot , record pilot and flight instructor.

Life

Kempówna grew up in Warsaw, where she graduated from Krystyna Malczewska secondary school in 1938. She began gliding in 1936 at the age of 16. During World War II , she was a soldier in the Kedyw unit (Kierownictwo Dywersji Komendy Głównej Armii Krajowej), which August Emil Fieldorf founded as part of the Polish Home Army . Kempówna took part in the Warsaw Uprising .

Immediately after the end of the war, Kempówna trained as a flight instructor. After passing the exam in July 1945, she soon trained flight instructors herself. She began with the performance flight and set thirteen Polish records and two world records for women between 1947 and 1950. On June 10, 1948, Kempówna flew a 100 km triangle with the IS-1 Sęp (registration number SP-549) and set her first world record with an average speed of 50 km / h. On November 12, 1950, she flew a record with Lucyna Wlazło in the two-seater IS-C Żuraw with an altitude of 4963 meters.

Kempówna studied architecture at the Politechnica Gdańska , where she became a member of the Akademickie Koło Lotnicze ( German Academic Aviation Circle, later Aeroklub Gdański ). The club flew in Strzebielino near Wejherowo and at the airport in Wrzeszcz (Danzig-Langfuhr). In 1949, Kempówna was the only woman to date to win an international glider competition in competition with men. On the Żar glider airfield , she distanced experienced glider pilots and world war pilots. The following year she came in fourth place in the election for Polish Sportsman of the Year behind Helena Rakoczy , Emil Kiszka and Władysław Skonecki . In the years 1950–1956, Irena was banned from flying for political reasons. - Two members of their association managed to escape to Sweden in a powered airplane in November 1950.

The architect, who graduated in 1952 and is married, became head of the Centralną Szkołę Szybowcową Aeroklubu PRL (Central Gliding School of the Aero Club of the People's Republic of Poland) in Leszno-Strzyżewice in 1957 , from which she turned into an international gliding center. In 1957 the Polish national championship was held there. In 1958 and 1968 it was the organizer of the gliding world championships. In 1965 she initiated the last major expansion with the construction of a control tower and café. In 1962 in Sweden she and three pilots presented the Polish gliders SZD-22 Mucha Standard and SZD-24 Foka on a promotional trip .

In 1966, Kempówna and her husband Roman Zabiełło received employment contracts in Switzerland through the foreign trade company Centrala Handlu Zagranicznego Polservice and settled in Basel. Kempówna trained Swissair air traffic pilots on the flight simulator there for many years . Roman Zabiełło worked as a pilot for Swissair, Balair and later Germanair .

Kempówna had a lifelong friendship with Jadwiga Piłsudska († 2014), one of the daughters of Józef Piłsudski, of the same age . The actress Barbara Ahrens-Młynarska was one of her friends

Irena Kempówna-Zabiełło died after a long illness on June 17, 2002 in Basel. She left a husband († 2006) and a son. The funeral took place on June 28th after a funeral service in St. Anne's Church in Warsaw-Wilanów .

Awards

Kempówna has been awarded the country's Golden Cross of Merit and a number of Polish and international awards. In 1959 she was the first Polish woman to receive the Paul Tissandier Honorary Diploma from the international aviation association FAI “for exceptional contributions and achievements in sports aviation”.

Web links

literature

  • Jerzy Ryszard Konieczny: Irena Kempówna . In: Słownik biograficzny Leszna . Leszczyńskie Towarzystwo Kulturalne, Leszno 2004.
  • Stanisław Błasiak: Pożegnanie Ireny Kempówny-Zabiełło . In: Loteczka Wrocław (ed.): Biuletyn Loteczki No. 42, June 2002. pp. 3-4.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Jan Venulet: Ś. Fr. Irena Kempówna-Zabiełło (1920–2002) . (Polish, obituary, accessed April 14, 2020)
  2. ↑ a b Aeroklub Gdański . In: Gedanopedia . (Polish, accessed April 14, 2020)
  3. ↑ samolotypolskie.pl: Disk Migratory Bird I – IV (Polish, accessed April 14, 2020)
  4. ↑ Gazeta Wyborcza : Roman zabiello (Polish, obituary of 6 December 2006; digitized at pressreader.com , accessed on 14 April 2020)
  5. ↑ Kto będzie pilotował sprawę? . (Polish, accessed April 14, 2020)
  6. ↑ Her brother was the Polish cabaret artist Wojciech Młynarski .
personal data
SURNAME Kempówna, Irena
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kempówna-Zabiełło, Irena (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish glider pilot and flight instructor
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw , Poland
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 2002
Place of death Basel , Switzerland