Vít Fučík

Vít Fučík , known as Kudlička (born June 3, 1733 in Vitějovice , † October 29, 1804 in Klůs ) is said to have been the first person to attempt to fly in Bohemia before the Montgolfier brothers . However, his attempts to fly cannot be proven by contemporary sources and are also improbable.

Life

Fučík came from a family of millers from Hracholusky and was the first of six children of Jan Fučík and his wife Marianne, née Koptová, who rented a house in Vitějovice. In 1749, his father bought a homestead in Velký Bor from Vít Havlíček, who wanted to retire to old age, for 63 shocked groschen. The family managed the property with little success; due to excessive indebtedness, Jan Fučík handed the business over to his son-in-law Jakub Faktor in 1760.

Vít Fučík had already left his father's homestead by this time and had been a manorial keeper since 1756. On January 21, 1759 Fučík married in Chelčice Alžběta Slaninová from Žďárské Chalupy, with whom he lived as a ranger in Újezd. Their children Anna (* 1759), Matěj (* 1761, † 1762), Marianna (* 1763) and twin daughters Johanna and Markéta (* 1764, † 1764) were born there.

On 12 May 1765 Fučík purchased for 30 guilders on two lives with an annual interest rate of three guilders a Dominikal chaluppe on Strpský rybník in the monolayer Klus near Strpí that after the introduction of house numbers in the 1770s as house no. 13 in Strpí was conducted. There he worked as a carpenter and wood carver. His youngest daughter Terezie was born in Klůs in 1765, but she soon died.

In October 1777 he transferred his chaluppe to his future son-in-law Vavřinec Straka, who married Fučík's daughter Anna on November 28 of the same year and was also registered as the owner. In August 1780, a case against Fučík and four other suspects was opened before the Písek Criminal Court because of forbidden Christophel's and corona prayer , which was supposed to raise money in a miraculous way. On May 1, 1793, Fučík's wife died of tuberculosis. In 1804 he died of the same disease and was buried in the Bílá Hůrka cemetery.

Legends about flight attempts

Samolet český, drawing from 1866

According to records from later times, especially in the magazine Nový čas from 1919, Fučík is said to have attempted several flights between 1760 and 1770. First he used large, movable wings made of goose feathers, which were attached to a wooden frame. The flyer received buoyancy from pig bladders attached to his body and filled with swamp gas from the surrounding ponds.

Fučík is said to have attempted the first flight between 1760 and 1765 by jumping out of the roof window of his house in Klůs. Driven by the west wind, it flew with outstretched arms, waving its wings towards Vodňany and landed at the Strpský rybník pond . There are contradicting statements about the fastening of the goose feathers to the wings, on the one hand willow rods are said to have served this purpose, on the other hand tin is mentioned.

On another flight between 1778 and 1780, he is said to have reached Vodňany with a flying machine with bat wings and landed in the window of the synagogue, where New Year was just being celebrated. The believers are said to have celebrated him as the Messiah and arranged a feast for him. When attempting a flight to the Pisek market, he did not reach his destination and landed in Selibov. His fourth attempt to fly to Vodňany allegedly ended with a broken rib on the dam of the Černoháje pond . Fučík is said to have designed his last flying machine between 1791 and 1795. This plane, which the sons-in-law of Fučík, who was already seriously ill, were supposed to have constructed under his supervision at the request of the local officials, had solid, continuous wings with a light covering. With the device, the young people are said to have taken to the air. According to other information, the designers had hung a stone-filled sack on the glider at the air show.

In 1860 part of one of the wings is said to have been excavated in a shed and picked up from Prague by an unknown man. The technician Václav Kadeřávek in Prague is said to have constructed his aircraft based on the principle of the Fučík apparatus, which is known as the Kadeřávkův samolet or Samolet český . Kadeřávek published construction plans in 1866 and also built prototypes of his plane, but failed to take them to the air.

reception

Fučík's attempts to fly were first presented to the public through an article published in the Myslivecké zábavy newspaper in 1861 . The author František Špatný referred to his father Václav Špatný (* 1776), who came from Skočice and who in turn apparently obtained his information from hearsay.

The popularity of the South Bohemian carpenter experienced the next boom after the First World War. In 1919 the magazine Nový čas published a detailed article on Fučík's flight attempts, which cited the traditions of long-time residents as the source. In the 1920s, military historians intervened in the Fučík cause. The new republic worked intensively on building up its armed forces. An aviation pioneer would have been a welcome draft horse of the prestige project Vzduch je naše moře (the air is our sea), with which the Czechoslovak air force should be raised to world level. After all, Fučík's experiments are said to have surpassed the first flight of the Montgolfier brothers on September 21, 1783 by a few years, if not decades. Isaac Arnsteiner from Vodňany, born in 1829, wanted to hear stories as a child, according to which Fučík reached the synagogue window on September 19, 1783 and was mistaken for a heavenly messenger.

The examinations of the Military History Institute brought to light the archive material known to this day and showed that Vít Fučík was a historical person. However, they did not provide any evidence of his flight attempts. The indictment of 1780 did not provide any further information either. The charge accused Fučík of using treasure prayers, but neither did they mention attempted flights. The case file has not been preserved. In addition, experts tried to evaluate the oral tradition and to prove whether Fučík's apparatus would have been at least theoretically airworthy. They envisioned some type of hang glider as the most likely aircraft. In 1969, in the book Motory hřmí vzduchem, Václav Kubec refuted the possibility of locomotion with methane-filled bladders.

Web links

• Critical consideration of the Club for Psychotronics and UFO, Strakonice
• Záhada Ptačího muže (2)
• Bohuslav Trnka: Zlatý ptáček, nebo kacíř na křídlech? (PDF; 102 kB)
• Létající Kudlička
• Jan Antonín Mager: O původu jihočeského vzduchoplavce Víta Fučíka řečeného Kudličky (PDF; 616 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://rodopisna-revue-online.tode.cz/2012-2/06.pdf
2. ↑ Other sources speak of 1719 or 1730
3. ↑ http://rodopisna-revue-online.tode.cz/2012-2/06.pdf
4. ^ František Dostál: Story o ptačím muži ze samoty Klůs - pověst, nebo skutečnost? Českobudějovické listy 9/6 (January 8, 2000), příloha Víkendové listy s. 13
5. ↑ Byl Vít Fučík českým Ikarem?
6. ↑ Bohuš Trnka: Chtěl kdysi létat jako ti ptáci: podle legendy mohl být prvním evropským aviatikem Jihočech Vít Fučík - Kudlička . Českobudějovické listy 4/2 (January 3, 1995), p. 14. ders .: Přes překážky ke hvězdám to bolí: historické krimi z jihočeského nebe . Českobudějovické listy 10/233 (October 6, 2001), p. 11.
7. ↑ Ottova encyklopedie obecných védomostí, & # 150; Part XXII, p. 583.
8. ↑ nase-rodina.cz  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.