Irena Kempówna-Zabiełło (20 October 1920 - 17 June 2002) was a Polish

glider pilot Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

, record-breaking aviator and

flight instructor A flight instructor is a person who teaches others to operate aircraft. Specific privileges granted to holders of a flight instructor qualification vary from country to country, but very generally, a flight instructor serves to enhance or evaluate ...

Early life and education

Irena Kempówna was born on 20 October 1920 in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. She grew up in the city, where she graduated from Krystyna Malczewska secondary school in 1938. She took up

gliding Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word ''soaring'' is al ...

in 1936 at the age of 16. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she was a soldier in the Kedyw unit (Kierownictwo Dywersji Komendy Głównej Armii Krajowej), which

August Emil Fieldorf August Emil Fieldorf ('' nom de guerre''; “''Nil''”; 20 March 1895 – 24 February 1953) was a Polish brigadier general who served as deputy commander-in-chief of the Home Army after the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising (August 1944 – ...

founded as part of the

Polish Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...

. Kempówna took part in the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...

Flying career

Immediately after the end of the war, Kempówna trained as a flight instructor at the Cywilna Szkoła Pilotów i Mechaników (Civil School of Pilots and Mechanics). After passing the exam in July 1945, she soon began to train other flight instructors. She began competitive flying and between 1947 and 1950 she set thirteen Polish records for flight duration, flight length and maximum flight altitude and two world records for women. On 10 June 1948, Kempówna flew a 100-km triangle in the

IS-1 Sęp The IS-1 Sęp was a single-seat high-performance glider designed and built in Poland from 1947. It was the first post-war Polish glider. Development The IS-1 Sęp (Vulture) was designed in Instytut Szybownictwa (Gliding Institute) as part o ...

(registration SP-549) and completed her first world record with an average speed of 50 km/h. On 12 November 1950, she flew a record 4963 metres high with fellow pilot Lucyna Wlazło in the IS-C Żuraw two-seater. Kempówna studied

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

at the

Politechnika Gdańska Polytechnic is most commonly used to refer to schools, colleges, or universities that qualify as an institute of technology or vocational university also sometimes called universities of applied sciences. Polytechnic may also refer to: Educatio ...

, where she became a member of ''Akademickie Koło Lotnicze'', the university flying club. The club flew at

Strzebielino Strzebielino ( csb, Strzebielëno; german: Strebielin) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Łęczyce, within Wejherowo County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately east of Łęczyce, west of Wejhero ...

near

Wejherowo Wejherowo ( csb, Wejrowò; german: Neustadt in Westpreußen, formerly Weyhersfrey) is a city in Gdańsk Pomerania, northern Poland, with 48,735 inhabitants (2021). It has been the capital of Wejherowo County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 199 ...

and at the airport in

Wrzeszcz Wrzeszcz (pronounced , german: Langfuhr; csb, Wrzészcz) is one of the boroughs of the Northern Poland, Polish city of Gdańsk. With a population of more than 65,000 in an area of (population density 6,622), Wrzeszcz is the most populous part o ...

.''Aeroklub Gdański''.
In: ''Gedanopedia''. (polnisch, retrieved 14 April 2020) In 1949, Kempówna was the first woman to win an international gliding competition in competition with men. At the Żar glider airfield near the village of

Międzybrodzie Żywieckie Międzybrodzie Żywieckie is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Czernichów, within Żywiec County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately north of Czernichów, north of Żywiec, and south of the regio ...

, she outpaced experienced glider pilots and pilots who had flown in the war. The following year she came fourth in the poll for the Przegląd Sportowy (Polish Sportsperson of the Year) behind Helena Rakoczy,

Emil Kiszka Emil Kiszka (5 December 1926 – 9 February 2007) was a Polish sprinter. He competed in the men's 100 metres at the 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officia ...

and Władysław Skonecki. From 1950 she was a member of the board of the Liga Lotnicza (Aviation League). Between 1950 and 1956, Kempówna was banned from flying for political reasons, as two members of her flying club had managed to escape to Sweden in a motorised plane in November 1950. In 1952, she graduated from university as a trained architect and got married. She became the head of the Centralna Szkoła Szybowcowa Aeroklubu PRL (Central Gliding School of the Aeroclub of the People's Republic of Poland) in

Leszno Leszno (german: Lissa, 1800–1918 ''Lissa in Posen'') is a historic city in western Poland, within the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the seventh-largest city in the province with an estimated population of 62,200, as of 2021. Previously, it ...

