- Condition: ** block of 4
- Year: 2011
Jan Kašpar (May 20th, 1883, Pardubice - March 2nd, 1927, Pardubice) was a Czech engineer, Czech aviation pioneer, most renowned member of the first group of Czech aviation builders and pilots. His pioneering long-distance flights made him particularly famous.
A mechanical engineering graduate from the Imperial and Royal Czech Technical University in Prague, Kašpar successfully completed a one-term programme at a higher car school in Germany and took up a job with Basse&Selve in Altena, Westfalia in 1908 where his interest in aviation began. After a short employment with Laurin&Klement in Mlada Boleslav he returned back to his native Pardubice and set up an aviation building business with his cousin Evžen Čihak. Both cousins went their own separate way after some time, however, with Evžen Čihak starting an independent business together with his brother Hugo.
Kašpar first construction was a monoplane after the Antoinette monoplane manufactured by French designer Latham. While he was still building the monoplane, he heard the news of Louis Blériot´s first flight across the English Channel on July 25th, 1909. The news made him buy a Blériot XI (serial number 76) for 18 000 francs after he had found himself unable to take off his own model. The first engine he used in the Blériot was his own model, later replaced with an Anzani. Kašpar´s first successful flight, covering 2 kilometres at a height of 20-25 meters, came on April 16th, 1910. He gained his first experience as a pilot during the next few months, and passed a pilot examination on June 16th, 1910.
In 1911 Kašpar performed the first flight in his own model fitted with a 70 HP Daimler engine and intended for a first long-distance flight in the Czech territory. The first test flight at a 400-meter height lasted 24 minutes and 23 seconds. Kašpar made another flight on the same day, April 30th, 1911, this time accompanied by his cousin Evžen Čihak as passenger.
Kašpar´s highlight event, the famous Pardubice-Velka Chuchle flight (May 13th, 1911), covered 121 kilometres at about 800 meters above the ground in 92 minutes. The aircraft, donated by Kašpar to the Technical Museum of the Czech Kingdom (today´s National Technical Museum in Prague) in 1913, is still on display.
Kašpar´s next famous event was the first long-distance passenger flight. The Mělník-Chuchle flight lasted 41 minutes and 55 seconds; the passenger was Jaroslav Kalva, editor of the Narodní politika daily.
Impoverished and suffering from mental disease, Kašpar committed suicide in 1927.
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