Stanisław Skarżyński

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For another person, see Stanisław Jan Skarżyński.

Stanisław Jakub Skarżyński
Order of the Crown (Romania)
Order of Merit (Hungary)
Louis Blériot medal

Stanisław Jakub Skarżyński (1 May 1899 − 26 June 1942) was a lieutenant colonel in the Polish Air Force and aviator famous for his transatlantic solo flight in 1933.

Early military career

In 1916–17 Skarżyński was a member of the

Polish-Soviet War with the infantry, being promoted to second lieutenant in 1919. He was wounded but returned to the front. During the battle of Radzymin
he was severely wounded in one leg on 16 August 1920. The infected wound needed long rehabilitation, and Skarżyński always limped thereafter. Unable to continue serving in the infantry, he managed to transfer to the military aviation arm.

He completed pilot training in

PZL Ł-2
(registration SP-AFA), a total distance of 25,770 km.

Transatlantic flight

On 7/8 May 1933 Skarzynski flew solo in a small single-seater Polish tourist airplane

Maceio in Brazil. The flight took 20 hours 30 minutes (17 hours 15 minutes above the ocean). He crossed 3,582 km, establishing a distance World Record in a FAI tourist plane category II (weight below 450 kg / 1000 lb). The plane had no radio nor safety equipment, due to weight restrictions. The RWD-5bis remains the smallest plane to ever to have flown across the Atlantic. Plans of his flight were kept secret. It became a part of Warsaw – Rio de Janeiro flight, between 27 April and 10 May 17,885 km long. He then flew on to Buenos Aires
and returned to Europe by ship.

Later service and World War II

In 1934, he was promoted to major and commanded a bomber squadron. From 1938, he was deputy C.O. of the

air attaché
.

After the outbreak of World War II, he helped in transporting Polish pilots, fleeing from Poland, through Romania to France, where the Polish Air Force was recreated. In 1940 Skarżyński, after the fall of France, helped ship 17,000 Polish airmen to Britain, where he became commanding officer of Polish Flying Schools at RAF Hucknall and then RAF Newton.

In spite of his advanced age for a military pilot, and mobility impairment, he requested a combat posting, and was assigned as C.O. of

Bremen (one of the thousand-aicraft raids), an engine stalled in his Wellington Mk II, code letters SM-R, above the North Sea.[1] Skarżyński did not make it home and ditched the aircraft in the stormy sea, after 2 am, around 65 km from English coast.[1] Skarżyński, leaving the Wellington from a separate emergency hatch, was probably washed out to sea from the fuselage top, and was the only crew member lost.[1] His body was found on the Dutch shore and he was later buried with full military honours on the Dutch island of Terschelling
.

Honours

Statue of Stanisław Skarżyński in his hometown, Warta

He was awarded the

Legion d'Honneur and the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross. The FAI awarded him the Louis Blériot medal
(1936) of which he was one of the first recipients.

Posthumously he was made a full colonel (pułkownik pilot) and awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta 2nd class by the President of Poland. There are numerous streets and schools named after him. He is the Patron of the Aeroclub of Włocławek and of the 13th Transport Squadron in Kraków. On 10 August 2009 the Minister of National Defense signed the Decree to appoint him as Patron of 8 Air Base in Kraków – Balice, which now is named after him.

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stanisław Jakub Skarżyński.
  1. ^ a b c d e Krajewski, Wojciech (January–February 2024). "Ostatni lot pułkownika Stanisława Skarżyńskiego". Technika Wojskowa Historia (in Polish). Vol. 1/2024(85). Warsaw: Magnum X. pp. 28–33.
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