Gwiazda Polski
Encyclopedia
Gwiazda Polski was a balloon
, which, according to the Polish
planners, was going to reach the stratosphere
, thus beating the 1930s high-altitude world record, established on November 11, 1935 by Albert William Stevens
and Orvil Arson Anderson
, in the Explorer II balloon. Stevens and Anderson ascended to the altitude of 22,066 m (72,395 feet), the Poles wanted to reach the altitude of 30 kilometers. Polish crew, consisting of Captain Zbigniew Burzynski
and Doctor Konstanty Jodko-Narkiewicz
, attempted the stratospheric flight in The Star of Poland on October 14, 1938 in the Tatra Mountains
, but the balloon caught fire when it was less than 100 feet above the ground.
, using equipment made by the renowned Balloon and Parachute Factory Aviotex (Wytwornia Balonow i Spadochronow Aviotex) from Legionowo
won several awards during international competitions, including the Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning
, which the Poles won in 1933, 1934, 1935 and 1938.
The first idea of making a Polish flight into the stratosphere was conceived in 1937 by the military authorities, who wanted to beat the record, established two years earlier by Anderson and Stevens.
The idea quickly gained popularity in the whole country. It was sponsored by the national Airborne and Antigas Defence League
(Liga Obrony Powietrznej i Przeciwgazowej), with General Kazimierz Sosnkowski
serving as the honorary director. Also, president Ignacy Mościcki
was keenly interested in the project. However, military circles were informed by the civilian authorities that the flight would be possible if there were a serious scientific purpose associated to it. Therefore, professor Mieczyslaw Wolfke
from the Warsaw Polytechnic suggested examination of the cosmic ray
. , which had been the scientific goal of several other high altitude balloon flights.
, Marian Miesowicz and Mieczyslaw Jezewski. They agreed that the pilots would examine distribution of the rays at various altitudes
Advanced equipment had been prepared, its main parts were a telescope consisting of 30 Geiger-Muller meters, and an Ionization chamber
. The takeoff was scheduled for September 1938 in the Chocholowska Valley of the western Tatra Mountains
. American experts, including Stevens himself (who came to Zakopane
), provided technical assistance. Also, Auguste Piccard
, who remained in Switzerland
, anxiously anticipated news from Poland.
Its bag was made in Legionowo of Japanese silk covered with rubber, and the 500-kilogram gondola was constructed by engineer Jan Szal. Gwiazda Polski was an impressive construction. Its height was 120 meters, capacity of the bag was 124,700 m³, size - 12,300 m², and weight - 1500 kg. As costs of this undertaking were high, a special stamp, depicting the balloon was issued by the Polish Mail
. Also, individual donors, including members of the Polish community in USA
, helped with funding.
The violet-color stamp was issued on September 15, 1938. Its market price was 75 grosz
s, but it was sold for 2 zlotys, with the 1.25 zloty surplus being donated to the Scientific Council of the Flight. Altogether, some 65 000 such stamps were printed, and the mail office in Zakopane used specially made seals with depiction of the balloon on all letters and postcards in these days. Today those stamps are a rarity, their prices reach up to 200 zlotys
Curiously enough, the balloon, which had been planned to land somewhere in Volhynia
, carried several pieces of mail, sent to Łuck
, Rowne
and other places. After the fire, the Polish Mail sent those letters in the ordinary way sealed with information that the flight had not taken place due to fire.
²
(1902-1971), one of the best Polish balloon pilots of the 1930s, who had twice won the Gordon Bennett Cup, and a physicist, doctor Konstanty Jodko-Narkiewicz
(1901-1963), expert in the cosmic ray
s, leader of the first Polish expedition to the Andes
.
On the scheduled day, a large group of spectators showed up in the Chocholowska Valley, brought by special buses and taxis. There were also numerous journalists, including those from the National Geographic. As the Kraków's Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny
newspaper wrote later, the crew, dressed in special uniforms with parachutes, loaded into the gondola. The bag began to raise at around 1:00 a.m., but strong winds made the task difficult. Few spectators knew that the bag was being filled with highly combustible hydrogen
, the same gas implicated in the Hindenburg disaster
. The safer alternative, helium
, was not available to them as most of the world's supply was in Texas
and the United States made use of most of the production.
