![]() Polish naval aviation used the Lublin R-XIII on floats. Unfortunately, only about 30 Łoś A bombers (single tailfin) and 70 Łoś B (twin tailfin) bombers had been delivered before the Nazi invasion.Īs an observation and close reconnaissance plane, Polish escadres used the slow and easily damaged Lublin R-XIII, and later the RWD-14 Czapla. The Łoś had a bomb payload of 2580 kg and a top speed of 439 km/h. In 1938 the Polish factory PZL designed a modern twin-engine medium bomber, the PZL.37 Łoś (Elk). Īs far as bombers are concerned, the Potez 25 and Breguet 19 were replaced by an all-metal monoplane, the PZL.23 Karaś, with 250 built from 1936 onwards, but by 1939 the Karas was outdated. A new fighter prototype, the PZL.50 Jastrząb (Hawk), similar to the Seversky P-35 in layout, was curtailed by the Nazi invasion and the PZL.38 Wilk twin-engine heavy fighter remained a prototype. Its final version, the PZL P.24, was built for export only and was bought by four countries. The design was followed by 30 improved PZL P.11a aircraft and a final design, the PZL P.11c, was delivered in 1935 and was a respectable fighter for its time 175 entered service and it remained the only Polish fighter until 1939, by which time foreign aircraft design had overtaken it. In 1933, Zygmunt Pulawski's first high wing, all-metal aircraft, the PZL P.7a, was designed and produced, with 150 entering service. Cooper and Cedric Fauntleroy, fighting in the Polish Air Force as part of the Polish 7th Air Escadrille, known as the "Kościuszko Squadron", 1920 The first Polish-designed and mass-produced aircraft to serve in the country's air force was a high wing fighter, the PWS-10, first manufactured in 1930 by the Podlasie Aircraft Factory.Īmerican volunteers, Merian C. From 1924 to 1930 the primary fighter of the Polish Air Force was the SPAD 61 and its main bombers were the French produced Potez 15 and the Potez 25, which was eventually manufactured in Poland under license from Aéroplanes Henry Potez. In total in 1918–1924 there were 2160 aircraft in the Polish Air Force and naval aviation (not all in operable condition), in which there were 1384 reconnaissance aircraft and 410 fighters. Īfter the Polish-Soviet War ended in 1921, most of the worn out World War I aircraft were gradually withdrawn and from 1924 the air force started to be equipped with new French aircraft. Most common at that time were light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, among most numerous were French Breguet 14 bombers, German LVG C.V reconnaissance aircraft, British Bristol F2B scouts and Italian Ansaldo Balilla fighters. When the Polish-Soviet War broke out in February 1920, the Polish Air Force used a variety of former German and Austro-Hungarian, as well as newly acquired western-made Allied aircraft. On 2 November 1918 pilot Stefan Bastyr performed the first combat flight of Polish aircraft from Lwów. These planes were first used by the Polish Air Force in the Polish-Ukrainian War in late 1918, during combat operations centered around the city of Lwów (now Lviv). Initially, the Polish air force consisted of mostly German and Austrian aircraft, left by former occupiers or captured from them, mostly during the Greater Poland Uprising. Poland was under German and Austro-Hungarian occupation until the armistice, but the Poles started to take control as the Central Powers collapsed. The first known air force units in service to the re-emerging Polish state were: I Polski Oddział Awiacyjny (1st Polish Aviation Squad) in Minsk formed on 19 June 1917, the 1st and 2nd Aviation Units of the 2nd Corps, the aerial fleet of the 4th Rifle Division, as well as the Samodzielny Polski Oddział Awiacyjny (Independent Polish Aviation Squad) in Odesa. Up until that point Polish pilots had only flown as members of Russian, German or Austro-Hungarian militaries. When the Russian Revolution began and the tsardom gradually lost control of the country, Polish pilots took advantage of the chaos and formed spontaneous aerial units in areas of present-day Belarus, south Ukraine, and by the Kuban river. The very first independent units of the Polish Air Force, in service to the re-emerging Polish sovereign state, were actually formed before, in 1917, before World War I had come to an end. Military aviation in Poland started even before the officially recognised date of regaining independence (11 November 1918). Main article: History of the Polish Air Force Origins
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