Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze

Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze ( PZL ; German  Staatliche Luftfahrt-Werke ) is the general name for a number of Polish aircraft manufacturers . PZL was founded in Warsaw in 1928 as a state-owned company. In the course of time, numerous works were created in other places, many of which are now separate stock companies. Since the foundation, in-house constructions, licensed constructions and components for civil and military aircraft and helicopters as well as engines and hydraulic components for other branches of industry have been and are being manufactured.

Six current Polish companies that emerged from the original PZL factories inherited the name PZL: Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze Sp.zoo in Mielec (also “PZL Mielec” ), EADS PZL Warszawa-Okęcie SA in Warsaw , PZL Świdnik SA in Świdnik , WSK “PZL -Rzeszów “SA in Rzeszów , PZL-Hydral SA in Wroclaw and Allstar PZL Glider Sp. Z oo in Bielsko-Biała .

history

Beginnings (1928–1939)

Bomber PZL.37B

Founded on January 1, 1928, the PZL emerged from the Central Warsaw Aircraft Workshop CWL ( Centralne Warsztaty Lotnicze ), which was established in 1919 on the site of the Mokotów airfield . In the early days, mainly license productions of foreign models were made; Later, under the direction of Zygmunt Puławski , his own designs were created, including the famous P.7 and P.11 fighter planes . The characteristic of these types was the so-called Puławski wing , which gave the aircraft an extraordinary maneuverability.

In the 1930s in was Okęcie a new production complex ( PZL WP-1 = "Wytwórnia Płatowców 1", dt. Aircraft Factory 1 ), in which, among other things bombers P.23 Karas and P.37 Łoś that the most modern of its Class belonged, were produced. Shortly before the war, a new production complex ( PZL WP-2 department ) was built in Mielec in 1939 , which initially produced components for the main factory in Warsaw. The WS-1 department (Wytwórnia Silników-1, German engine factory 1 ) in the immediate vicinity of the main plant manufactured aircraft engines, initially only under license. Shortly before the war, however, preparations for the manufacture of our own engines had started.

In April 1937, the decision was made to build a second, larger WS-2 engine plant in Rzeszów . Construction took place in a relatively short time and was nearing completion when the war broke out.

At the time of the German attack on Poland (" Fall Weiß "), the production of the hunting monoplane PZL.50 Jastrząb and the light bomber PZL.46 Sum had just started in Warsaw .

Occupation, destruction and re-establishment (1939–1989)

No aircraft types were developed during the occupation by German troops. The engine plant in Rzeszów was taken intact by the Germans and initially intended for the maintenance of German engines. In this context it was subordinated to Henschel and Messerschmitt . The production of parts for German engines (primarily Daimler-Benz DB 606A ) followed soon after , with forced laborers also being used. In March 1944 4410 people were working in this plant, 480 of them German, 340 Jewish and 260 Soviet forced laborers. During the German occupation no investments were made except for the construction of forced labor barracks. As the Eastern Front approached, the plant was evacuated and 60% of the machines (455 pieces) that were never returned to PZL were dismantled.

PZL TS-11 Iskra

Most of the other factories were completely destroyed in the war. In 1946, the PZL was finally re-established and reconstruction began. While the Warsaw plant, which was called WSK-Okęcie from 1956 , mainly developed, tested and produced lighter sports, liaison and agricultural aircraft (including PZL-104 Wilga and PZL-106 Kruk ), the location developed in Mielec ( WSK-Mielec ) to the location of the main production. The types Antonov An-2 , Lim-1 / Lim-2 (licensed versions of the MiG-15 ) and Lim-5 / Lim-6 (licensed versions of the MiG-17 ) were licensed for various air forces of the Warsaw Pact . Later the PZL TS-11 Iskra (training and light attack aircraft) and PZL M-15 Belphegor (agricultural aircraft) designs followed .

In 1951 a third location for helicopter production was established in Świdnik ( WSK-Świdnik ) . During the 1950s, the factory developed into one of the largest helicopter manufacturers in the world. Above all, the types Mil Mi-1 and Mil Mi-2 were licensed here, and in-house designs have also been produced since the late 1980s.

In 1945 in Bielsko-Biała the "Institute for Glider Flying " ( Instytut Szybownictwa , IS) was opened, the design department of which was headed by Josef Niespał. The first construction was the performance glider IS-1 Sęp . In 1948, the "test company for gliders" ( Szybowcowy Zakład Doświadczalny , SZD) emerged, whose management Władyslaw Nowakowski took over. Successful gliders like Bocian , Pirat , Cobra , Jantar , Puchacz and the motor glider Ogar were developed there, which were also exported and some are still in use today.

The "Fasil" engine factory in Breslau , which was nationalized in 1951 and formerly owned by Rheinmetall-Borsig , was affiliated to PZL in 1975 as PZL-Hydral . This plant produced hydraulic components and pumps for the PZL aerospace industry, but also for other Polish plants.

Splitting and current development (from 1989)

PZL-130 Orlik

PZL-104M Wilga 2000 of the Polish Border Police

PZL M-28B Bryza of the Polish Navy

PZL W-3 Sokół of the Polish Army

PZL Bielsko SZD-59

After the political change in Poland in 1989, the PZL group was restructured and split up several times. Today the six locations exist as independent companies.

