Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów (PWS) - ''Podlasie Aircraft Factory'' - was a Polish aerospace manufacturer between 1923 and 1939, located in

Biała Podlaska Biała Podlaska ( la, Alba Ducalis) is a city in eastern Poland with 56,498 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is situated in the Lublin Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been the capital of Biała Podlaska Voivodeship (1975–1998). ...

History

Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów SA was created in 1923. The first aircraft produced were 35

Potez 15 The Potez XV (also erroneously written Potez 15) was a French single-engine, two-seat observation biplane designed as a private venture by Louis Coroller and built by Potez and under licence in Poland. Design and development The aircraft was d ...

bombers for the

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mi ...

, under the French licence, built from 1925.Glass, A. (1977), p.22-25 By 1929 the works had produced 155 Potez 27 and 150

Potez 25 Potez 25 (also written as Potez XXV) was a French twin-seat, single-engine biplane designed during the 1920s. A multi-purpose fighter-bomber, it was designed as a line aircraft and used in a variety of roles, including fighter and escort mission ...

, under French licence, and 50 PWS-A fighters, which was the Czech

Avia BH-33 The Avia BH-33 was a biplane fighter aircraft built in Czechoslovakia in 1927. It was based on the BH-21J which demonstrated promising results by combining the original BH-21 airframe with a licence-built Bristol Jupiter radial engine. Othe ...

built under licence. It also produced 50 Bartel BM-4 trainers in 1931, designed by Samolot. In 1925, a design office was established which included, among others, Stefan Cywiński, Zbysław Ciołkosz, August Bobek-Zdaniewski. Despite a large number of prototypes, few were produced in series. The first aircraft of their own design to be mass-produced was the PWS-10 fighter of 1930 of which 80 examples were built. Smaller production runs of the PWS-14 trainer and the PWS-24 passenger aircraft were also made. The PWS-10 and PWS-24 were the first fighter and the first passenger plane of the Polish construction built in series, respectively. In 1929 the factory built a

wind tunnel Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...

, the first in Poland. All PWS-designed aircraft had wooden or mixed construction. In 1932 the PWS works were nationalized to prevent its bankruptcy. It then produced 500 RWD-8 trainers (designed by RWD) and 50 of the British Avro Tutor under licence as the PWS-18 trainers. The factory then designed its own successful PWS-16 and PWS-26 advanced trainers, 320 of the latter built from 1936 to 1939. In 1936 the factory was subordinated to the PZL national concern. It developed a series of projects for military planes, but they were not built due to outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The

PWS-33 Wyżeł The PWS-33 Wyżeł was a Polish twin-engined military trainer aircraft from a period before World War II constructed by ''Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów'' or PWS ("Podlasie Aircraft Factory"). Although destined for production it got no further ...

twin-engine advanced trainer and the PWS-35 sports biplane were ordered into production, but these plans were cancelled due to the war. Lwowskie Warsztaty Lotnicze (LWL, ''

Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

Aviation Workshops'') was formed in October 1937 as a division of PWS. It built gliders, among others designated with letters PWS. Some 160 gliders were built before the war.Glass, A. (1977), p.39-40 After the outbreak of World War II, the PWS factory was bombed by the Germans on September 4, 1939, who destroyed about 70% of the factory. The remains of equipment have been plundered by the Soviets after their

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

Aircraft

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Glass, Andrzej. ''Polskie konstrukcje lotnicze 1893-1939'' olish aviation designs 1893-1939 Warsaw: WKiŁ, 1977 (no ISBN)

External links

Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów – Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego

Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów / PWS – Samoloty w Lotnictwie Polskim
{{DEFAULTSORT:Podlaska Wytwornia Samolotow Aircraft manufacturers of Poland Second Polish Republic Science and technology in Poland Biała Podlaska PWS aircraft Companies set up in the Second Republic of Poland