Nagurskii, Ian

(Polish, Jan Nagórski). Born Jan. 27, 1888, in Wloclawek, in present-day Poland. Polar pilot. Pole by nationality.

Nagurskii graduated from the Odessa Infantry Cadet School in 1909, from the First All-Russian Aeroclub in 1912, and from the Gatchina Officers’ Aernonautics School in 1913, attaining the rank of military pilot. On Aug. 21, 1914, he made the first arctic flight along the western coast of Novaia Zemlia, using a seaplane and accompanied by the naval mechanic E. Kuznetsov, in search of the lost Russian expeditions headed by G. Ia. Sedov, G. L. Brusilov, and V. A. Rusanov. Nagurskii flew 100 km from the coast and covered about 400 km in four hours and 20 minutes. He made four more long flights. From 1914 to 1917 he commanded aviation detachments and a battalion of the Baltic Fleet. On Sept. 17, 1916, Nagurskii made the world’s first loop in a seaplane (M-9). In 1919 he returned to Poland, where he worked as a design engineer in the sugar industry and was active in public and literary life. He visited the USSR in 1956. A polar station on Franz Josef Land has been named after him. Nagurskii was awarded five Russian combat orders and the Order of the Rebirth of Poland.