PZL Warszawa-Okęcie

The Warsaw plant has been an AG since 1995 under the name PZL Warszawa-Okęcie SA In October 2001 the company was bought by EADS CASA and is now called EADS PZL Warszawa-Okęcie SA Among other things, EADS PZL produces the PZL-130 Orlik training aircraft for the air force Poland as well as the still successful PZL-104 Wilga and PZL-106 Turbo Kruk (modernized variant). The product range also includes sub-components for aircraft from CASA and Airbus .

PZL Mielec

In 1998 the largest location in Mielec became a limited company and continues to use the original name Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze Sp.zoo . It is still the largest aerospace plant in Poland. In addition to the PZL-101 developed from the Jak-12M , the company also produces its own constructions such as the PZL M-28 Skytruck transport aircraft and the PZL M-28B Bryza patrol and rescue aircraft . In December 2006, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation took over 100% of the shares in PZL Mielec. Since July 2008, the international export version of the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter has been assembled in Mielec under the license of the new owner, partly from delivered components . On July 20, 2015, Lockheed Martin announced that it had won the bid to purchase Sikorsky Aircraft.

PZL Świdnik

The helicopter factory in Świdnik , as a newly founded company, consequently adopted the name PZL Świdnik SA . The multipurpose helicopter PZL W-3 Sokół , of which two copies were used by the Saxony police, is an export success . The Polish army is the largest customer . PZL Świdnik achieved the greatest export success to date for the Polish aviation industry in the period after 1989: In February 2008, an agreement was signed with the People's Republic of China that provides for the assembly of 150 W-3 and SW-4 machines. The assembly is to take place in a specially built new plant in China. The light helicopter PZL SW-4 is also produced. PZL Świdnik also builds the PZL PW-5 glider , which was selected as the world class glider standard in 1993 .

In the course of privatization, AgustaWestland took over 87.6% of the company in mid-2009 for a price of almost 80 million euros.

PZL Rzeszów

The engine factory in Rzeszów was also privatized as WSK "PZL-Rzeszów" SA and converted into an AG. In the 1990s it also produced engines for the automotive industry and other branches. On March 11, 2002, the US company United Technologies Corporation acquired 86% of the shares in PZL-Rzeszów and has been the majority shareholder ever since. Since May 2006, engines for the latest generation of the F-16 have been produced under license in Rzeszów .

PZL Hydral

The Wroclaw plant has been a public limited company under the name PZL-Hydral SA since 1993 and continues to manufacture hydraulic components for the aviation and defense industries.

PDPSz PZL Bielsko

The glider factory went bankrupt in 1996. Production was resumed in 2003 by Allstar PZL Glider Sp. Z oo , a GmbH , and is mainly with the models SZD-48-3 Jantar Std. 3 , SZD-50 Puchacz (until 2014), SZD-51-1 Junior , SZD-54-2 Perkoz , SZD-55-1 Promyk , SZD-56 Diana 2 and SZD-59 Acro are represented on the market.

The type PZL PW-5 was not developed in Bielsko-Biała and only produced temporarily by PZL Bielsko 1 , since 2007 it has only been manufactured by PZL Świdnik (see above).

See also

• List of aircraft types
• List of helicopter types

literature

• Horst Huth: Agricultural aircraft from PZL. In: Wolfgang Sellenthin (ed.): Fliegerkalender der DDR 1981. Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1980, pp. 95–100
• Mariusz Wojciech Majewski: Samoloty i Zakłady Lotnicze II Rzeczypospolitej. ZP Poligrafia, Warsaw 2006, ISBN 978-83-922944-5-0 (Polish with English summary)

Web links

Commons : PZL  - Collection of Images

• PZL Mielec SA (also English version)
• PZL Świdnik SA (Polish and English version)
• EADS PZL Warszawa-Okęcie SA (German version)
• WSK "PZL-Rzeszów" SA (Polish)
• PZL-Hydral SA (Polish)
• Allstar PZL Glider Sp. Z oo (German)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Company history before the Second World War on the website of WSK "PZL Rzeszów" SA ( Memento from December 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Polish)
2. ↑ Company history in the Second World War on the WSK "PZL-Rzeszów" SA website ( Memento from December 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Polish)
3. ↑ Heinz A. F. Schmidt: The glider construction in the People's Republic of Poland. In: Flieger-Jahrbuch 1967. Transpress, Berlin 1966, pp. 153/154.
4. ↑ Flieger Revue 6/76: Tadeusz Piwowarczyk gliding in Poland. Pp. 248-253
5. ↑ Company history on the EADS PZL website
6. ↑ Company profile on the EADS PZL website
7. ↑ Article on the takeover of PZL Mielec by Sikorsky in the online business journal egospodarka.pl (Polish)
8. ↑ Reuters: PZL Mielec Transformation Paves Way for INTERNATIONAL BLACK HAWK (TM) Helicopter  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (engl.)  
9. ↑ The Sokol W-3A. In: polizei.sachsen.de. Retrieved July 25, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Article on the agreement between PZL Świdnik and China in the online business journal egospodarka.pl ( Memento from September 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Polish)
11. ↑ Production of the Puchacz stopped.