At around 4:00 a.m. the gigantic balloon was filled with hydrogen. Without warning and from some undetermined cause, the stiff fabric went up in flames. According to witnesses, a spark appeared on the top of the bag and quickly enveloped the balloon. It burned very fast. Fortunately, the gondola was spared and no one was injured. , which gave Polish scientists hope for a next attempt.
, in the Gorgany
However, the German and Soviet attack on Poland made this impossible.
Balloon (aircraft)
A balloon is a type of aircraft that remains aloft due to its buoyancy. A balloon travels by moving with the wind. It is distinct from an airship, which is a buoyant aircraft that can be propelled through the air in a controlled manner....
, which, according to the Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
planners, was going to reach the stratosphere
Stratosphere
The stratosphere is the second major layer of Earth's atmosphere, just above the troposphere, and below the mesosphere. It is stratified in temperature, with warmer layers higher up and cooler layers farther down. This is in contrast to the troposphere near the Earth's surface, which is cooler...
, thus beating the 1930s high-altitude world record, established on November 11, 1935 by Albert William Stevens
Albert William Stevens
Albert William Stevens was an officer in the United States Army Air Corps, balloonist and aerial photographer.-Biography:He was born on March 13, 1886 in Belfast, Maine....
and Orvil Arson Anderson
Orvil Arson Anderson
General Orvil Arson Anderson was a pioneer balloonist. In 1935 he and Albert William Stevens won the Mackay Trophy when they set a record of 72,395 feet in their balloon.-Biography:...
, in the Explorer II balloon. Stevens and Anderson ascended to the altitude of 22,066 m (72,395 feet), the Poles wanted to reach the altitude of 30 kilometers. Polish crew, consisting of Captain Zbigniew Burzynski
Zbigniew Burzynski
Zbigniew Burzyński , was a Polish balloonist and constructor of balloons, pioneer of Polish balloons, who twice won the Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning, also beat the world record.-Biography:...
and Doctor Konstanty Jodko-Narkiewicz
Konstanty Jodko-Narkiewicz
Konstanty Jodko-Narkiewicz, also known as Konstanty Narkiewicz-Jodko , was a Polish geophysicist who specialized in studying cosmic radiation. He was also a mountaineer, Arctic explorer, and balloonist.-Geophysicist:...
, attempted the stratospheric flight in The Star of Poland on October 14, 1938 in the Tatra Mountains
Tatra Mountains
The Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatra , are a mountain range which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland, and are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains...
, but the balloon caught fire when it was less than 100 feet above the ground.
The idea
In mid-1930s, ballooning was a very popular sport in Poland, pilots from the Polish Aero ClubPolish Aero Club
Aeroklub Polski is the Polish central association of persons practising air sports or recreational flying. It was founded in 1921 and is a member of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. It has a headquarters in Warsaw....
, using equipment made by the renowned Balloon and Parachute Factory Aviotex (Wytwornia Balonow i Spadochronow Aviotex) from Legionowo
Legionowo
Legionowo is a town in Masovia . According to the 2004 Census estimate the town has a total population of 50,759.Legionowo is located ca. 23 km to the north-east of the center of Warsaw and only 7 km to the south of Zegrze Reservoir , near the Warsaw-Gdańsk railroad and Warsaw-Suwałki...
won several awards during international competitions, including the Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning
Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning
The Gordon Bennett Cup is the world's oldest gas balloon race, and is "regarded as the premier event of world balloon racing" according to the Los Angeles Times. Referred to as the "Blue Ribbon" of aeronautics, the first race started from Paris, France, on September 30, 1906...
, which the Poles won in 1933, 1934, 1935 and 1938.
The first idea of making a Polish flight into the stratosphere was conceived in 1937 by the military authorities, who wanted to beat the record, established two years earlier by Anderson and Stevens.
The idea quickly gained popularity in the whole country. It was sponsored by the national Airborne and Antigas Defence League
Airborne and Antigas Defence League
Air and Chemical Defense League was a mass Polish paramilitary organization, founded in 1928 and based on the previous organization, Air Defense League of the Country . In 1937 it numbered some 1.5 mln members, with 14 000 local branches...
