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Antoni Kocjan
Antoni Kocjan (12 August 1902 – 13 August 1944) was a renowned Polish glider constructor and a contributor to the intelligence services of the Polish Home Army during World War II. Early life and education Antoni was the son of Michal Kocjan and Franciszka Zurowska, born in the village of Skalskie near Olkusz. He finished the Gymnasium of Casimir III in Olkusz in 1923 and served in the army during the Polish-Soviet war. Subsequently, he studied at the Warsaw University of Technology in the department of electrical engineering and aviation and at the Warsaw Agricultural University. He married Elizbieta Zanussi on 30 November 1939. During his studies he collaborated with the plane constructors of group RWD. In 1929 he finished a pilot's course and in 1930 won the second award at the Young Pilot's Championship. Later he was part of crew in flights on the airplanes RWD-2 and RWD-7, which beat the world's height record. In 1931 he obtained an engineer's degree and began ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auschwitz Concentration Camp
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschwitz I, the main camp (''Stammlager'') in Oświęcim; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers; Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labor camp for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben; and dozens of subcamps. The camps became a major site of the Nazis' final solution to the Jewish question. After Germany sparked World War II by invading Poland in September 1939, the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) converted Auschwitz I, an army barracks, into a prisoner-of-war camp. The initial transport of political detainees to Auschwitz consisted almost solely of Poles for whom the camp was initially established. The bulk of inmates were Polish for the first two years. In May 1940, German criminals brought to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,200 other islands and islets on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, covering a total area of . The capital city Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest urban areas of the country. The Estonian language is the autochthonous and the official language of Estonia; it is the first language of the majority of its population, as well as the world's second most spoken Finnic language. The land of what is now modern Estonia has been inhabited by '' Homo sapiens'' since at least 9,000 BC. The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last " pagan" civilisations in Europe to adopt Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wunderwaffen
''Wunderwaffe'' () is German word meaning "wonder-weapon" and was a term assigned during World War II by Nazi Germany's propaganda ministry to some revolutionary "superweapons". Most of these weapons however remained prototypes, which either never reached the combat theater, or if they did, were too late or in too insignificant numbers to have a military effect. The V-weapons, which were developed earlier and saw considerable deployment, especially against London and Antwerp, trace back to the same pool of highly inventive armament concepts. Therefore, they are also included here. As the war situation worsened for Germany from 1942, claims about the development of revolutionary new weapons which could turn the tide became an increasingly prominent part of the propaganda directed at Germans by their government. In reality, the advanced weapons under development generally required lengthy periods of design work and testing, and there was no realistic prospect of the German milit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peenemünde
Peenemünde (, en, "Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The community is known for the Peenemünde Army Research Center, where the world's first functional large-scale liquid-propellant rocket, the V-2, was developed. Geography The village with its seaport is located on the westernmost extremity of a long sand-spit, where the Peene empties into the Baltic Sea, in the northwestern part of Usedom Island. To the southeast it borders on the sea resort of Karlshagen. Peenemünde harbour can be reached by ferry boat across the Peene from Kröslin, liners also run along the Baltic coast to Rügen Island. The local railway station is the northern terminus of the ''Usedomer Bäderbahn'' line to Zinnowitz. Air service for the village is available at the Peenemünde Airfield. History During the 10th and 11th cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IS-B Komar
The single-seat Kocjan Komar (Gnat) intermediate trainer, designed in 1932, was the leading and most produced sailplane in pre-war Poland. Production was resumed after World War II as the IS-B Komar and it remained in use until 1965. Development Antoni Kocjan designed the Komar in 1932 as an intermediate trainer. Built by Warsztaty Szybowcowe (WS) (), the prototype first flew in March 1933 and an initial batch of four more followed. Its handling and cross-country performance proved excellent and WS moved to serial production, with sixty more completed before the Germany, German invasion in 1939, along with another twenty by SWS at Bielsko and unknown numbers built under WS licences in Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, State of Palestine, Palestine and Yugoslavia. Some early structural failures were traced to a maximum diving speed of only , easily exceeded in cloud, so in 1937 Kocjan responded with the strengthened and slightly heavier Komar Bis which also included a cockpit better ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kocjan Bąk
