Tadeusz Tański (11 March 1892 – 23 March 1941) was a Polish automobile engineer and the designer of, among others, the first Polish serially-built automobile, the

CWS T-1 The CWS T-1 was the first serially-built car manufactured in Poland. A series of different cars based on the T-1 chassis designed by Tadeusz Tański (hence T-1) of the Centralne Warsztaty Samochodowe (hence CWS), it was the only motor car that c ...

. He was born in

Janów Podlaski Janów Podlaski (; be, Янаў Падляскі, Janaŭ Padliaski) is a town in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland, close to the border with Belarus. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina ...

Czesław Tański Czesław, ( cz, Česlav, be, italic=yes, Časłaŭ; Česłaŭ, lt, Česlovas) is an old given name derived from the Slavic elements ''ča'' (to await) and ''slava'' (glory). Feminine form: Czesława/Česlava. The name may refer to: * Ceslaus, ...

, one of pioneers of Polish aviation. Before the outbreak of the

Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Tański moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where he studied engineering and specialised in airplane engines at the ''Ecole d’Electricite Industriel de Paris''. During the war he designed and constructed a number of engines for various military planes, as well as studied extensively on armoured vehicles at the L. Bordon company. Later he also worked as an engineer for the Armstrong–Whitworth company. Ford FT-B

In 1919 he returned to

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 ...

and started working for the Ministry of Military Affairs in the Automobile Section. During the Polish-Bolshevik War, in 1920 he constructed the first Polish armoured car, the

Ford FT-B The Ford FT B (also known as Ford Tf-c and model 1920) was the first Armored car (military), armoured car designed and built in Poland. Built on the chassis of the Ford T and armoured with re-used armoured plates, the car was a successful design ...

, based on

chassis A chassis (, ; plural ''chassis'' from French châssis ) is the load-bearing framework of an artificial object, which structurally supports the object in its construction and function. An example of a chassis is a vehicle frame, the underpart ...

of the famous

Ford T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...

. Altogether 16 machines of this type were built, all of them used in front service. After the war he remained one of the engineers working for the Polish arms industry, most notably the

Centralne Warsztaty Samochodowe Centralne Warsztaty Samochodowe (''Central Car Works'', CWS) was a Polish pre-war car and motorcycle manufacturer. Created by the Polish Ministry of War Affairs in 1918, the privately run company was initially entitled to service of all the me ...

company. It was there in 1922 Tański designed, and later supervised the production of the

, the first Polish serially-built car. Until late thirties he remained one of the most notable Polish constructors and the designer of numerous cars, lorries and

artillery tractor An artillery tractor, also referred to as a gun tractor, is a specialized heavy-duty form of tractor unit used to tow artillery pieces of varying weights and calibres. It may be 6x6, wheeled, continuous track, tracked, or half-tracked. Trac ...

s. After the Polish Defensive War of 1939 and the outbreak of

World War II 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 ...

, Tański remained in German-occupied Poland. On 3 July 1940, at the height of the

AB Action , location = Palmiry Forest and similar locations in occupied Poland , date = Spring–summer 1940 , incident_type = Mass murder with automatic weapons , perpetrators = Wehrmacht, '' Einsatzgruppen'' , participants = , ...

, he was arrested by the Germans and sent to the

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 con ...

, where he was murdered on 23 March 1941.

Bibliography

*Lucyna Smolińska, Mieczysław Sroka "Wielcy znani i nieznani" Wydawnictwa Radia i Telewizji, Warsaw 1988.

External links

Tadeusz Tanski and His Creations
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tanski, Tadeusz 1892 births 1941 deaths People from Biała Podlaska County 20th-century Polish inventors 20th-century Polish engineers Polish people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Polish automobile designers Polish civilians killed in World War II