Jan Nagórski | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1888-01-27)January 27, 1888 Włocławek, Russian Empire |
| Died | June 9, 1976(1976-06-09) (aged 88) Warsaw, Poland |
| Resting place | Wólka Węglowa cemetery,Bielany,Warsaw |
| Citizenship | Polish |
| Known for | Aviator, engineer andArctic explorer |
| Awards | Order of St. Stanislaus,Polonia Restituta |
| Aviation career | |
| Air force | Imperial Russian Navy,Red Army |
Alfons Jan Nagórski (1888–1976), also known asIvan Iosifovich Nagursky,[1] was a Polish engineer andpioneer of aviation, the first person to fly anairplane in the Arctic and the first aviator to perform aloop with aflying boat.
Jan Nagórski was born on January 27, 1888, inWłocławek,Russian Empire. He completed a local trade school and in 1909 graduated from an infantryjunker school inOdessa and the All-Russian Aeroclub in 1912. The following year he accomplished his training at the Naval Engineering School inGatchina nearSt. Petersburg where he earned his wings. He was among the firstpilots of the Imperial Russian Navy.
In 1914 Nagórski was tasked with the difficult mission of locating the expedition ofGeorgy Sedov,Georgy Brusilov, andVladimir Rusanov in the Russian Arctic. In aMaurice Farman MF11 plane, specially purchased for that purpose inFrance, Nagórski embarked on a ship inArkhangelsk and arrived toNovaya Zemlya, whence he initiated a series of reconnaissance flights in difficult Arctic conditions. Between August 21 and September 13, 1914, he flew five missions, spending more than ten hours in the air and travelling more than a thousand kilometres over land and theBarents Sea. During the last flight he reached the76th parallel north. Nagórski failed to find Sedov's expedition, but he gained valuable experience as the first polar aviator in history. His report to the Admiralty prepared after his return, as well as a report of Nagórski's achievements by Admiral Mikhail Zhdanko,[2] included a number of suggestions that would prove invaluable to every polar aviator. Among them was the idea of painting red all the planes operating in the Arctic, to make them more visible. His achievements proved that theNorth Pole could be reached by airplane. He was awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, class III in 1914.
Upon his return from the Arctic, Nagórski returned to active service in naval aviation duringWorld War I. Stationed inÅbo (Turku) inFinland, he operated a variety of planes on patrol missions above theBaltic Sea and commanded an air squadron of theBaltic Fleet. During that time, he performed the first ever loop with a flying boat (September 17, 1916). The following day Nagórski repeated the loop twice with his experimentalGrigorovichM-9 plane. For his wartime service, Nagórski was awarded with five Russian military medals. The following year his plane was damaged above the Baltic Sea and Nagórski was declared missing. After several hours at sea, he was rescued by a Russiansubmarine and escorted to a military hospital inRiga. He quickly recovered and returned to his unit, but the report of his recovery never reached headquarters.
After theOctober Revolution, Nagórski's unit became a part of the Red Army and took part in theRussian Civil War. He returned to Poland in 1919 and attempted to join thePolish Navy, but was turned down due to his past service with the Reds. In the chaos of the Russian Civil War, Nagórski's personal files were lost and he was declared dead by Russian authorities[3]. He then settled in southern Poland and started working as an engineer and designer of refrigerators and coolers for the sugar and oil industries.
In 1925 Nagórski's report of his flights to the Arctic reachedRichard Byrd, who contacted him and asked for more details on weather conditions and other tips. The information obtained proved valuable during his later Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. Among other pioneers of Arctic aviation to take advantage of Nagórski's experience wereWalter Mittelholzer andBoris Chukhnovsky. Forgotten in Poland and believed dead in Russia, Nagórski gained much fame. In 1936 the SovietNagurskoye meteorological station inFranz Josef Land (80°49′N47°25′E / 80.817°N 47.417°E /80.817; 47.417) was named after him.
Nagórski survivedWorld War II and continued his career as a civil worker inGdańsk and then as an engineer in Warsaw. In 1955, during one of his lectures,Czesław Centkiewicz, a renowned Polish polar explorer and author, presented the audience with a short biographical note of a "long-forgotten pioneer of aviation, pilot Jan Nagórski who died in 1917". Nagórski, who remained interested in exploration of the polar areas and was present at the lecture stood up and announced that he was not Russian and definitely not dead. This revelation became widely publicised by the Polish media and Nagórski's achievements were rediscovered. On Centkiewicz's suggestion, Nagórski described his Arctic flights in a book entitledThe First Above Arctic (1958).[1] In 1960, he publishedOver the Burning Baltic, the memoirs of his World War I service.[2] As a late recognition of his deeds, Nagórski was awarded the Officer's Cross of thePolonia Restituta byPolish President.
He died on June 9, 1976, and was buried at the Wólka Węglowa cemetery in theBielany district ofWarsaw.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