(Liga Obrony Powietrznej i Przeciwgazowej), with General Kazimierz Sosnkowski
Kazimierz Sosnkowski
Kazimierz Sosnkowski was a Polish independence fighter, politician and Polish Army general.-Life:Sosnkowski served successively as founder and first commander of Związek Walki Czynnej , chief of staff of the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legions, Polish minister of military affairs, vice-president of...
serving as the honorary director. Also, president Ignacy Mościcki
Ignacy Moscicki
Ignacy Mościcki was a Polish chemist, politician, and President of Poland . He was the longest-serving President of Poland .-Life:...
was keenly interested in the project. However, military circles were informed by the civilian authorities that the flight would be possible if there were a serious scientific purpose associated to it. Therefore, professor Mieczyslaw Wolfke
Mieczyslaw Wolfke
Mieczysław Wolfke was a Polish physicist.Wolfke is known for his discovery of two types of liquid helium, of which Helium II is still the only known superfluid liquid. He did ground-breaking work in holography, an area of optics dealing with the creation and recording of three-dimensional images...
from the Warsaw Polytechnic suggested examination of the cosmic ray
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
. , which had been the scientific goal of several other high altitude balloon flights.
Preparation
Some time in late 1937 or early 1938, a Scientific Council of Flight was created, which consisted of professors Wolfke, Szczepan SzczeniowskiSzczepan Szczeniowski
Professor Szczepan Szczeniowski , was a Polish physicist, and author of numerous papers on cosmic rays, electron diffraction and ferromagnetism. In early 1930s, he taught at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwow, in 1937 moving to the Stefan Batory University in Wilno. After World War II , he...
, Marian Miesowicz and Mieczyslaw Jezewski. They agreed that the pilots would examine distribution of the rays at various altitudes
Advanced equipment had been prepared, its main parts were a telescope consisting of 30 Geiger-Muller meters, and an Ionization chamber
Ionization chamber
The ionization chamber is the simplest of all gas-filled radiation detectors, and is used for the detection or measurement of ionizing radiation...
. The takeoff was scheduled for September 1938 in the Chocholowska Valley of the western Tatra Mountains
Tatra Mountains
The Tatra Mountains, Tatras or Tatra , are a mountain range which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland, and are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains...
. American experts, including Stevens himself (who came to Zakopane
Zakopane
Zakopane , is a town in southern Poland. It lies in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998 it was in of Nowy Sącz Province, but since 1999 it has been in Lesser Poland Province. It had a population of about 28,000 as of 2004. Zakopane is a...
), provided technical assistance. Also, Auguste Piccard
Auguste Piccard
Auguste Antoine Piccard was a Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer.-Biography:Piccard and his twin brother Jean Felix were born in Basel, Switzerland...
, who remained in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, anxiously anticipated news from Poland.
The balloon
The balloon, named Gwiazda Polski (The Star of Poland) was made by the Aviotex factory in Legionowo and was the world's largestIts bag was made in Legionowo of Japanese silk covered with rubber, and the 500-kilogram gondola was constructed by engineer Jan Szal. Gwiazda Polski was an impressive construction. Its height was 120 meters, capacity of the bag was 124,700 m³, size - 12,300 m², and weight - 1500 kg. As costs of this undertaking were high, a special stamp, depicting the balloon was issued by the Polish Mail
Poczta Polska
Poczta Polska is the Polish public post service.- History :Before the postal system was established, correspondence was delivered by messengers. In the Middle Ages, such services were available only to the privileged classes - monarchs, rich merchants and some of the organised communities, like...
. Also, individual donors, including members of the Polish community in USA
Polonia
The Polish diaspora refers to people of Polish origin who live outside Poland. The Polish diaspora is also known in modern Polish language as Polonia, which is the name for Poland in Latin and in many other Romance languages....
, helped with funding.
