In 1909, a mechanic named Rozum and a naturalized Czech — Bogumił Bechyně — designed a very modern aircraft, a creative evolution of the famous Blériot XI. The aircraft was built from scratch at the mechanical workshops of Emil Rudawski on Kossak Square, while engine components were cast at the Peterseim works in Grzegórzki. The aircraft was publicly displayed on April 14, 1910, first in Rudawski’s garages and then exhibited in a specially prepared hall of the Klein Hotel (now the Monopol Hotel on Św. Gertrudy Street). It was the first correctly designed and entirely built aircraft on Polish lands. To this day, it remains a mystery whether flight tests of this machine were ever conducted.
Ironically, instead of the avant-garde “Blériot from Kraków,” it was another Blériot that flew over the horse racing track at Czarna Wieś — now the grounds of the Wisła Kraków Sports Society. At the beginning of May 1910, Otto Hieronymus arrived in Kraków — a Bavarian residing in Bohemia, a designer at the automobile factory in Mladá Boleslav. He was to perform demonstration flights on a modified Blériot XI aircraft. The first — closed — demonstration, attended by the city mayor Juliusz Leo, took place on May 5 at the horse racing track at Czarna Wieś. However, the aircraft was damaged at that time; after repairs, during the public demonstration on May 14, the aeroplane made only a few unimpressive hops due to an engine failure. After further repairs, on the evening of May 22, with little public interest — spectators having been discouraged by the previous failures — Hieronymus took off from the racetrack, heading across the Cichy Kącik area toward the Błonia commons. By chance, the aviator had an extraordinarily large audience in the form of masses of Kraków residents gathered at the Błonia to observe Halley’s Comet, which astronomers had announced.
