PZL M-2 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 ...

prototype of 1958, a low-wing monoplane with fixed gear. Designed at

WSK-Mielec PZL Mielec (''Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze'' - Polish Aviation Works), formerly WSK-Mielec (''Wytwórnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego'') and WSK "PZL-Mielec" is a Polish aerospace manufacturer based in Mielec. It is the largest aerospace manufacturer i ...

, it did not enter production.

Design and development

The M-2 was designed as a trainer aircraft for the

Polish Aero Club Aeroklub Polski (AP; ''Polish Aero Club'') is the Polish central association of persons practising air sports or recreational flying. It was founded in 1921 and is a member of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. It has a headquarters in ...

by the newly created construction bureau of the WSK Mielec factory. The aircraft's main designer was Stanisław Jachyra. The first prototype was flown on 26 June 1958 (

registration Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...

SP-PAC) with the second prototype flying on 13 September that year (registration SP-PBA). The aircraft was of relatively modern, all-metal construction. Its major drawback was its engine, an imported Praga Doris

flat-six A flat-six engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-six, is a six-cylinder piston engine with three cylinders on each side of a central crankshaft. The most common type of flat-six engine is the boxer-six engine, where each pair of opposed cy ...

piston engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...

, which caused vibration and was not suitable for

aerobatics Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glid ...

. This limited the potential use of the aircraft. It was proposed to replace the engine with the Polish designed and built Narkiewicz WN-6 flat-six engine, but this was still under development and was never perfected. Due to the problems with the powerplant, the development of the aircraft was delayed, and in the meantime, the Polish Aero Club changed its preferences to aircraft with a

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

and withdrew its interest in the M-2. As a result, the M-2 did not enter production and further work was abandoned. A development of the M-2 was the PZL M-4 Tarpan, with a retractable tricycle landing gear.

Description

Metal construction low-wing

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

, conventional in layout, metal covered. Semi-

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

fuselage.

Trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a Convex polygon, convex quadri ...

wings, two-spar, fitted with flaps. Crew of two, sitting in

tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

, under a common

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

, with double controls (student in front, instructor in the rear). Fixed conventional

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

. Flat engine in front, two-blade tractor propeller, 2.3 m diameter. Fuel tanks in wings - 120 L.

Survivors

The first prototype (SP-PAC) is stored in the

Polish Aviation Museum The Polish Aviation Museum ( pl, Muzeum Lotnictwa Polskiego w Krakowie) is a large museum of historic aircraft and aircraft engines in Kraków, Poland. It is located at the site of the no-longer functional Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny Air ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

(disassembled), the second prototype (SP-PBA) is preserved as a monument in

Radomyśl Wielki Radomyśl Wielki () is a town in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, (Mielec County), Poland, with a population of 3,231 inhabitants (30.06.2019). The town lies on a local road nr. 984, running between Tarnów and Mielec and within the historic borde ...

near

Mielec Mielec ( yi, מעליץ-Melitz) is the largest city and seat of Mielec County. Mielec is located in south-eastern Poland (Lesser Poland), in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (Województwo Podkarpackie). The population of Mielec in December 2021 was ...

Specifications

References

* Janusz Babiejczuk, Jerzy Grzegorzewski: ''Polski przemysł lotniczy 1945-1973'', Warsaw 1973 * Taylor, John W. R. ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1961–62''. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1961.
Jakub Marszałkiewicz - Samolot szkolno-treningowy PZL-M2

External links