History of Aviation in Slovakia

Ján Bahýľ – inventor and designer Ján Bahýľ (25 May 1856 – 13 March 1916) is probably the greatest of all the Slovak inventors and engineers who specialized in military construction. Flying machines were a particular interest of his. Bahýľ was granted seventeen patents in all including patents for a hot air balloon combined with an air turbine.

He is best remembered for constructing a petrol motor-driven helicopter. He got a Hungarian patent on this helicopter, No 3392 in 1895, which he himself flew up to 4 meters high and for over 1500 meters, in 1905 that was also recorded by the International Airship Organization.

His sketches

Ministry of Transport, Communications and Public Works published a stamp „Jan Bahýľ“ of the series of famous people on

KOCH and KVAS another two pioneers of Slovak aviation The first important design engineers of aeroplanes and pilots were born in different parts of the country 130 years ago. Koch was born in 1883 in a small village in Čelare and was of Hungarian origin, Kvas was born in the same year in Bekešska Čaba in a Slovak family but they worked together.

Their first work

Milan Rastislav Štefánik- Slovak astronomer, later also a general and politician He studied at the Meudon Observatory. Later carried out a number of observations at Mt. Blanc and in different sites during total solar eclipses. He intended to observe a transit of the comet Haley across the Sun at Tahiti.

He built up preliminary astronomical and meteorological observatories at Tahiti, and was the first European that proposed to the French Academy to build up big astronomical observatory in the southern hemisphere in From the period from 1914 to his tragic death on May 4, Štefánik joined the French Army where he established a regular meteorology service for the French Aviation.

Faculty of Aeronautics Faculty of Aeronautics is one of the nine faculties of the Technical University of Kosice. It was founded in 2005 by merging the Technical University and the Air Force Academy of General Milan Rastislav Stefanik so it preserves a long tradition of aviation education in Kosice.

Vladimír Remek- the first Czechoslovak cosmonaut He was the 87th man in history to be fortunate to see our planet from space.

Vladimir Remek was the first cosmonaut from a country other than the Soviet Union or the United States who took part in the Intercosmos program in the former Soviet Union.Soviet UnionUnited States

Remek graduated the High Aviation School in Kosice, where he flew on a training aircraft L-29 Delfin. Later he studied at the J.A. Gagarin Air Force Academy in Moscow. He was chosen with A. Gubarev, the other member of the crew, as a candidate for space flight. The flight took place in 1978.

On March 2, 1978, he took off aboard Soyuz 28 as a research cosmonaut along with Soviet cosmonaut Alexej Gubarev.Soyuz

Soyuz 28 launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with a two-membered crew on board. Commander of the ship was the Soviet cosmonaut Alexej Gubarev. The second was our cosmonaut Vladimir Remek. Their stay in space was 7 days 22 hours 16 minutes..

Ivan Bella – our cosmonaut In 1998 he was selected as a cosmonaut candidate for flights to the Mir orbital space station. He completed six months of cosmonaut training at the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Russia, between March and August He flew his only space mission as a research cosmonaut on Soyous TM-29, which launched on February 20, 1999, and docked with Mir on February 22.

Ivan Bella – our cosmonaut Bella was accompanied on Soyous TM-29 by a Russian cosmonaut, Viktor Afanasyev, and a French astronaut, Jean-Pierre Haigneré. The mission lasted eight days; Bella landed back on Earth aboard Soyous TM-29 on February 28.

We have a man in our country, Stephan Klein, who is not only a designer and engineer but he is a pilot, too. He has been developing a flying car prototype over the last 20 years. This vehicle is a strikingly beautiful design with folding wings and a propeller in the tail. American Space Agency NASA is interested in this flying car from Slovakia.

The flying car of Stephan Klein

17th September as the "Day of Slovak Air Force" is a dignified recognition of merit and heroism of Czechoslovak pilots who fought for the liberation of their homeland. The celebrations include acrobatic flights.

Museum of Aviation in Košice Aviation museum in Košice has documented evolution of aviation technique since You can find there more than 30 historical machines but also a collection of 18 original aircrafts. The Museum of Aviation in Košice has a nice collection of some the very first aircrafts used in this region to modern jetfighters.

The collection includes some very interesting aircrafts that are very rare at European aircraft museums. It presents the gifts from representatives of states and governments of 12 countries, including Europe, China and USA.

This unusual collection of foreign aviation technology, which is unique not only in Slovakia but also in Europe, was established also thanks to substantial support from Rudolf Schuster, the ex-president of Slovakia. The museum is a part of the Slovak Technical Museum in Košice but is physically located at the local airport.

Thank you for your attention The coordination team of the Comenius project „From Icarus to interplanetary travels“ Základná škola, Severná 21, Moldava nad Bodvou, Slovakia