View source for Jan Wnęk

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[[Image:Jan Wnek Model.jpg|350px|thumb|right|Speculative model of Jan Wnęk's glider in the [[Kraków]] Museum of Ethnography. [[Poland]].]]
[[File:Miejsce urodzenia Jana Wnęka.jpg|240px|thumb|Memorial at the birthplace of Jan Wnęk in [[Żdżary, Lesser Poland Voivodeship|Żdżary]]]]

'''Jan Wnęk''' (1828 &ndash; 10 July 1869) was a Polish carver of religious statues who is claimed to have constructed and flown a [[glider (aircraft)]] in the 1860s, predating the flights of [[Otto Lilienthal]]. There is a speculative "reconstruction" of Wnek's glider in the [[Ethnographic Museum of Kraków]].

Jan Wnek was born in the village of [[Kaczówka]] near [[Dąbrowa Tarnowska]]. He was the son of a [[serf]] and received no formal education.,<ref name=Sew>{{cite web   |url=http://www.dziecidodzieci.republika.pl/seweryn.htm   |language=Polish   |title=The Peasant Descendants of Icarus   |accessdate=23 October 2012   |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212211450/http://www.dziecidodzieci.republika.pl/seweryn.htm   |archive-date=12 February 2012   |url-status=dead   }}</ref> but was trained as a carpenter. Encouraged by a local priest, Father Stanislaw Morgenstern, Wnęk became a prolific [[sculpture|sculptor]] in wood and stone for churches and cemeteries in [[Kraków]] and [[Odporyszów]]. The [[angel]]s he sculpted are described as having wings of "exceptional beauty".{{by whom|date=October 2012}} He also possessed an instinctive talent for mechanics and improved some contemporary agricultural machinery, and acted in village plays.

There is no contemporary written description of the glider and the reconstruction in the Kraków Museum of Ethnography is entirely speculative.  The claims for his flights are based on a local [[oral tradition]]. Although Professor Tadeusz Seweryn, former director of the Museum of Ethnography, claimed to have discovered some church records with descriptions of Jan Wnęk's flights, these have never been made available for independent scrutiny.

Wnęk had no formal education, and his ideas were based on his observation of [[bird flight]] and on his own skills as a craftsman. He noted that some [[list of soaring birds|soaring birds]] made use of rising air currents to gain height and so identified the optimum weather conditions for his flights. He allegedly built several experimental models and although he did not understand the theory of [[aerodynamic]] lift, he copied the upper curvature of a bird's wing.{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}}<!--Personnel from the Kraków Museum of Ethnography have failed to produce evidence to formal research requests.--> He tested his  models by launching them by hand. In 1866 he is claimed to have started construction of a full-sized glider which he named ''Loty'' (Flyer), which had an [[fraxius excelsior|ash]] framework covered with [[varnish]]ed [[linen]]. It is claimed that he controlled his glider by twisting the wing's trailing edge using strings attached to stirrups at his feet. Wnęk is said to have made his first short controlled flights in June of the same year from a small hill. After several flights, some adjustments and learning his glider behavior, Wnęk is then said to have felt confident enough to ask for authorization from the [[Odporyszów]] church priest, Father Stanisław Morgenstern, to build a special ramp on top of the church tower to launch himself from. The tower stands {{convert|45|m|ft|abbr=on}} high and is built on top of a {{convert|50|m|ft|abbr=on}} hill, making it {{convert|95|m|ft|abbr=on}} high launch above the valley below.

[[File:POL gmina Radgoszcz COA.svg|thumb|left|Wnęk commemorated in coat of arms of [[Gmina Radgoszcz]]]]
Several public flights are claimed between 1866 and 1869, mainly during religious festivals, carnivals and New Year celebrations.{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}}<!--Personnel from the Kraków Museum of Ethnography have failed to produce evidence to formal research requests.-->, and that during the Pentecost Carnival held on 16 May 1869 at [[Odporyszów]], [[Austria-Hungary]], Wnęk's made a flight that ended in an accident. An assistant, Michał Sowiński, was reported to be implicated in his death.

He died a few weeks later, aged 41, leaving a wife and three children. His flying activities spanned about four years. If these flights took place, they preceded those of [[Otto Lilienthal]] by 25 years. Unknown outside the locality, any achievement made by Wnek had no influence on the development of heavier-than-air flight.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commonscat}}
*Flying Machines - The pioneer Aviation Group [http://www.flyingmachines.org/wnek.html]
*Polish aviation history. By Dr. Stanisław Konstanty Wałęga [https://web.archive.org/web/20070529204212/http://www.avia.tarman.pl/index.php?action=histwnek]
*Kraków's Museum of Ethnography [https://web.archive.org/web/20070220180524/http://www.mek.krakow.pl/menu_ang.htm]
*Photo of the Odporyszów church tower: [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927010050/http://www.hotel.tarnovia.pl/files/church4.jpg]
*Jan Wnęk Museum in Odporyszów [http://www.zabno.pl/?strona=00148],[https://web.archive.org/web/20070519193659/http://szlak.wrotamalopolski.pl/PL/Obiekty.aspx?id=55]
*Some sculptures and paintings by Jan Wnęk [http://www.zabno.pl/?fotogaleria=00036]
*Photo of monument dedicated to Jan Wnęk: [https://web.archive.org/web/20090215185755/http://dziecidodzieci.republika.pl/wnek-ikar.htm]
*Jan Wnęk. Biography - in Polish and French language. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130602235921/http://www.dziecidodzieci.republika.pl/wnekfr.htm], [https://web.archive.org/web/20071008170745/http://www.gim2dt.miasto.net.pl/index%20wnek.htm], [http://www.zabno.pl/?strona=00152]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wnek, Jan}}
[[Category:1828 births]]
[[Category:1869 deaths]]
[[Category:Aviation inventors]]
[[Category:Aviation pioneers]]
[[Category:Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents]]
[[Category:People from Dąbrowa County]]
[[Category:Polish aviators]]
[[Category:Polish inventors]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish sculptors]]
[[Category:Polish male sculptors]]
[[Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1869]]
[[Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Poland]]