Gwiazda Polski

Polish crew, consisting of Captain Zbigniew Burzynski and Doctor Konstanty Jodko-Narkiewicz, attempted the stratospheric flight in The Star of Poland on October 14, 1938 in the Tatra Mountains, but the balloon caught fire when it was less than 100 feet above the ground.

The first idea of making a Polish flight into the stratosphere was conceived in 1937 by the military authorities, who wanted to beat the record, established two years earlier by Anderson and Stevens.

It was sponsored by the national Airborne and Antigas Defence League (Liga Obrony Powietrznej i Przeciwgazowej), with General Kazimierz Sosnkowski serving as the honorary director.

Some time in late 1937 or early 1938, a Scientific Council of Flight was created, which consisted of professors Wolfke, Szczepan Szczeniowski, Marian Miesowicz and Mieczyslaw Jezewski.

They agreed that the pilots would examine distribution of the rays at various altitudes [4] Advanced equipment had been prepared, its main parts were a telescope consisting of 30 Geiger-Muller meters, and an Ionization chamber.

Altogether some 65,000 such stamps were printed, and the mail office in Zakopane used specially made seals with depiction of the balloon on all letters and postcards in these days.

Today those stamps are scarce, their prices reach up to 200 zlotys [7] Curiously enough, the balloon, which had been planned to land somewhere in Volhynia, carried several pieces of mail, sent to Łuck, Rowne and other places.

In August 1939 the Americans provided the Poles with helium [5] and the flight was planned between September 1–15, 1939, near the town of Sławsko, in the Gorgany[6] On August 31, 1939, leading Polish daily Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny wrote that preparations for the flight were almost completed, with several meteorogical stations established in the area of Slawsko, and 1015 bottles of American helium delivered by rail.