Stefan Bastyr

He is credited with the first military flight in the history of the Polish Air Force on 5 November 1918, almost a week before Poland officially regained her independence, at the opening stages of the Polish-Ukrainian War.

Initially he was a military pilot in Austria-Hungary during World War I.

He undertook about 100 sorties during the war and scored at least 1 air victory on 4 June 1916.

He performed the first military flight of Polish aircraft, on 5 November 1918 against Ukrainian troops at Persenkowka station, along with observer Janusz de Beaurain (he flew Oeffag C.II,[1] or according to other publications, Hansa-Brandenburg C.I[2]).

He died in an aircrash of Fokker D.VII in Lviv (probably due to a hear failure) during the Battle of Lwów (1920) and is buried at the Łyczaków cemetery in Lwów (modern Lviv).