Wielkopolska Wytwórnia Samolotów
Wielkopolska Wytwórnia Samolotów "Samolot" SA (roughly: Wielkopolska Aircraft Factory "Airplane" AG ) was a Polish aircraft manufacturer that existed from 1923 to 1931.
history
The company was founded on August 11, 1923 as a joint stock company in Poznań . The company received a 3000 m² hangar with an adjacent airfield from the Polish state, which was operated by the air forces of the German Empire during the First World War . In addition, WWS received loans to purchase American and French machine tools.
The official inauguration of the new company took place on April 27, 1924. A few weeks earlier he had received his first order from the Polish Army , which commissioned the license to build 25 Hanriot HD.14s . The first aircraft did not fly until February 1925. The total production consisted of 117 double-deckers of this type.
Further productions of the French models Hanriot H.19 and Hanriot H.28 followed under license.
The first in-house construction Bartel BM-2 was designed in November 1926 by the engineer Ryszard Bartel . The Polish army showed little interest and only ordered two test copies. The company then ran into financial difficulties, which made the intervention of the state necessary. An attempt to invest the Czechoslovakian Škoda stock corporation in WWS failed.
WWS survived the crisis only by reducing staff by 27% and assuring orders from the Polish Ministry of Aviation. The type BM-2 was further developed into the Bartel BM-3 , which was designed as a training aircraft. In November 1927 an order was placed for the production of five machines. The latter was quickly dropped in favor of the further development Bartel BM-4 . A series of 40 of the latter type was ordered in June 1928. The Bartel BM-5 , also a training and liaison aircraft, developed in parallel , also met with interest and in June 1929 an order for 23 machines was placed, which was soon increased to 40. By installing the newer Hispano-Suiza 180 KM engine , the Bartel BM-6 variant was created , of which 3 copies were ordered in November 1928.
On September 12, 1929, the WWS company experienced another setback when a fire destroyed a not inconsiderable part of the production capacities and also almost completed aircraft. The associated financial losses ultimately led to bankruptcy, which was filed in November of the same year. Production stopped on February 1, 1931. Some of the workforce found new jobs at PWS , while the design office was integrated into PZL's development department.
Produced types
literature
- Mariusz Wojciech Majewski: Samoloty i Zakłady Lotnicze II Rzeczypospolitej . ZP Poligrafia, Warsaw 2006, ISBN 978-83-922944-5-0 (Polish with English summary)