- Strzyżewice in 1957, which she turned into an international gliding centre. In 1957, the Polish National Championship was held there. In 1958 and 1968 it hosted the

World Gliding Championships The World Gliding Championships (WGC) is a gliding competition held every two years or so by the FAI Gliding Commission. The dates are not always exactly two years apart, often because the contests are sometimes held in the summer in the Southern ...

. In 1965, she initiated the last major expansion of the site with the construction of a control tower and café. In Sweden in 1962, she travelled to Sweden with three other pilots on a promotional trip to showcase the Polish gliders

SZD-22 Mucha Standard The SZD-22 Mucha Standard (''Szybowcowy Zakład Doświadczalny'' – Glider Experimental Works) was a single-seat aerobatic glider designed and built in Poland from 1957. Development Developed especially for the 1958 World Gliding Championshi ...

and

SZD-24 Foka The SZD-24 Foka (Seal) (''Szybowcowy Zakład Doświadczalny'' - Glider Experimental Works) was a single-seat high-performance aerobatic glider designed and built in Poland in 1960. Development The SZD-24 Foka was designed for competition fly ...

. In 1966, Kempówna and her husband Roman Zabiełło obtained work contracts in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

through the

international trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy) In most countries, such trade represents a significant ...

company ''Centrala Handlu Zagranicznego Polservice'' and settled in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

. Kempówna trained

Swissair Swissair AG/ S.A. (German: Schweizerische Luftverkehr-AG; French: S.A. Suisse pour la Navigation Aérienne) was the national airline of Switzerland between its founding in 1931 and bankruptcy in 2002. It was formed from a merger between Bal ...

commercial pilots on the

flight simulator A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...

there for many years. Her husband Roman Zabiełło worked as a pilot for Swissair,

Balair Belair, legally ''Belair Airlines Aktiengesellschaft, AG'', was a Switzerland, Swiss charter airline headquartered in Glattbrugg operating out of Zürich Airport and EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg. It was a subsidiary of Air Berlin and oper ...

and later Germanair.

Personal life

Kempówna married pilot Roman Zabiełło in 1952 and they had a son. Kempówna shared a lifelong friendship with fellow pilot

Jadwiga Piłsudska Jadwiga Piłsudska-Jaraczewska (; 28 February 1920 – 16 November 2014) was a Polish pilot, who served in the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. She was one of two daughters of Józef Piłsudski. Life and career Piłsudska ...

(1920-2014), daughter of Polish Prime Minister

Józef Piłsudski ), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania) , death_date = , death_place = Warsaw, Poland , constituency = , party = None (formerly PPS) , spouse = , children = Wan ...

. Her friends also included the actress Barbara Ahrens-Młynarska. Irena Kempówna-Zabiełło died after a long illness on 17 June 2002 in

. She was survived by her husband Roman Zabiełło (d. 2006) and a son. Her funeral took place on 28 June 2022 after a memorial service in St. Anna's Church in

Wilanów Wilanów () is a district of the city of Warsaw, Poland. It is home to historic Wilanów Palace, the "Polish Versailles," and second home to various Polish kings. History The first mentions of a settlement in the area can be traced to the 13th ...

Awards

Kempówna was awarded Poland's

Golden Cross of Merit The Cross of Merit () is a Polish civil state decoration established on 23 June 1923, to recognize services to the state. History At the time of its establishment in 1923, the Cross of Merit was the highest civilian award in Poland. It was aw ...

and a number of Polish and international prizes. In 1959, she was the first Polish woman to receive the

Paul Tissandier Paul Tissandier (19 February 1881 – 11 March 1945) was a French aviator. Biography Tissandier was the son of aviator Gaston Tissandier and nephew of Albert Tissandier, Gaston's brother. Tissandier began his flying career as a hot air ballo ...

Diploma of Honour from the

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale The (; FAI; en, World Air Sports Federation) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintai ...

(FAI) "for exceptional contributions and achievements in sport aviation".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kempówna, Irena 1920 births 2002 deaths Recipients of the Gold Cross of Merit (Poland) Women aviators Women aviation record holders Women aviation pioneers Polish aviators Polish aviation record holders People from Warsaw Polish women Glider pilots Polish glider pilots Flight instructors

Early life and education

Flying career

Personal life

Awards

Further reading

References