The PWS-1 was a Polish two-seat fighter and

reconnaissance aircraft A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using photography), signals intelligence, as ...

constructed by

Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów (PWS) - ''Podlasie Aircraft Factory'' - was a Polish aerospace manufacturer between 1923 and 1939, located in Biała Podlaska. History Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów SA was created in 1923. The first aircraft prod ...

(PWS) in 1927. It remained a prototype for its entire lifespan.

Design and development

The PWS-1 was the first aircraft design produced by the Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów (

Podlasie Podlachia, or Podlasie, ( pl, Podlasie, , be, Падляшша, translit=Padliašša, uk, Підляшшя, translit=Pidliashshia) is a historical region in the north-eastern part of Poland. Between 1513 and 1795 it was a voivodeship with the c ...

Aircraft Factory), and the second aircraft designed and built in Poland, after the

CWL WZ-X The WZ.X was the Polish reconnaissance aircraft designed in the mid-1920s and manufactured in the Centralne Warsztaty Lotnicze (CWL) - Central Aviation Workshops in Warsaw. It was the first combat aircraft of own design built in Poland, in a s ...

. It was conceived as a single-engine high-wing two-seat fighter whose main purpose was to escort bombers. The design was produced in 1926 by Zbysław Ciołkosz and Aleksander Grzędzielski under the direction of Stanisław Cywiński. After static testing, the prototype first flew on 25 April 1927 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). ...

. Although it had

STOL A short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft is a conventional fixed-wing aircraft that has short runway requirements for takeoff and landing. Many STOL-designed aircraft also feature various arrangements for use on airstrips with harsh conditio ...

capability, its maximum speed and maneuverability were low due to its thick wings. In 1928, the aircraft was reworked, receiving a new lighter-weight, straight wing with a thinner profile and

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

construction instead of a wooden, slightly swept one. It also received a large rectangular vertical stabilizer with a rounded top. After these modifications were made, the plane was again tested in early 1929 under the designation PWS-1bis. Its performance improved, but because of its relatively low speed compared to other fighters, its primary role was changed to reconnaissance. However, development was discontinued because the plane had a small payload and Poland had recently bought a large number of better Breguet 19 and

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 ...

reconnaissance and bomber aircraft.

Description

PWS-1bis The PWS-1 was a high-wing parasol braced monoplane of mixed construction, featuring a single engine. It sported a fuselage with a steel frame in front and wooden frame in the rear covered with

canvas Canvas is an extremely durable plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, shelters, as a support for oil painting and for other items for which sturdiness is required, as well as in such fashion objects as handbags ...

and

in the engine section. Its wing was slightly swept, two spar, and wooden, and was covered with

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

and canvas. The PWS-1bis had a straight, trapezoidal duralumin wing that was two-spar and also covered with plywood and canvas. Both versions featured wooden stabilizers, rudders and elevators, all covered in canvas, and an open pilot's cab with a windshield. Behind the pilot's cab was an open observer's cab with two 7.7 mm Lewis machine guns on a

ring mount Scope mounts are used to attach telescopic sights or other types of sights to firearms. The scope sight itself is usually made for only one of two main types of mounts, which can be classified as ''scopes for ring mounts'' (for example a 30 ...

. The two cabs featured twin controls. The pilot manned two 7.7 mm Vickers machine guns fixed in the fuselage through an

interrupter gear A synchronization gear (also known as a gun synchronizer or interrupter gear) was a device enabling a single-engine tractor configuration aircraft to fire its forward-firing armament through the arc of its spinning propeller without bullets strik ...

. The plane featured a conventional fixed landing gear with a rear skid. The PWS-1's engine was a

Lorraine-Dietrich 12Eb The Lorraine 12E Courlis was a W-12 (broad arrow) aero engine produced by the French company Lorraine-Dietrich during the 1920s and 1930s. Variants ;12E: ;12Eb: ;12Ebr: ;12Ed: ;12Edr: ;12Ee: ;12Ew:The standard Eb fitted with a supplementary su ...

water-cooled inline W-12 built in the Polish

Skoda Works Škoda means ''pity'' in the Czech and Slovak languages. It may also refer to: Czech brands and enterprises * Škoda Auto, automobile and previously bicycle manufacturer in Mladá Boleslav ** Škoda Motorsport, the division of Škoda Auto respons ...

. The water radiator was located in front of the engine. Acceleration was provided through a two-blade wooden propeller of a fixed pitch. A 375 liter fuel tank was located in the front fuselage. It could be jettisoned in an emergency situation.

Specifications (PWS 1bis)

References

*Andrzej Glass: "Polskie konstrukcje lotnicze 1893-1939" (''Polish aviation constructions 1893-1939''), WKiŁ, Warsaw 1977 (Polish language, no ISBN)

External links

Photos and drawings at Ugolok Neba
{{PWS aircraft PWS-01 1920s Polish fighter aircraft 1920s Polish military reconnaissance aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Parasol-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1927