We announce with a deep regret that at the age of 89, Dr. Eng. Jerzy Zięborak, a long-time employee of the Institute of Aviation and an outstanding specialist in flight and structural strength research has passed away.
Funeral ceremonies will take place on May 29, 2017, at 12:30 p.m., in the church Our Lady of Czestochowa (in the brick church), Warsaw, Wincentego 81Street – Bródnowski cemetery.
Dr Eng. Jerzy Zięborak (1928-2017) was an experimental pilot, a specialist in flight research. During the war he served in the Home Army. He participated in the Warsaw Uprising, in Krybar’s group and was injured during the fighting. After the uprising he was imprisoned in a POW camp. After the war he remained in a military camp for juveniles. After returning to the country and graduating from secondary school, he studied at the Warsaw University of Technology and obtained an engineering degree in 1953. In the same year he started to work at the Institute of Aviation in the Department of Research in Flight. He received the instructor pilot license at the Warsaw Aero Club in 1956 and the pilot license in 1958. He was also a long-time head of the aircraft research laboratory. Later on he was delegated to Egypt. After his return he participated in the research of agricultural aircraft Lala-1, PZL-106 Kruk, M-15. After training in the USSR on the Jak-40, he participated in the adaptation of this aircraft to the K-15 engine tests and then tested the K-15 engine on that aircraft. In 1974 he defended his doctoral thesis at Wroclaw University of Technology. For many years he was a lecturer in experimental pilot courses. He wrote two books on pilot training. He retired in 1998.
The last video with Jerzy Zięborak about the book “Liberator AL 523 Girbaltar 1943” was recorded for the 90th anniversary of the Institute of Aviation.
