- 20.5.1883 – 2.3.1927
The memorial plaque at Pardubice train station commemorating the Czech aviator Jan Kašpar, who in 1910 made the first flight in the Czech Republic, is located in the underpass by the fourth platform exactly where Kašpar`s hangar used to be.
Before the First World War, the southern suburb of Pardubice was not a built-up area with dozens of streets and houses as it is today. The open landscape and flat meadows were a great place for the first flight experiments of Jan Kašpar, a Pardubice native, who set up his workshop and hangar where he worked on his first aeroplane. Not far from the original Pardubice train station building, in close proximity to the railway workshops and other technical buildings, Kašpar set up his hangar in 1909-1910. Here he first tried to design his own construction, i.e. the entire airframe of the first Czech aeroplane, and after several unsuccessful attempts he had a purchased Blériot type airframe brought to the hangar and fitted it with his own engine. From there, on April 16, 1910, he took his plane to a nearby field and made the first successful take off. Further take-offs and launches for long-distance flights outside Pardubice followed from here. A memorial plaque commemorating the beginnings of Czech aviation was placed here in 2008 by the town of Pardubice.
- References
SVITÁK, P. První český letec, inženýr Jan Kašpar, a začátky českého letectví: příběh našeho prvního letce, jeho předchůdců, spolupracovníků a současníků s přihlédnutím k vývoji letectví ve světě. Pardubice: Východočeské muzeum v Pardubicích, 2003
DITRYCH, B. První a sám: neobyčejný život a zbytečná smrt aviatika Jana Kašpara. V Praze: Knižní klub, 2001
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