LWD Szpak
| LWD Szpak | |
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| Role | Utility aircraft |
| Manufacturer | LWD, WSK-Mielec |
| Designer | Tadeusz Sołtyk |
| First flight | October 28, 1945 |
| Introduction | 1946 |
| Retired | 1955 |
| Primary user | Polish civilian aviation |
| Produced | 1945–1948 |
| Number built | 13 |
The LWD Szpak (starling) was a Polish utility aircraft of 1945, the first Polish aircraft designed after World War II and built in a short series.
The war destroyed the whole Polish aviation industry. As soon as the Eastern part of Poland was liberated by the Red Army in October 1944 a group of designers gathered in Lublin, under the direction of Tadeusz Sołtyk, thus creating the first Polish post-war construction team. They designed a touring low-plane aircraft of a wooden construction called Szpak-1, with a M-11F radial engine. The plane was not built, nevertheless it gave the beginning to a Szpak family. In early 1945 the construction team moved to Łódź and on April 1, 1945, created Lotnicze Warsztaty Doświadczalne (LWD, Aviation Experimental Workshops).
On October 28, 1945, the prototype of the Szpak-2 was flown for the first time; first Polish post-war civilian plane in operation. It broke its landing gear during a landing, but was repaired. The official first flight took place on 10 November 1945. Szpak was a strutted monoplane low-wing utility/touring plane of wooden construction, powered by a radial engine Bramo Sh 14, left in the country by the retreating Germans. A crew of 4 sat in a closed cab under a multi-part canopy, in two rows. Szpak-2 was not built in series, the single aircraft was used by the factory, then in 1947-1948 by the Polish government as a utility and light transport aircraft. Being the first plane registered in Poland after the war (on 10 May 1946) it carried the registration SP-AAA. It completed some 500 flights and transported some 250 passengers in total and was retired on April 5, 1948.
The Szpak-2 had a conventional fixed landing gear. On 17 December 1946, for the first time flew its improved experimental variant called Szpak-3 with a fixed tricycle landing gear (markings SP-AAB). It was not built in a series either, and the prototype was used as a courier plane by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during 1947, then by the factory. It was retired on March 6, 1950.
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