In 1909 — just five years after the Wright brothers’ flight — Wincenty and Rudolf set about developing an aeroplane project bearing the proud name “Aquila” (eagle). On October 20, 1909, the Aquila model was presented at the Kraków Technical Society, where this flying novelty received a positive reception. All the more so because during the capabilities demonstration, the “Aquila” model, powered by a rubber band-driven propeller, after a one-and-a-half-meter ground run flew the entire length of the hall at an altitude of two meters. This was a good prognosis before building the actual aeroplane. They began work on it in a large shed in the village of Mogiła — now part of the city of Kraków, a housing estate within District XVIII Nowa Huta. It was an ecclesiastical village, the property of the Cistercian Abbey in Mogiła, established in the second half of the 16th century in the Proszowice county of the former Kraków Voivodeship. In the vicinity of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Wenceslaus, and the Cistercian monastery, the Schindler brothers commenced preliminary work on the aircraft. Being not only passionate aviators but also capable businessmen, the Schindlers founded a company with engineers Marek Kautz and Henryk Brzeski, which began building a real aircraft already in Vienna. The concept was developed by both brothers, and the technical details by the aforementioned engineers. As early as 1907, Brzeski had designed an original 50-horsepower bi-rotary radial engine in which the cylinders and shafts rotated in opposite directions, driving two counter-rotating propellers. Patents for the engine and propellers were quickly purchased by world leaders in engine production — the German company Siemens and the French company Gnome.
In the summer of 1910, at the Wiener-Neustadt airfield, the Schindlers publicly displayed the “Aquila” before Emperor Franz Joseph I himself. The machine aroused the interest of the aging monarch. However, just a few days later, the lack of ailerons and a rudder caused an accident — the “Aquila” crashed into the hedge surrounding the airfield during its first test flight.
Amateur aviation constructions began appearing in Kraków. Then, in 1912, a military airfield was established at Rakowice and large military maneuvers were organized with the participation of Taube-type flying machines. One of the pilots was a native of Kraków — sapper captain Mieczysław Miller, a pioneer of aviation on Polish lands. In 1910, he received an official F.A.I. license from the Blériot School. He thus became the first Austro-Hungarian military pilot, but also the first Polish military pilot. In April 1911, the first aircraft, an Etrich Taube, was purchased for the Austro-Hungarian army. The first military pilot course under the command of the then still lieutenant Mieczysław Miller began in Wiener Neustadt on April 19, 1911. Twenty-seven officers from the army and navy were admitted, training was conducted on subsequently purchased Etrich Taube aircraft, and 16 pilots completed the course.
