LWS (aircraft manufacturer)

LWS - Lubelska Wytwórnia Samolotów (Lublin Aircraft Factory) was the Polish aerospace manufacturer, located in Lublin, created in 1936 of Plage i Laśkiewicz works and producing aircraft between 1936 and 1939.

The LWS was created of a nationalized Plage i Laśkiewicz works, the first Polish aircraft manufacturer. Due to plans of the Polish aviation authorities, headed by Ludomił Rayski, to gather all aviation industry in state hands, Plage & Laśkiewicz works were forced to go bankrupt in late 1935. Then, they were nationalized under the name LWS in February 1936. Formally, it was owned by the PWS state aircraft manufacturer, in fact it was subordinated to the PZL. A director was Maj. Aleksander Sipowicz, a technical director and main designer was initially Zbysław Ciołkosz; from autumn 1937 the technical director was Ryszard Bartel and the main designer Jerzy Teisseyre.

The first LWS aircraft were Plage & Laśkiewicz developments. 18 almost ready Lublin R-XIIIF army cooperation aircraft were completed in 1936 and bought by the Polish Air Force (their quality was the pretext for forcing Plage & Laśkiewicz bankruptcy), and the next series of 32 was built for the Polish Air Force by 1938. The factory also continued works upon a two-engine torpedo bomber seaplane Lublin R-XX prototype, now designated LWS-1, but it was not ordered due to a low performance.

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