First Republic pilot, member of the 310th Czechoslovak Fighter Squadron and the 1st Czechoslovak Air Fighter Regiment in the USSR, commander of the Aviation Research Institute.

​

He graduated from 4 years of the real grammar school and 4 years of the commercial academy with matriculation, then studied at the Military Academy in Hranice (1923-1925). After graduation he joined the Artillery Regiment 52 in Josefov in August 1925. In October of the same year he was sent to the Artillery Apprenticeship School in Olomouc. Subsequently, from July 1926 he served 

in the III. section of the artillery regiment 2 in Stříbro as a junior battery officer, adjutant of the section commander and first officer of the battery. This was followed by an observation course at the Prostějov University of Applied Sciences (1928/29), a mechanical course for air force officers in Olomouc (1931), elementary, continuation and fighter pilot training in Cheb (1932) and a night flying course in Piešt'any (1935). In 1929 he joined the Air Regiment 3 of General Flying Officer Milan Rastislav Štefánik. In 1935, he became the commander of the Chetnik Air Patrol in Hradec Králové, and on 7 February 1938, in a dense fog, he crashed his Avia B-534 in a field near Dvůr Králové, suffering several fractures, but after healing he was able to return to duty. In 1938 he worked at the Provincial Military Command in Košice, then at the Ministry of the Interior as a concept officer. He crossed the borders of his homeland on 9 January 1940 and took the so-called Balkan route to France, was conscripted in Marseille on 3 April 1940 and was assigned to the air group in the training camp in Agde. On 23 May 1940 he was transferred to the Czechoslovak Air Force replenishment centre in Bordeaux and on 17 June 1940 Capt. Rypl left France when he flew from Merignac-Bordeaux airport with others to London Hendon airport on a four-engined Ensign (Armstrong Whitworth Ensign from BOAC).  

​

12.7.1940 he was accepted in the granted rank of P/O to the RAF VR and assigned to 310. čs. fighter squadron to Duxford, where he became the commander of squadron B (12.7. - 10.12.1940) with the assigned corresponding rank of Flight Lieutenant (F/Lt, as čs. captain). On 9/9/1940, he flew a Hurricane Mk.I P3142 (NN-M) in a battle with Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. He scored one probable kill in the area south of London, but soon ran out of fuel. In poor visibility he made an emergency landing into unsuitable terrain near Oxted, crash-landing the machine but remaining uninjured.

​

F/Lt Ryplovi on Hurricane Mk.I P3142 (NN-M) 9.9.1940 after a fight with Bf109 south of London ran out of fuel and in poor visibility during an emergency landing in unsuitable terrain crashed near Oxtedu, the machine was written off, the pilot was not injured. He was transferred to No. 12 OTU Benson from 7 October to 3 December 1940, to No. 4 Ferry Pilots Pool at Kemble from 11 December 1940, to the Inspectorate of the Czechoslovak Air Force from May 1941, and from 15 December 1941 he was assigned to the Military Office of the President of the Republic. From 23 June to 9. 9. 1942 he completed retraining at No. 54 OTU Charterhall and then was from 9. 9. 1942 assigned to 307. the Polish night fighter squadron. On 8/11/1942, near Exeter airfield, during a night training flight, the weather deteriorated and a Beaufighter Mk.VIF X8149 (EW-) crashed into a tree on approach for landing and caught fire. The pilot, S/Ldr Rypl, sustained a head injury and after briefly becoming unconscious managed to break the cockpit cover and roll away before the explosion occurred. S/Ldr Rypl was taken to hospital, the radar operator Sgt Gajek was killed. From February 1943 he rejoined the ICL, the office of the President of the Republic as an air officer. 

​

In August 1944 he asked for a transfer to the 1. čs. air fighter regiment 

in the USSR, on 15 August 1944 he was discharged from the RAF VR and on 28 October 1944 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the air force. In January 1945 he took over as navigation officer with the 1st Czechoslovak Mixed Air Division in the USSR. 

​

On 9.5.1945 he became the first Czechoslovak airman who landed (together with the soviet airmen on the aircraft Pe-2FT) in the liberated Prague. From 1 August 1947 Colonel Rypl became the provisional commander of the Air Military Academy in Hradec Králové, from November 1947 to June 1951 he was its commander. He was chosen for his position in the LVA for purely political reasons as a fresh graduate of the Supreme Military Academy K. J. Voroshilov in Moscow (1945-1947), in the Soviet Union his left-wing orientation took shape and he became an active communist.  On the basis of the reaction of the MNO, Colonel Rypl proposed the expulsion or transfer of some persons as early as 9 March 1948; he was also a signatory to every criminal notification for desertion of LVA officers.  On 1 October 1948 he was promoted to the rank of general. At LVA he served as professor of air tactics for the 1947-1948 Senior Commanders' Information Course. He headed it until its dissolution in 1951. Later, from April 1952 to July 1954, he held the post of commander of the Air Research Institute in Prague-Letňany. He then retired to the reserve. Major General František Rypl lived his last years in the village of Kozly and died in Prague at the age of 70.

 

Decorations for war service

2x Czechoslovak Medal for Valour before the Enemy, Czechoslovak Military Medal for Merit 1st Class, Czechoslovak War Cross 1939 and others

​

Remembrance

• Inscribed on the memorial plaque to the airmen located on the building of the Municipal Office in Český Krumlov

• F. Rypl's sons were also military pilots: colonel Ing. František Rypl Jr. (3. 5. 1933 - 10. 1. 1974) commander of the base in Žatec, died while serving in Mig-15bis, Col. Ing. Karel Rypl was after active air service as a teacher at the military department at the Faculty of Education in Ústí nad Labem and Col. Ing. Petr Rypl (25 March 1946 - 20 September 2007) was also a military attaché in Moscow.

Literature ​​​

• Rajlich J.: Na nebi hrdého Albionu

• Strobach, M.: Absolventi Vojenské letecké akademie v Hradci Králové 1948-1951 a jejich osudy ve vývoji poválečné československé společnosti

• https://www.valka.cz/Rypl-Frantisek-1903-1973-t123956