PZL.56 Kania (''buzzard'') was a Polish pre-war initial project of a
fighter aircraft
Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...
designed by
Wsiewołod Jakimiuk of the
PZL
PZL (''Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze'' - State Aviation Works) was the main Polish aerospace manufacturer of the interwar period, and a brand of their aircraft. Based in Warsaw between 1928 and 1939, PZL introduced a variety of well-regarded air ...
works. A single-seat low-wing monoplane was a development of
PZL.50 Jastrząb fighter, modified to house a new
Hispano-Suiza 12Y
The Hispano-Suiza 12Y was an aircraft engine produced by Hispano-Suiza for the French Air Force before the Second World War. The 12Y became the primary French 1,000 hp (750 kW) class engine and was used in a number of famous aircraft, ...
engine, then under development in France.
While PZL.50 Jastrząb's prototype proved to be an excellent fighter, it was seriously underpowered as modern engines of sufficient power were still unavailable at the time of its construction. Its PZL-Bristol Merkury VIII engine (a license-built copy of
Bristol Mercury VIIIA) had only of power, with
emergency power reaching . At the same time the engineers at the French
Hispano-Suiza
Hispano-Suiza () is a Spanish automotive–engineering company. It was founded in 1904 by Marc Birkigt and Damian Mateu as an automobile manufacturer and eventually had several factories in Spain and France that produced luxury cars, aircraft en ...
company announced, that their line of engines marketed as Hispano-Suiza 12Y would reach of power in two to three years. Such engines would be sufficient to power the PZL.50, or any other similar fighter design considered by the Polish construction bureaus at the time. To prepare for the arrival of new engines, the PZL works organised an internal competition for a redesign of PZL.50 from a large radial engine to a smaller, more streamlined in-line engine. Poland also wanted to buy a license for even stronger engines of the new
Hispano-Suiza 12Z
The 12Z, designated Type 89 by the company, was the final evolution of the series of Hispano-Suiza V-12 aircraft engines. The Z model had just entered production when France fell to the Germans during World War II. A small number were produced du ...
line that would ultimately replace the 12Y series.
The contest was won in August 1939 by Wsiewołod Jakimiuk. The resulting design was an all-metal, low-wing fighter aircraft, with retractable landing gear and tail wheel. The plane was to be armed with a single 20mm gun firing through the propeller shaft and four 7.9 mm machine guns in the wings. Possibly the design would also allow for up to of bombs to be carried under the wings or the fuselage. The projected speed was to exceed . Project prepared in August 1939 was rejected in favour of
PZL.55 designed by
Jerzy Dąbrowski
Jerzy Dąbrowski (September 8, 1899 – September 17, 1967) was a Polish aeronautical engineer. He was the lead designer of the famed PZL.37 Łoś medium bomber.
Dąbrowski was born in Nieborów, west of Warsaw to a railway clerk family. He stud ...
.
Jakimiuk was also responsible for development work on the PZL 11 fighter that equipped front line Polish squadrons in September, 1939, and after the war was a member of the de Havilland Canada team that designed the successful Beaver and Chipmunk bush planes.
__NOTOC__
Planned specifications (PZL.56 Kania)
General characteristics
* Crew: 1
* Powerplant: 1×
Hispano-Suiza 12Y
The Hispano-Suiza 12Y was an aircraft engine produced by Hispano-Suiza for the French Air Force before the Second World War. The 12Y became the primary French 1,000 hp (750 kW) class engine and was used in a number of famous aircraft, ...
inline engine, 1100 hp
Performance
* Maximum speed: 760 km/h
[Glass (2008), p. 131]
See also
References
Bibliography
* Glass, Andrzej. ''Polskie Konstrukcje Lotnicze Vol.3'' (In Polish). Sandomierz, Poland: Wydawnictwo Stratus, 2008.
* Liss, . The PZL 11 (Aircraft in Profile number 75). Leatherhead, Surrey, UK: Profile Publications Ltd., 1966.
{{PZL aircraft
1930s Polish fighter aircraft
World War II Polish fighter aircraft
PZL aircraft
Low-wing aircraft