Zbigniew Burzyński

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Zbigniew Burzyński (1935)

Zbigniew Jan Władysław Antoni Burzyński (born March 31, 1902 in Schowkwa , today Ukraine , †  December 30, 1971 in Warsaw ) was a pioneer of Polish balloon sport . He won the Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning in 1933 and 1935 and set a world record in altitude in 1938.

Life

Zbigniew Burzyński was born in 1902 as the son of the forest engineer Władysław Burzyński in Schowkwa. He attended middle school in Lemberg , Vienna and finally in Krakow , where he passed the Matura in 1920 at the cadet school in the Łobzów district . He then attended the Artillery School in Poznan and briefly served in the 1st  Mountain Artillery Regiment in Nowy Targ .

He first came into contact with ballooning when he was sent to the aeronautical officers' school in Thorn on May 1, 1921 for a training course for balloon scouts . He was then transferred to the V Aeronautical Battalion in Jabłonna near Legionowo . In 1922 he made his first balloon flight here. In the balloon factory Wytwórnia Balonów i Spadochronów in Legionowo the first Polish were under his direction fetlock and free balloons prepared.

Burzyński and Hynek (1934)

From 1928 Burzyński took part in balloon sport competitions. Together with Franciszek Hynek , he won the Polish championship in ballooning in Ballon Lwów for the longest distance covered. He took part in the renowned Gordon Bennett race six times. In 1933 he won with Hynek in Kościuszko , in 1935 with Władysław Wysocki in Polonia II and in 1934 he and Jan Zakrzewski completed the Polish double victory with second place in Ballon Warszawa . On March 29, 1938, Burzyński and the physicist Konstanty Jodko-Narkiewicz reached a height of 10,853 m in the open basket of the Warszawa II balloon . In doing so, they improved the existing world record of the German meteorologists Arthur Berson and Reinhard Süring , which had risen to 10,800 m in 1901. Burzyński's record lasted until 1964.

When they were looking for an experienced pilot for the Gwiazda Polski (German star of Poland ), the largest gas balloon in the world with a capacity of 124,700 m 3 , the logical choice was Burzynski. The balloon equipped with a pressurized cabin should rise to a height of 30 km. However, the launch on October 14, 1938 in Zakopane failed because the hydrogen used as the lifting gas ignited and destroyed part of the balloon envelope.

In September 1939, Burzyński commanded a balloon reconnaissance company and was taken prisoner by Germany in early October . In 1945 he served the 4th Polish Command Brigade in Germany as a liaison officer before returning to Poland. In 1955 he completed an engineering degree at the Warsaw University of Technology and then worked there as an assistant. He was one of the first active balloonists when ballooning was resumed in Poland in 1956. In 1957 he won the first Polish balloon competition since the end of World War II . Three years later he completed his 100th balloon flight. He worked actively as a functionary in the Aeroclub of the People's Republic of Poland and represented it from 1966 to 1969 in the World Air Sports Association FAI .

Honors

Zbigniew Burzyński has received numerous state awards in Poland. After the first Gordon Bennett victory, he was decorated with the Golden Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland . In 1935 he received the Knight's Cross and in 1964 the Officer's Cross from the Order of the Rebirth of Poland . The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale honored him in 1958 with the Paul Tissandier Diploma.

An international balloon sport event bears his name in Poland today. In the Warsaw district of Gocław and in Gdansk-Przymorze streets are named after him.

Fonts (selection)

  • Zbigniew Burzyński: "Kościuszko" nad Ameryką . Wydawnictwo Aeroklubu Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej, Warsaw 1934 (Polish)
  • Zbigniew Burzyński: Pomiędzy chmurami . Państwowe Wydawnictwo Książek Szkolnych, Lemberg 1936 (Polish)
  • Zbigniew Burzyński, Franciszek Janik, Mieczysław Pietraszek: Balony . Państwowe Wydawnictwa Techniczne, Warsaw 1958 (Polish)
  • Zbigniew Burzyński: Balonem przez kontynenty , Wydawnictwo MON, Warsaw 1969 (Polish)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Petriuk: 1st Polish Stratospheric Flight in Dolina Chocholowska, Poland Block No. 6 from September 15, 1938 (PDF; 238 kB) on the website of the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Polen eV in the Bund Deutscher Philatelisten eV, seen on April 30, 2010
  2. ↑ FAI General Awards on the homepage of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (see “The Paul Tissandier Diploma”), accessed on March 26, 2018.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Burzyński, Zbigniew
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burzyński, Zbigniew Jan Władysław Antoni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish balloonist
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Shovkva
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1971
Place of death Warsaw