AviationDiscuss National known Pilots... in the World War II - Aviation forums; I would be interested in finding out about some of the war partcipant countries best known Pilots...
Although he didn't ...
I would be interested in finding out about some of the war partcipant countries best known Pilots...
Although he didn't take part in the war here is the story of Cpt. Dumitru "Pufi" Popescu. He was the first testpilot of the romanian IAR-80, a great flight instructor, aerobtics, and fighter pilot. "Pufi" starts his flight career in the year 1927, when he obtains the Observer Licence and is promoted to Second Lieutenen. In 1929 he obtains his Flying Licence, no. 744. He is promoted to Lieutenent on 8th june 1931, and then Captain on 10th may 1938. In 1940 he is dispached to the 7th Fighting Squadron, and appointed Commanding Officer to the 57th Squadron, equipped with Bf-109E... Unfortunately he would die in the 3rd december 1940 in a trgic aviation accident. He was training in formation with Cpt. Horning, practicing the 'turn in formation' routine where the germans applied the 'constant speed' technique, pilots changing formation their courses would intersect. During one of these manouvers his propeller touches the other aircraft, desintegrating. Cpt. Popescu tries to bail out but his Paraschute is cought in the plane. The other pilot mannages to land his plane safely, but Cpt. Dumitru Popescu looses his life.
I'm sorry I have no scaned photo... but I will post one as soon as I can...
The highest scoring Polish ace was major Stanislaw Skalski with 22 confirmed kills. But I will write about him other day.
Now I would like to mention another interesting Polish pilot, Witold Urbanowicz.
He was born in 1908 and in 1930 joined theAir Force School. 15th August 1932 he was nominated to 2Lt. and as an observer joined the night bombardment squadron of the 1st Airforce Regiment (Warsaw).
In 1933 he graduated from the advanced flying course in Grudziadz and joined 113th (later also 111th) fighter squadron, but n 1936 came to Deblin (Air Force Academy) as an instructor.
In September 1939 he fought arm in arm with his students and led them to Romania. Then, he arrived to the UK, where, after completing Hurricane training joined the 145th sqn.
On 21st August 1940 he was transferred to the 303rd (Polish) sqn where he was appointed a flight lieutenant. On 7th September he became a commander of this famous sqn (highest scoring RAF unit during the BoB). During this battle he shot down 16 German planes becomint the most effective Polish fighter.
The High Command considered him to be too precious to risk his life in combat, so he was transferred to the HQ of the 11th Fighter Group. Urbanowicz was one of the "founding fathers" of the 1st Polish Fighter Wing.
In June 1941 he was sent to the USA where he was giving some lectures about fighter tactics. A year later he became a deputy Air Attache of the Polish Embassy in Washington.
In September 1943 he was invited by Gen. Chennault to join the 75th Fighter Sqn in Ku-Ming in China. He took part in several sorties and flying P40E he shot down 2 Zero fighters.
He passed away in NY in 1996.
He was awarded the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari medal (the highest Polish war medal), 3 times a Cross of valour (Krzyż Walecznych), Distinguished Flying Cross (in a group of first 4 Polish pilots decorated with this medal), American DFC and Chinese Flying Cross.
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