The PWS-18 was a Polish

trainer aircraft A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristi ...

, used from

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into ...

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

by 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 ...

, a modified licence variant of the British

Avro Tutor The Avro Type 621 Tutor is a two-seat British radial-engined biplane from the interwar period. It was a simple but rugged basic trainer that was used by the Royal Air Force as well as many other air arms worldwide. Design and development The ...

Development

In 1934, the Polish government, looking for an intermediate military trainer, bought two Avro Tutor trainer aircraft together with a licence to produce the aircraft. Production was ordered in the PWS (''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). In 1935, Antoni Uszacki of the PWS modified the design, fitting it with a

Wright Whirlwind The Wright Whirlwind was a family of air-cooled radial aircraft engines built by Wright Aeronautical (originally an independent company, later a division of Curtiss-Wright). The family began with nine-cylinder engines, and later expanded to incl ...

engine, produced under licence in Poland. The new engine

cowling A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings are a cove ...

was much longer than the previous

Townend ring A Townend ring is a narrow- chord cowling ring fitted around the cylinders of an aircraft radial engine to reduce drag and improve cooling. Development The Townend ring was the invention of Dr. Hubert Townend of the British National Physica ...

type, with a carburetor air intake below it. The wing construction was changed from metal to wooden, better fitted to PWS capabilities, and the rectangular wing tips were rounded. Also some other details were changed, such as a tailskid instead of a tailwheel. A series of 40 aircraft was built in 1935-1936 (1936-1937 according to some references). They were assigned military numbers 80-1 to 80-40. They were not produced in larger numbers because a successful indigenous Polish advanced trainer, the

PWS-26 The PWS-26 was a Polish advanced training aircraft, used from 1937 to 1939 by the Polish Air Force, constructed in the PWS (''Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów'' - Podlasie Aircraft Factory). It was the second most numerous Polish pre-war aircraft, ...

, using the same engine, was designed and entered production.

Operational history

PWS-18s were used in the Polish military aviation, among others in Airforce Training Center in Dęblin, an NCO school for minors in

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with mor ...

and in training escadres of air regiments. None survived

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Operators

; *

Specifications

References

External links

Photos and drawing at Ugolok Neba page
{{PWS aircraft 1930s Polish military trainer aircraft PWS aircraft