Czesław Zbierański

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Czesław Michał Zbierański (1885–1982) was a Polish engineer, pioneer of Polish aviation, major of Polish Army. In the years of 1910–1911 with Stanisław Cywiński constructed plane with 2 pairs of wings, the first Polish plane constructed partially with metal. In 1920s Zbierański was producing cars, motorcycles and rail draisines. He was also a Polonia activist and founder of an English language book collection of the Aviation Institute in Warsaw (1962). Awarded the 5th Class Virtuti Militari.

[edit] Biography

Zbierański was born on December 6, 1885 in Warsaw.

He developed aviation interests after graduating a Lviv Polytechnic. He co-founded Aviators Circles (Polish: Koło Awiatów) in which he with Stanisław Cywiński (who joined to the circles later) planned design and construct a plane, Zbierański i Cywiński. The first attempt to fly, in May 1911, was failed. The reason of fail was part of plane skin burn. On September 25, 1911 in Warsaw, the plane piloted by Michał Scipio del Campio successfully flew distance around 15–20 kilometers in 15 minutes.

During the WWI, Zbierański was in Polish Legions. During the WWII he worked under constructions of anti-aircraft warfares and as a technical supervisor in production of Avro Anson V in Federal Aircraft Company. Before end of WWII he moved to U.S.

He died on May 31, 1982 in New York.