Polish Genius : JERZY DABROWSKI

1899 — 1967 mechanical engineer, aircraft designer / He came from a railway family in the Łowicz area. He studied at Warsaw University of Technology. From 1923-1926 he worked at the Military Aviation Research Centre, and in the period 1926-1928 he worked at the aircraft design studio of the E. Plage and T. Laskiewicz Mechanical Plant in Lublin.
In 1928 he joined the design office of PZL in Warsaw, where, together with Franciszek Kott he designed the PZL Ł.2 two-seater liaison aircraft (tested in 1929 and built in 1931 in a series of 30). In 1934-1936 Dabrowski participated in designing the PZL.37 “Łos” twin-engine bomber, built in 1936 (96 manufactured). Its wing section was then used in the PZL.38 “Wilk”, the PZL.44 “Wicher”, the PZL.46 “Sum”, and the PZL.50 “Jastrzab”.

In September 1939, together with aviation industry workers, he evacuated through Romania to France, and then, after its surrender, to the UK, where he worked in the Polish Air Force Base in Blackpool. There, along with Peter Kubicki, he developed the design for the “Gazelle” training aircraft.

He received his diploma in mechanical engineering in 1947 at the Polish University College in London. In 1948-1949, he worked at Bevan Brothers in Chelmsford, constructing a jet-powered helicopter rotor. From 1949 to 1954, at Percival Aircraft in Luton, he took part in the design of the engine mounting for the Pembroke airliner and the wings for the Jet Provost. While there, he worked on the next version of the “Gazelle”, a military observation aircraft. From 1954 to 1955 he worked at Folland Aircraft in Hamble, near Southampton, on designing the central section of the airframe for the Gnat fighter. In 1955 he moved to the US, where between 1955-1957 he headed the design group at Cessna Aircraft in Wichita (Kansas) for the fuselage front and tail for the Cessna 620. In 1958-1959, at Stanley Aviation in Denver (Colorado), he participated in designing the ejector seat and rescue capsule for the Convair B-58 Hustler supersonic bomber, and between 1959 and 1967, at Boeing Airplanes in Renton (Washington), he designed the crew space and seats for the Space Shuttle.