The violet-color stamp was issued on September 15, 1938. Its market price was 75 grosz
Grosz
Grosz may refer to:* Grosz, a coin used in Poland as a hundredth part of 1 złoty. Złoty is Polish currency* Kraków grosz, 14th century coins of Kraków* Groschen, a coin used in various statesGrosz or Grósz is the surname of:...
s, but it was sold for 2 zlotys, with the 1.25 zloty surplus being donated to the Scientific Council of the Flight. Altogether, some 65 000 such stamps were printed, and the mail office in Zakopane used specially made seals with depiction of the balloon on all letters and postcards in these days. Today those stamps are a rarity, their prices reach up to 200 zlotys
Curiously enough, the balloon, which had been planned to land somewhere in Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
, carried several pieces of mail, sent to Łuck
Lutsk
Lutsk is a city located by the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast and the administrative center of the surrounding Lutskyi Raion within the oblast...
, Rowne
Rivne
Rivne or Rovno is a historic city in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Rivne Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Rivne Raion within the oblast...
and other places. After the fire, the Polish Mail sent those letters in the ordinary way sealed with information that the flight had not taken place due to fire.
²
The crew
The crew consisted of two persons - Captain Zbigniew BurzyńskiZbigniew Burzynski
Zbigniew Burzyński , was a Polish balloonist and constructor of balloons, pioneer of Polish balloons, who twice won the Gordon Bennett Cup in ballooning, also beat the world record.-Biography:...
(1902-1971), one of the best Polish balloon pilots of the 1930s, who had twice won the Gordon Bennett Cup, and a physicist, doctor Konstanty Jodko-Narkiewicz
Konstanty Jodko-Narkiewicz
Konstanty Jodko-Narkiewicz, also known as Konstanty Narkiewicz-Jodko , was a Polish geophysicist who specialized in studying cosmic radiation. He was also a mountaineer, Arctic explorer, and balloonist.-Geophysicist:...
(1901-1963), expert in the cosmic ray
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
s, leader of the first Polish expedition to the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
.
The flight
Due to adverse weather conditions, the takeoff, planned for September 15, was postponed several times Finally, the Council decided that October 14 would be the final attempt, as winter in the Tatra mountains comes earlier than in the plains.On the scheduled day, a large group of spectators showed up in the Chocholowska Valley, brought by special buses and taxis. There were also numerous journalists, including those from the National Geographic. As the Kraków's Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny
Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny
Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny was a Polish daily as well as a publishing house, founded in 1910 in Kraków by Marian Dąbrowski...
newspaper wrote later, the crew, dressed in special uniforms with parachutes, loaded into the gondola. The bag began to raise at around 1:00 a.m., but strong winds made the task difficult. Few spectators knew that the bag was being filled with highly combustible hydrogen
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
, the same gas implicated in the Hindenburg disaster
Hindenburg disaster
The Hindenburg disaster took place on Thursday, May 6, 1937, as the German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, which is located adjacent to the borough of Lakehurst, New Jersey...
. The safer alternative, helium
Helium
Helium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table...
, was not available to them as most of the world's supply was in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and the United States made use of most of the production.
At around 4:00 a.m. the gigantic balloon was filled with hydrogen. Without warning and from some undetermined cause, the stiff fabric went up in flames. According to witnesses, a spark appeared on the top of the bag and quickly enveloped the balloon. It burned very fast. Fortunately, the gondola was spared and no one was injured. , which gave Polish scientists hope for a next attempt.
Aftermath
As the gondola was saved, Polish experts decided to recreate the bag and organize another takeoff. In August 1939 the Americans provided the Poles with helium and the flight was planned for September 1939, near the town of SławskoSławsko
Sławsko is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Sławno, within Sławno County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Sławno and north-east of the regional capital Szczecin....
, in the Gorgany
Gorgany
Gorgany is a mountain range in Western Ukraine in Outer Eastern Carpathians, adjacent to Chornohora range. The highest peak of Gorgany is Syvulia with the other high peaks including Ihrovyshche, Vysoka and Grofa. The mountains are made of flysch rock, mostly sandstone, which create typical for...
However, the German and Soviet attack on Poland made this impossible.
Further reading
- Jacek Szczepanski; Wojska balonowe. Legionowo 1897-1939. Pruszków 2004
- Zbigniew Burzynski; Balonem przez kontynenty. Warszawa 1956
- Andrzej Morgala, Gwiazda Polski Lot do stratosfery 1938 rok, Bellona 2006. ISBN 8311103364
- Jan Krupski, Ewa Jelen, Stacja koncowa Zakopane, Warszawa 1999.