Tadeusz Sołtyk

Tadeusz Sołtyk (born 30 August 1909 in

Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been the seat of a separate Radom Voivodeship (1975–1 ...

, died 14 July 2004 in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...

) was a Polish

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. ...

designer and

aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

, most famous as the creator of the PZL TS-11 Iskra After graduating from the Mechanical Department of the

Warsaw University of Technology The Warsaw University of Technology ( pl, Politechnika Warszawska, lit=Varsovian Polytechnic) is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professor ...

in 1934, he became a designer at the State Aviation Works ( PZL). During his tenure at the company, he participated in the development of the

PZL 23 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 a ...

Karaś light bomber and its potential successor, the PZL.46 Sum. In 1939 he became a deputy to PZL's Chief Designer,

Stanisław Prauss Stanisław Prauss (3 April 1902 – 23 April 1967) was a Polish painter. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially ...

. During the 1939 September Campaign, he fought in the battle of Kock. He was captured there, then escaped and eluded the German occupants by hiding in the countryside. After the Germans were pushed back from eastern Poland, Sołtyk organized, in 1944, the Experimental Aircraft Workshops ( LWD) in

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of ...

. He also became the chief designer in the facility. In 1949 Sołtyk took up work at the Institute of Aviation in Warsaw. Since 1952 he managed the newly created design office at the Institute. 1955 saw the first test flights of the prototype for Sołtyk's training aircraft, the PZL TS-8 Bies. The production line for these machines was launched in 1957. The aeroplane won 3 world records in its class. That success allowed Sołtyk to work on the first Polish jet aircraft, the PZL TS-11 Iskra, test-flown in 1960. Iskra became the basic jet training plane in Polish military aviation, and was also exported to

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. It remains in service with 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 mil ...

. From 1967 Tadeusz Sołtyk started working at the Industrial Institute of Automation and Measurements, specializing in ship automation systems. He never returned to aircraft design. In 1992 he retired. Tadeusz Sołtyk lectured at the

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

and

technical universities and at the Military Technical Academy. {{DEFAULTSORT:Soltyk, Tadeusz 1909 births 2004 deaths People from Radom People from Radom Governorate 20th-century Polish people Polish aerospace engineers Recipients of the State Award Badge (Poland) Aircraft designers