István Petróczy

* Garancspetróc, January 3, 1876 – † Budapest, August 9, 1957 / flight officer, inventor, the first Hungarian military pilot ; ; Descendant of an old noble family, his father, Pál Petróczy, was a landowner in Garancspetróc. In 1885–1889 he studied at the military secondary school in Kismarton, and in 1889–1892 at the military secondary school in Hranice na Moravě, Czech Republic. In 1892–1895 he was a student at the Maria Theresa Military Academy in Vienna. He served in various formations for a few years, and in the spring of 1899 he was promoted to first lieutenant, but his desire to become a general staff officer was not fulfilled. In 1902, he was assigned to the Military Air Defense Institute, where he completed a balloon flight course and from then on he primarily dealt with aeronautics and air warfare issues. True, he had to wait six years to be assigned the task that suited him best. Between 1903 and 1909, he carried out military field surveying (triangulation, leveling) work in Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Tyrol and Hungary. In 1909, he was promoted to captain and at the same time appointed commander of the airport and hangar established near Vienna. Soon, the first military airport of the Monarchy was established in Fischamend, where the training of military pilots began. Captain Petróczy became the first Hungarian military pilot. In 1911, the military flying school was established under his leadership. In the following years, he actively contributed to the popularization of aviation and the development of the Monarchy's air force. In the first years of World War I, he participated in air missions on various fronts. In July 1915, he again became commander of the Wiencsújhely airport as a staff officer and was also entrusted with organizing the flight officer training school. The students here were primarily trained in balloon and airplane aerial reconnaissance. Among the instructors were some Hungarian experts, such as Tódor Kármán (1881–1963), a physicist who later became famous as the father of supersonic air transport. István Petróczy, who was already a major at that time, together with engineer-lieutenant Kármán, engineer-sergeant Vilmos Zurovetz and engineer-lieutenant Oszkár Asbóth, attempted to create an aircraft structure that was essentially an early version of the helicopter. Asbóth primarily designed the propellers. However, this device was equipped with rigid propellers and could only take off, hover and land. In order to maintain its stability, it had to be secured with ropes. After World War I, István Petróczy tried to serve Hungarian aviation as much as possible and primarily contributed to the development of air defense. In 1948, he was stripped of his colonel rank and his pension was withdrawn. He suffered a lot in the last decade of his life. Interest in his person and work only began to return after the change of regime in 1990. ; ; In his writings, he primarily dealt with issues of air and gas defense (civil defense) (Everything in Danger; Hungarian City, 1931, Air Defense Capable Cadet, 1932, Air Defense Orders, 1932).