Antoni Kocjan

These three successful gliders and their improved versions, "Czajka-bis", "Wrona-bis" and "Komar-bis", became mass-produced in Poland and in lesser quantities under license abroad in Estonia, Finland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Palestine.

The version "Orlik 2" in the years 1948-49 was piloted by the American Paul MacCready on which he set the world's height record for gliders of 9,600 metres (31,500 feet).

He was characterized by a large degree of daring in planning of actions of the Polish resistance, particularly in connection to the underground production of weapons.

He made a significant contribution to the identification of Peenemünde as the testing site of the German Wunderwaffen and worked out the technical nature of the V-2 rocket.

[1] On June 13, 1940, a Wasserfall antiaircraft rocket, a secret missile also built by the Germans at Peenemünde East, equipped with a revolutionary radio system that gave it remote control capabilities landed in Malmö, a city located in the south of Sweden - a neutral country during World War II.

[3] Unbeknownst to the British, the radio system wasn't actually for remote control, but designed simply for receiving and transmitting signals.

This news was sent to the Polish Home Army and Kocjan quickly rushed to the Bug River to photograph the V-2 and hide it with foliage to avoid its discovery by German patrols.

[2] Accompanied by other Polish scientists and to avoid detection by German patrols, Kocjan worked through most of the night and with the help of draft horses, successfully removed the V-2 rocket from the swampy bank of the Bug River.

The scientists proceeded to remove the engine and steering components of the V-2, dismantled the parts at a nearby barn and lifted them onto two trucks covered by a large quantity of potatoes.

Orlik 2 waiting for a launch