PZL Mielec
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| Manufacturer | |
| Industry | Aviation |
| Founded | 1939 |
| Headquarters | Mielec, Poland |
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Number of employees
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1800 [1] |
| Parent | Sikorsky Aircraft/Lockheed Martin |
| Website | pzlmielec.com.pl |
PZL Mielec (Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze - Polish Aviation Works), formerly WSK-Mielec (Wytwórnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego) and WSK "PZL-Mielec" is a Polish aerospace manufacturer, based in Mielec. It is the largest aerospace manufacturer in postwar Poland. In 2007 it was acquired by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, retaining the brand.
In 1938-1939 a factory was built in Mielec, designated as PZL WP-2 (Wytwórnia Płatowców 2 - Airframe Factory no.2), which was a division of the biggest Polish aviation works PZL in Warsaw (Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze - State Aviation Works), but the production was only starting there at the outbreak of World War II. In March 1939 the first aircraft were manufactured - PZL.37 Łoś bombers, assembled from components delivered from PZL WP-1 factory in Warsaw.
During World War II, Mielec was occupied by the Germans from 13 September 1939. During the occupation the factory became a part of Heinkel works, producing tailfins of Heinkel He 111 bombers and repairing Junkers Ju 52 planes. In July 1944 the withdrawing Germans took all the machines and equipment. Mielec was seized by the Soviet Army on 6 August 1944. At first, the factory was governed by the Soviets as a repair works. On 22 July 1945 it was handed over back to Polish control.
The factory in Mielec was renamed Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze (PZL) - Zakład nr 1 (State Aviation Works, No.1 plant), being a state-owned factory. At first it was aircraft repair works and produced mostly non-aviation items, like bus bodies, scales, etc. The first plane constructed in Mielec was a simple trainer PZL S-1, flown on 15 November 1945 and built in one unit only (it was the second plane built in Poland after the war).
The factory in Mielec produced aircraft mostly under licence or designed in other Polish bureaus. In 1948 the factory built a small series of 10 utility planes LWD Szpak-4T, designed in the LWD (it was the first Polish post-war series-built plane). In the same year there started a production of licensed Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes under a designation CSS-13, and 180 were built by 1950 (they were also produced by PZL Warszawa-Okęcie). In 1950 also a small series of pre-war Polish Salamandra gliders was built.
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Wikipedia