It was to serve as a training centre with a pilot school, and was built by the Airborne and Antigas Defence League, a mass organisation propagating aviation among the general public.

It was sponsored by the national Airborne and Antigas Defence League (Liga Obrony Powietrznej i Przeciwgazowej), with General Kazimierz Sosnkowski serving as the honorary director.

According to Wladyslaw Midowicz, the first and only director of the observatory, the construction of "Biały Słoń" was suggested by a group of influential Warsaw astronomers who managed to convince General Leon Berbecki, director of the influential Airborne and Antigas Defence League, to support it.