The Bąk (Horse-Fly) was a single seat motor glider designed and built in Poland from 1936. Development Affiliated to D.W.L., the ''Warsztaty Szybowcowe'' – glider workshops produced the Bᾳk, designed by Antoni Kocjan, to compete with the ITS-8 which had been designed to a specification from the I.T.S.M. (''Instytut Techniki Szybownictwa i Motoszybownictwa'' – institute of gliding and motor-gliding techniques), for a cheap ultra-light aircraft suitable for converting trained glider pilots to powered flying. The Bąk I was an immediate success with excellent performance and good handling qualities, passing I.T.L. (''Instytut Techniczny Lotnictwa'' – Technical aviation institute) and airworthiness tests without problems, also proving to have relatively good gliding performance. The Bąk was built primarily of wood with plywood in a semi-monocoque fuselage and cantilevered single spar wooden wings, with plywood skinned leading edge torsion boxes and wing roots, mid set o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motor Glider
A motor glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown with or without engine power. The FAI Gliding Commission Sporting Code definition is: a fixed-wing aerodyne equipped with a means of propulsion (MoP), capable of sustained soaring flight without thrust from the means of propulsion. History In 1935, an occasional or auxiliary motor that could be retracted was suggested by Sir John Carden. This was incorporated into the Carden-Baynes Auxiliary that first flew on 8 August of the same year. A later version of the Budig glider was powered. Types Most motor gliders are equipped with a propeller, which may be fixed, feathered (e.g. AMS-Flight Carat), or retractable. However jet engine-powered motorgliders are now available from some manufacturers, some of which are intended for use only as "sustainer" engines, i.e. for sustaining gliding flight rather than as self-launching aircraft. Fixed or feathering propeller Touring motor gliders Motor with fixed or full feathering p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul MacCready
Paul B. MacCready Jr. (September 25, 1925 – August 28, 2007) was an American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the first Kremer prize. He devoted his life to developing more efficient transportation vehicles that could "do more with less". Early life and education Born in New Haven, Connecticut to a medical family, MacCready was an inventor from an early age and won a national contest building a model flying machine at the age of 15. "I was always the smallest kid in the class ... by a good bit, and was not especially coordinated, and certainly not the athlete type, who enjoyed running around outside, and was socially kind of immature, not the comfortable leader, teenager type. And so, when I began getting into model airplanes, and getting into contests and creating new things, I probably got more psychological benefit from that than I would have from some of the other typical school things." Mac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1940 Summer Olympics
The 1940 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XII Olympiad, were originally scheduled to be held from September 21 to October 6, 1940, in Tokyo City, Empire of Japan. They were rescheduled for Helsinki, Finland, to be held from July 20 to August 4, 1940, due to the 1937 Japanese invasion of China, but were cancelled because of World War II. Helsinki eventually hosted the 1952 Summer Olympics, while Tokyo later hosted the 1964 and 2020 Summer Olympics, the latter being postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 1940 Tokyo Olympics (cancelled) The campaign to choose a city for 1940 began in 1932, with Barcelona, Rome, Helsinki, and Tokyo participating. Tokyo city officials suggested a campaign as a means of international diplomacy following Japan's alienation from the League of Nations due to the Mukden Incident, in which Japan occupied Manchuria and created the puppet state of Manchukuo. While both Tokyo officials and International Olympic Committee (IOC) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Warsztaty Szybowcowe Orlik
The Warsztaty Szybowcowe Orlik (Glider Workshop Dove), also known as the Kocjan Orlik after the designer, is a family of Polish gull winged gliders that was designed by Antoni Kocjan and produced by Warsztaty Szybowcowe.Said, Bob: ''1983 Sailplane Directory, Soaring Magazine'', page 94, Soaring Society of America November 1983. USPS 499-920 Design and development Kocjan designed the Orlik family of gliders in the late 1930s. The original Orlik had a wingspan. The Orlik 2 had a wingspan and a glide ratio of 26.5:1. The Orlik 3 was proposed as the One-Design type for the 1940 Summer Olympics, but the DFS Olympia Meise was chosen instead. Regardless, the 1940 Olympics were cancelled by the advent of the Second World War. The development of the series was cut short by Kocjan's murder on 13 August 1944 by the Gestapo as part of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. The Orlik gliders were built with a wooden structure, the fuselage covered in wood, while the wings and tail were covered wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palestine (region)
Palestine ( el, Παλαιστίνη, ; la, Palaestina; ar, فلسطين, , , ; he, פלשתינה, ) is a geographic region in Western Asia. It is usually considered to include Israel and the State of Palestine (i.e. West Bank and Gaza Strip), though some definitions also include part of northwestern Jordan. The first written records to attest the name of the region were those of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt, which used the term "Peleset" in reference to the neighboring people or land. In the 8th century, Assyrian inscriptions refer to the region of "Palashtu" or "Pilistu". In the Hellenistic period, these names were carried over into Greek, appearing in the Histories of Herodotus in the more recognizable form of "Palaistine". The Roman Empire initially used other terms for the region, such as Judaea, but renamed the region Syria Palaestina after the Bar Kokhba revolt. During the Byzantine period, the region was split into the provinces of Palaestina Prima, Palaestin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
