Władysław Turowicz

Władysław Józef Marian Turowicz (1908-1980) was a Polish-Pakistani aviator, military scientist and aeronautical engineer who helped shape Pakistan's space and missile programmes. Born into an aristocratic family in the village of Wadziejewsko in Siberia, he studied aeronautical engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology from 1930, took a doctorate with honours in 1936 and a master's degree in astrodynamics in 1937, and was a pioneering member of the Polish Aero Club. In the Second World War he enlisted as a Royal Air Force reservist. He was one of 45 Polish officers and airmen who joined the Royal Pakistan Air Force on contract in the early 1950s and, after his contract ended, stayed on in the Pakistan Air Force. From 1967 to 1970 he was administrator of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, which leads the national space programme, and he contributed as chief aeronautical engineer to Pakistan's missile and rocket work. A SUPARCO space complex in Lahore and a monument at the PAF Museum in Karachi carry his name.