The present-day Bartłomiej Nowodworski 1st Secondary School in Kraków, and at the beginning of the 20th century the St. Anna Gymnasium, is the site of some of the first aviation experiments in Lesser Poland. The person who inspired and led them was Bronisław Saloni — a fifth-year student at the gymnasium, who with the help of his classmates built in 1910 a wooden biplane glider in a canard configuration modeled on the Voisin glider. He most likely began work on it in October 1909 — for this was that special time when “aviation fever” reached its zenith in Kraków: the press had just brought reports (and cinematographs, photographs) of Blériot’s demonstration flights in Budapest (October 18) and Vienna (October 23), as well as news of the founding of the first aviation enthusiasts’ organization on Polish lands — the Aviation Union of Students of the Lviv Polytechnic (October 6), and a few days later the Galician “Aviata” Society (October 22). Both newly created organizations immediately announced preparations for the first flights in Galicia — in Lviv and in Kraków; they were to be performed by the French aviator Pierre Grand, in a “Blériot” XI aircraft.
The year 1910 also passed under the sign of aviation — “Kraków, which takes such a lively interest in sport, will have the opportunity this coming Sunday to admire the flight of an aeroplane designed by Mr. Saloni, a student of the 5th class of St. Anna Gymnasium” — reported the editorial staff of the daily “Czas” (Time) — “Until now, only among secondary school youth circles have rumors circulated about the aviation works and experiments of the young inventor, who on an apparatus of his own design conducted test flights at Krzemionki. […] Previous trials proved that Mr. Saloni’s apparatus — of the so-called ‘gleitflieger’ type — is well conceived and constructed. […] Interest in Mr. Saloni’s work has now increased, all the more so as the young sportsman is now already working on building an engine, whose plans have been very favorably evaluated by experts. The Holiday Colony Society […] persuaded the young aviator to organize a flight during the festival…”
The planned flight of Saloni’s glider in Jordan Park required special preparations: a 7-meter-high wooden platform was built to enable gaining the necessary speed for a flight covering, as calculated, approximately 200–300 meters. Everything was ready, Saloni was preparing to begin the attempt, but at the last moment the police intervened. Why did this happen and for what reasons was the ban issued? Most likely for safety reasons, as hundreds of students from four Kraków gymnasiums participating in gymnastic demonstrations, races, etc. had gathered in Jordan Park. It was presumably decided that the risk was too great — both for the young aviator and for the spectators.
Saloni also intended to build an airplane. His best friend — Dolek — Adolf Liebeskind — recalled years later, in his essay “The Strict Gymnasium,” his classmate obsessed with the passion of flight: “It is noteworthy that in the same class, which thanks to its professors [J. Wiśniowski (Polish language), A. Ziemski (history), M. Bogucki (Greek), A. Gąsiorowski (Latin), class supervisor] received an excellent classical education and absorbed the mysterious power of antiquity and the invigorating current of humanism, there was a boy, the late lamented Bronek Saloni, who gathered around himself a group of classmates, awakening among them an interest in aviation, in building model aircraft, and in literature concerning this field of technology. He himself undertook glider flights, organized two magnificent — for those times — aviation exhibitions […], founded the ‘Awiata’ circle, whose members met every week or two to listen to lectures and used the circle’s own library…”. Enjoying the support of the school director, Saloni in the spring of 1910 also organized an exhibition at which he presented, among other things, an engine for powering an airship. The “Ilustrowany Kurier Codzienny” (Illustrated Daily Courier) in its January 31, 1911 issue reported: “Aviation exhibition in the gymnasium hall of St. Anna Gymnasium — an improved Voisin-system aeroplane, designed by the youthful aviator, 5th class student Mr. Saloni.”
After completing school, Bronisław Saloni enrolled at the Lviv Polytechnic School, and from November 1913 was a regular member of the Aviation Union of Students of the Lviv Polytechnic (ZASPL), in the Apparatus Construction Section. He was killed during the Great War — as a pilot, of course.
