Death in poverty
This Czech aviator popular for his Pardubice - Prague distance flight passed away ninety years ago.
Mr Jan Kaspar´s fellow experimenter was his cousin Eugen Cihak [Chihhahk] at first. They went separate ways in April 1911. Eugen launched manufacturing flying machines joined by his brother Hugo.
More : www.vrtulnik.cz/ww2/protektorat-pardubice.htm ´Pardubice Pardubitz do roku 1917 vcetne´
Jan´s father - a hotelier Frank Kaspar - died on May 13, 1913. His sponsorship of Jan´s hobby came to its end. Jan´s aircraft was presented by him to the Technical Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the same year. Nowadays it can be seen in Prague at the National Technical Museum.
See : www.ntm.cz/en/en-heslar/jan-kaspar
Following the Great War Jan Kaspar´s financial hardships were not over. He was indebted. Having tried taking his life he died several days later. Aged only fourty three.
In 1957 the ´How I Was Flying and Falling´ Book by Eugen Cihak was published.
Jan Kaspar´s sculpture has been seen in Miru Blvd at the town of Pardubice since Dec 28, 2016.
See : www.mestoperniku.cz/socha-jana-kaspara/
It was sited in the same place where he had been born on May 20, 1883. This work of art gained attention of all the passers-by instantly.