Workshops to State Works

Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze, the State Aviation Works, was set up in Warsaw in 1928 on the base of the earlier Central Aviation Workshops. Its first product was a licence-built French fighter, the Wibault 70, chosen to master the techniques of all-metal construction. After that, PZL built only its own designs. In 1934 the main works became PZL WP-1 at Okęcie in Warsaw, and an engine works, WS-1, took over a nationalised Skoda plant to build Bristol Mercury and Pegasus engines under licence. A second airframe plant rose at Mielec from 1937, and an engine works at Rzeszów.

The Polish wing

Its first star was a young engineer named Zygmunt Puławski. Born in Lublin in 1901, he had volunteered as a Boy Scout soldier in the Polish–Soviet War, studied in Warsaw and trained at Breguet in France. For the P.1 fighter of 1929 he invented a high gull wing, thin at the roots, that gave the pilot a superb view. It became known as the Puławski wing or Polish wing, and was copied abroad. On 21 March 1931, aged 29, Puławski was killed when his new PZL.12 amphibian crashed after take-off in Warsaw.

Best fighter in the world

His fighters flew on without him. Test pilot Bolesław Orliński took the P.6 to the United States and won the National Air Races in 1931; at least one military journal called it the best fighter in the world. The P.7 entered service in 1933, and the P.11, which flew in August 1931, followed from October 1933. For a few years Poland had one of the most modern fighter forces in Europe. The export P.24 went to Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece; Turkey built more than 100 under licence. PZL also built the PZL.23 Karaś light bomber, of which 250 were produced, and the fast twin-engined PZL.37 Łoś.

1 September 1939

By 1939 the P.11 was outdated, and its successor, the P.50 Jastrząb, had not left the factory. On 1 September 1939, the first day of the war, P.11s flew from dispersed fields that German bombers could not find. Twenty minutes after the first Polish fighter attack, Władysław Gnyś shot down a Junkers Ju 87, recorded as the first Allied air victory of the Second World War. About 92 Łoś bombers had been delivered by then. Many surviving aircraft escaped to Romania, where 36 P.11s and 23 Łośes later flew for the Romanian air force.

The brand that survived

Occupation and war destroyed the Polish aircraft industry. The communist government dropped the PZL name in the late 1940s and renamed the works WSK, building Soviet types under licence. After 1956 the brand returned. Rebuilt Okęcie began producing its own designs from 1958: the PZL-101 Gawron, the PZL-104 Wilga, built in larger numbers than any other Polish-designed aircraft, the PZL-106 Kruk crop sprayer and the PZL-130 Orlik trainer. In 2001 the Okęcie works was sold to EADS CASA, and it is now part of איירבוס. PZL Mielec and PZL-Świdnik went their own ways.

מפעלים

• PZL WP-1 · Warsaw-Okęcie — Main airframe works from 1934; destroyed 1944; rebuilt as WSK-Okęcie, now Airbus
• PZL WP-2 · Mielec — Construction began 1 September 1937, production from March 1939; became PZL Mielec
• PZL WS-1 · Warsaw-Okęcie — Engine works in the former Polish Skoda plant, nationalised 1936
• PZL WS-2 · Rzeszów — Engine works built 1937–1939; now Pratt & Whitney Rzeszów

אֲנָשִׁים

• Zygmunt Puławski · chief designer — 1901–1931; invented the gull-wing Polish wing; killed testing the PZL.12
• Bolesław Orliński · test pilot — Flew the P.1, P.7 and P.24 prototypes; won the 1931 US National Air Races in a P.6
• Władysław Gnyś · fighter pilot — Scored the first Allied air victory of the Second World War in a P.11c
• Andrzej Frydrychewicz · chief engineer, PZL Warszawa-Okęcie — Led the PZL-130 Orlik project

שיאים וראשונות

• First Allied air victory of the Second World War, P.11c, 1 September 1939
• PZL-104 Wilga built in larger numbers than any other Polish-designed aircraft