Jerzy Dąbrowski (September 8, 1899 – September 17, 1967) was a Polish

aeronautical 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 ...

. He was the lead designer of the famed

PZL.37 Łoś The PZL.37 ''Łoś'' ('moose') was a Polish twin-engined medium bomber designed and manufactured by national aircraft company Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze (PZL). It is sometimes incorrectly referred to as "PZL P.37", but the letter "P" was reserve ...

medium bomber.

Biography

Dąbrowski was born in

Nieborów Nieborów is a village in Łowicz County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Nieborów. It lies approximately east of Łowicz and north-east of the regional capital Łód� ...

, west of

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

to a railway clerk family. He studied architecture and then transferred to mechanical engineering at the Warsaw Technical University (Polytechnic). The department offered aviation speciality and had an aviation fan club. Dąbrowski designed and built his first aircraft, biplane ultralight D.1 Cykacz (Ticker) in 1924 at the

Centralne Warsztaty Lotnicze Centralne Warsztaty Lotnicze (Central Aviation Workshops, CWL) was the Polish state-owned aircraft repair works and manufacturer in Warsaw, active between 1918 and 1928. The workshops were created on 20 November 1918, just after Poland had regai ...

(Central Aviation Workshops) in Warsaw. In 1925 Dąbrowski obtained a special permission to complete pilot training at the 1st Air Regiment. Due to financial difficulties Jerzy left the Polytechnic in 1926 and started working at the Plage & Laskiewicz company contributing to the design of the Lublin R.VIII, R.IX. and DUS-III. In 1928 he was asked to join the

PZL PZL, may refer to: Places * PZL, an IATA airport code for Phinda Airfield in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa * PZL, a location code for the Złotów County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, in the system of the vehicle registration plates of Polan ...

aviation works in Warsaw. There, with Dr. Franciszek Misztal he designed the all-metal

PZL.19 PZL.19 was a Polish sports aircraft built in 1932 in aviation, 1932 in the Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze, PZL works. Ordered by the Ministry of Communications, it was specifically designed for the upcoming Challenge 1932 contest held that year in G ...

and the PZL.26 for the

Challenge 1932 The Challenge 1932 was the third Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, FAI International Tourist Plane Competition (), that took place between 12 and August 28, 1932, in Berlin, Germany. The four Challenges, from 1929 to 1934, were major aviat ...

and Challenge 1934 contests. Dąbrowski's greatest achievement was the design of a very advanced medium bomber

, even though he had not worked on an airplane of this type and size.

submitted a proposal in response to the specification issued by the Departament Aeronautyki (Department of Aeronautics) in 1934 for a twin motor bomber capable of carrying a load of 2000 kg (including 300 kg bombs) with speed in excess of 350 km/h and a range of 1200 km. Dąbrowski's preliminary design won an internal PZL contest for the new plane and in the fall of 1934 Dąbrowski became chief engineer of the project. The all-metal aircraft with a large elliptical wing and aerodynamically profiled fuselage had superb flying qualities. The requirement to cary bombs in the wing resulted in the development of an elongated aerodynamic cross-section with excellent qualities, later identified as a

laminar flow Laminar flow () is the property of fluid particles in fluid dynamics to follow smooth paths in layers, with each layer moving smoothly past the adjacent layers with little or no mixing. At low velocities, the fluid tends to flow without lateral m ...

airfoil. The PZL.37 could carry more than 5000 lb of bombs (2500 kg) over a distance of 900 miles (1500 km) and 2200 lb (1000 kg) over 1400 miles (2200 km - to Moscow and back?), however the Polish Air Force did not have a clear philosophy for the use of such plane. Over 100 were produced by the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the last few being the first aircraft manufactured at the new

Mielec Mielec () is the largest city and County seat, 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 59,509. ...

plant in southern Poland. Only 36 Łoś' were in active bomber units before the

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

. A further 18 were in reserve at the Małaszewicze base and a dozen in training. The remainder of the aircraft was being finished slowly at the PZL factories in Warsaw and Mielec, with the main emphasis shifting to the production of fighters. During that time Dąbrowski designed a very promising low-wing fighter with inline engine, PZL.62, but the war prevented its development. During the

Dąbrowski was evacuated to Romania and then to England where he was a technical officer with the Polish Air Force. After the war ended he completed his degree, worked at

Percival Aircraft Hunting Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer that produced light training aircraft and the initial design that would evolve into the BAC 1-11 jet airliner. Founded as Percival Aircraft Company in 1933, the company later moved to Luton, ...

and Folland Aviation. In 1955 he moved to the United States working initially at the

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufactu ...

Aircraft Co., then Stanley Aviation and finally

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

where he specialized in advanced studies. He died while working in

Renton, Washington Renton is a city in King County, Washington, United States, and an inner-ring suburb of Seattle. Situated southeast of downtown Seattle, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington, at the mouth of the Cedar River. As of the 202 ...

on September 17, 1967.

References

1. Jerzy B. Cynk (1990): ''Samolot bombowy PZL-37 Łoś'', Wydawnictwo Komunikacji i Łączności {{DEFAULTSORT:Dabrowski, Jerzy Polish aerospace engineers 1899 births 1968 deaths