WOJTULANIS Stefania
Air Force ATS service
Stefania Cecylia Wojtulanis was born on 22 November 1912 in Warsaw, Poland, to Maria (née Gawarkiewicz) and Marcin Wojtulanis. From a young age she was interested in aviation. She was active in the Przysposobienie Wojskowe Kobiet (Women's Defence Organisation) and the youth arm of the Aeroklub Warszawski (Warsaw Aero Club), where she was nicknamed Barbara by her fellow pilots and met Jadwiga Piłsudska.
Wojtulanis studied at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology. She chose the university as its students were given a priority for flying licences through the Warsaw Aero Club. She was one of the first women in Poland to earn balloon and aeroplane pilot's licences. In 1935, she started glider training (in Miłośno, Polichno and Pińczów), after which she also completed a pilot course. She then completed a course for parachuting instructors.
She was involved in all types of air sports, beginning with her participation in the 8th Krajowe Zawody Balonów Wolnych o Puchar (National Free Balloon Competition) on 17 May 1936 in Toruń, as assistant pilot to Franciszek Janik on the "Syrena" balloon (she finished in ninth place). In 1937, as a pilot in her own right, she took part in the "Skrzydlata Polska" Cup flying competition. She also took part in a group parachute jump in Lwów. In 1938, she took part as a navigator in the 8th National Aviation Competition.
On 16 June 1938, as part of the National Aviation Exhibition, the First Lviv Balloon Competition was held in Lviv. The women's team of Wojtulanis and Zofia Szczecińska took fourth place, covering a distance of 189 kilometres (117 mi) and landing in Wygoda near Zalishchyky.
On 28 May 1939, as a balloon pilot, she took part in the 11th Colonel Aleksander Wańkowicz National Free Balloon Competition in Mościce. In June that year, she completed an aerobatics course on RWD-10 and RWD-17 aircraft, and demonstrated her skills in July at the X Zlot do Morza (10th Rally to the Sea).
A demonstration at the end of the Warsaw Aerobatic Club aerobatic course. Pilot Stefania Wojtulanis disembarks from her RWD-10 (SP-KTT) aircraft after the show.
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Wojtulanis spent a total of 192 hours 28 minutes in the air, piloting RWD training and sport aircraft, hot air balloons, and gliders including the motor glider "Bąk".
After the Soviet invasion of September 17, 1939, she evacuated to Romania with the Polish Air Force personnel.
Until December 1939, she served there as a courier, traveling around the country and assisting in escapes and providing money and documents to interned Polish airmen fleeing to France. She made her way to France, where she was promoted to lieutenant and worked in the aviation staff.
After the fall of France, she managed to get to Great Britain. On 1 January 1941, she was appointed as the first foreigner (along with Anna Leska) to the British ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary), which provided airplanes from factories to the airports of individual units and damaged machines to repair factories or scrap yards. Received the RAF service number P-8523.
This service was onerous, flights were carried out without radio communication, navigation maps, often in bad weather, and it also required learning about the piloting of various types of aircraft supplied, including twin-engine bombers like Vickers Wellington.
Stefania Cecylia Wojtulanis was the first Polish woman to fly 1000 hours on combat aircraft. She was promoted to lieutenant pilot and then to the rank of captain pilot .
Stefania Wojtulanis married senior Polish air force General, Stanisław Karpiński on 6 June 1946. In 1958, she and her husband settled in Los Angeles, California, and applied for naturalisation in 1963. There she studied computer programming and worked as a data processing clerk and was involved in social activities, taking part in Polish immigrant and veteran organisations. She was president of the "Wings of the Pacific" Polish Airmen's Association in California and a member of other organisations, including the Women's Overseas League and Silver Wings Fraternity. She supported Polish museums and cultural and educational institutions.
Stefania Wojtulanis-Karpińska died in the Polish Retirement Home in Los Angeles on 12 February 2005.
Source: remember the Heroes on Facebook