In 1937, a project was conceived to organize a Polish balloon flight to the stratosphere. Balloon aviation in Poland operated on the basis of the balloon and parachute factory in Legionowo, which produced very good balloons. Polish aviators achieved high placements in international balloon competitions, winning, for example, the Gordon Bennett Cup on several occasions. Within these military circles, the idea arose to organize a flight to break the altitude record for a manned balloon (the record at that time belonged to the American aviator Capt. Stevens, who in 1935 had reached an altitude of 22 km).
It was a grand and prestigious undertaking, patronized by the Air and Anti-Gas Defence League (LOPP), with honorary patronage from General Kazimierz Sosnkowski. The military organizers, who were working to arrange the flight, encountered the authorities’ opinion that it would be feasible if, beyond the record itself, there existed some serious scientific purpose. Professor Mieczysław Wolfke from the Warsaw University of Technology suggested researching cosmic radiation. A Scientific Flight Council was established, to which Professor Mieczysław Wolfke and Professor Szczepan Szczeniowski were appointed, and later also Professor Marian Mięsowicz and Professor Mieczysław Jeżewski. It was determined that the subject of research during the flight would be measuring the altitude distribution of cosmic radiation.
The balloon launch was scheduled for September 1938 from the Chochołowska Valley in the Tatras. An additional attraction of the event was the presence of the world record holder, Capt. Stevens, who came to Zakopane. The balloon was named “Star of Poland” (Gwiazda Polski). Its crew was to consist of Captain Zbigniew Burzyński — an experienced balloon pilot who had twice won the Gordon Bennett Cup and set three international records — and Dr. Konstanty Jodko-Narkiewicz — a physicist, researcher of cosmic radiation, and at the same time a traveler, mountaineer, and aeronaut, participant of expeditions to the Alps, the mountains of Africa, and Svalbard, leader of the First Polish Andean Expedition in 1933–34, during which he climbed the highest peak of South America — Aconcagua. Due to meteorological conditions, the flight was postponed multiple times. Finally, on October 14, all the equipment was installed in the gondola. The balloon began to be filled with hydrogen from several hundred cylinders. The equipment’s power supply from car batteries was switched on — and measurements thus began.
The pilots arrived and took over the equipment. Observers from the mountain shelter’s terrace watched the balloon’s envelope rising. The morning was exceptionally cold. While gas was being pumped into the stiffened balloon envelope, the hydrogen spontaneously ignited and the balloon burned up without much of an explosion. Fortunately, there were no human casualties. Despite the fact that the gondola with the equipment was several dozen meters away and was not damaged, the fire destroyed the chance for a stratospheric flight in Poland.
In order to publicize the undertaking and raise funds for the flight’s organizing committee, the Polish Post Office issued a special souvenir sheet on September 15 with a violet stamp with a face value of 75 groszy. The selling price of the sheet was 2 złotys, of which the surcharge of 1.25 zł was allocated to the flight’s organizing committee. The print run of the sheet was 65,000 copies. At the Zakopane 1 post office (and at the agency at the Chochołowska Glade), a special commemorative postmark was used. After the balloon fire, the postal items prepared for the flight were stamped with an appropriate cachet and sent by regular mail.
The Chochołowska Valley also became famous for another aviation episode — in 1909, the remains of a balloon were found on the slopes of Kończysta above Jarząbcza. Mariusz Zaruski, head of the then-forming TOPR (Tatra Volunteer Search and Rescue), began a search for crew members. No one was found — it turned out that the balloon had come from a balloon competition in Zurich, from where it had escaped the crew just before the planned launch.
