The RWD 18 was a four/five seat
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 ...
(Short Take-Off and Landing) utility aircraft designed and built in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
from 1936.
Development
DWL studied a small twin-engined STOL utility aircraft as a private venture due to the lack of official support, hoping to kindle new markets in multi-engined, utility and business aircraft.
The RWD 18s safe handling characteristics and STOL capability were derived from the full span leading edge slats, which were operated by servo suction from a leading edge mounted venturi tube, and the fixed tri-cycle undercarriage. Construction was to have been mixed with wooden cantilever high wings having anhedral on the inner sections, fitted with full span powered leading edge slats and trailing edge flaps. The fuselage was a welded steel tube framework faired with wooden formers, covered with plywood and fabric, fitted out with a dual control cockpit and a bench seat in the cabin for two or three. At the rear of the fuselage a cantilever twin finned wooden tail unit was fitted to improve low-speed yaw control and stability. The spatted undercarriage legs were cantilevered from the engine nacelles and the fuselage under the nose with the main wheels fitted with 'Bendix' pneumatic brake units and the nosewheel steerable from the rudder bar. Any engine of around 150 hp could be fitted, but the prototype was fitted with 150 hp
Cirrus Major
The Blackburn Cirrus Major is a British, inline-four aircraft engine that was developed in the late 1930s.
Design and development
The Blackburn Cirrus Major started life as a continued evolution of the original Cirrus and Hermes series of air ...
four-cylinder inverted in-line engines fitted in nacelles at the junctions of the inner and outer wings.
An
RWD 9
The RWD 9 was a Polish sports plane of 1934, constructed by the RWD team.
Development
The aircraft was a further development of the RWD 6 - the winner of the ''IIIrd Challenge de Tourisme International'' Challenge 1932 international tourist aircr ...
was converted to the
RWD 20, by fitting a tri-cycle undercarriage, to speed the development of the RWD 18s, with extensive trials carried out including rough and ploughed field landings, take-offs and taxiing. Flight trials were scheduled to be carried out in December 1939 but the incomplete prototype was destroyed in an air raid during the German invasion of 1939.
Specifications (RWD 18 estimated)
See also
References
* Taylor, J. H. (ed) (1989) ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation''. Studio Editions: London. p. 29
* Cynk, Jerzy B.. “Polish Aircraft 1893 – 1939”. London, Putnam. 1971.
* Glass, Andrzej: "Biographical Dictionary of Polish Engineers", volume 14: 2003 Warsaw, p. 24: Tadeusz Chyliński (Polish)
External links
* http://rwd-dwl.net/samoloty/rwd_18/index.htm
*
RWD (aircraft manufacturer)
RWD was a Polish aircraft construction bureau active between 1928 and 1939. It started as a team of three young designers, Stanisław Rogalski, Stanisław Wigura and Jerzy Drzewiecki, whose names formed the RWD acronym.
History
They started w ...
* http://rwd-dwl.net/pracownicy/duleba/index.htm
* http://rwd-dwl.net/pracownicy/chylinski/index.htm
{{RWD aircraft
RWD aircraft
Abandoned civil aircraft projects
1930s Polish civil utility aircraft
High-wing aircraft
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft