The road to folk flying in Czechoslovak history was not easy. With this exhibition at the Centre of Building Heritage in Plasy, the National Technical Museum opens its third season of visitors and expresses its respect and admiration for the people who did not give up their dream and turned it into reality. The exhibition belongs to a series of exhibitions marking the 100th anniversary of the Republic and is part of the project MADE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA – OR THE INDUSTRY THAT MADE THE WORLD.
The desire to fly has been with man since time immemorial, but it has taken a long journey to realise it. After all, the first lighter-than-air aircraft, i.e. balloons and airships, did not begin to conquer the air until the end of the 18th century, and heavier-than-air aircraft a century later. The development of flying was all the more rapid. In the Czech Crown the first powered aircraft took off in December 1909 from the racecourse in Prague’s Velká Chuchla and the first Czech to fly a powered aircraft was Ing. Jan Kašpar in April 1910 in Pardubice. By the time Czechoslovakia was founded in October 1918, around six hundred of its inhabitants, including two women, had pilot’s licences.
The Republic was interested in training as many female and male pilots as possible, but the plan ran into a significant problem. Neither pilot training nor aircraft was a cheap affair. In order to fulfill one’s dream of flying, one had to be wealthy. From the 1930s onwards, various ways were tried to make flying possible for as many people as possible. “Representatives of the Ministry of Public Works and the Masaryk Aviation League were looking for a way to make aircraft available to a wider range of people,” says Michal Plavec, the author of the exhibition. “It was supposed to cost around 60,000 crowns with the engine, which we can compare with the price of a middle-class car at that time.” “It wasn’t too difficult to design an aircraft,” adds NTM’s CEO Karel Ksandr,“but the big challenge was to develop a light engine with adequate power for such a popular aircraft.” And it is these engines and their stories that you can see in the exhibition “Dreams Come True”. The age-old desire to fly. at the Centre of Building Heritage of the National Technical Museum in Plasy.
However, the technical aspect of flying is not the only topic the exhibition focuses on. A large part of the exhibition presents women in the history of Czech aviation. Although their path to fulfilling their dream of flying was not always easy, they were not few and not insignificant. Not only successful female pilots such as Markéta Kohnová or Marie Krupičková, but also stewardesses have their place. “We are in Plasy. Few people probably know that during the occupation, one of the first Czechoslovak stewardesses, Princess Eleonora Almerie Thurn-Taxis, had her permanent residence in Plasy No. 1, in the so-called prelature,” Michal Plavec reminds us. Especially interesting for women is that we will be able to look into the wardrobe of the stewardesses during the exhibition.
Since we are in Plasy and flying has its roots here, the Aeroclub Plasy has also been given the opportunity to recall something of its more than 70-year history and in cooperation with the Aeromodelling Club Plasy, a special workshop has been prepared for children and their parents in which they will be able to build a simple throwing plane.
The exhibition will run from 30 March to 31 October 2018 at the National Technical Museum in the Plasy Building Heritage Centre.
National Technical Museum, Centre of Building Heritage Plasy, Pivovarská 5,
331 01 Plasy
Mgr. Adam Dušek
Head of PR and Public Relations Department
Email: adam.dusek@ntm.cz
Mob: +420 774 426 828
National Technical Museum
Kostelní 42, 170 78, Prague 7
Mgr. Kristýna Koderová
Department of PR and Public Relations
Email: kristyna.koderova@ntm.cz
Tel.: 373 300 744 / mobile: 777 710 802
National Technical Museum Building Heritage Centre
Pivovarská 5, 331 01 Plasy
