ZTS
1/72-SCALE RWD-5bis POLISH HIGH-WING MONOPLANE TOURING and SPORTS PLANE KIT
OPEN BOX UNBUILT PLASTIC MODEL KIT – INVENTORIED
100% COMPLETE.
Includes Original Instructions and Decals.
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Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia
The RWD 5 was a Polish touring
and sports plane of 1931, a two-seat high-wing monoplane, constructed by the
RWD team. It was made famous by its transatlantic flight, being the smallest
aircraft to cross the Atlantic.
The RWD 5 was constructed by the
RWD team of Stanisław Rogalski, Stanisław Wigura and Jerzy Drzewiecki (their
designs were named RWD after their initial letters). It was a further
development of earlier RWD aircraft series (RWD 1, RWD 2, RWD 3 and RWD 7),
especially of its direct predecessor, the RWD 4. It shared the same wing shape
and construction, while the fuselage was totally new, constructed of steel
frame, unlike its wooden predecessors. The fuselage had a modern shape and a
closed canopy with panoramic windows (earlier models had atypical fish-shaped
fuselages with no direct forward view from the pilot's seat).
The first prototype
(registration SP-AGJ) was flown on 7 August 1931 by its designer Jerzy
Drzewiecki. It was built in new workshops of Warsaw University of Technology
near Okęcie airport, from 1933 converted to Doświadczalne Warsztaty Lotnicze
(DWL) company.
After successes of the prototype
in air competitions, a small-scale series production was set up, mostly for the
Polish Aero Club. Series aircraft had improved landing gear. Two were built in
1932 (registration SP-AJA and AJB), five in 1933 (including the single-seater
RWD 5bis), eleven in 1934 (including one in Aero Club workshops in Lublin) and
one more in 1937 (SP-BGX), for a total of 20 aircraft.[1] In 1932, the RWD 5
was shown at the International Air Show in Paris.
RWD 5s were mostly used as
trainers and sport planes by Polish regional aero clubs. They scored good
results in local competitions, starting from 1931, when the prototype won the
3rd South-Western Poland Flight (pilot M. Pronaszko) and the 4th Touring
Aircraft Contest (pilot Franciszek Żwirko). As sport and touring planes, they
were later superseded by the RWD 13, and were relegated mostly for training.
Three were written off before 1939.
One aircraft was used by LOT
Polish Airlines in 1933–1936 for taxi flights (registration SP-LOT), one by
LOPP organization (SP-LOP). After the outbreak of World War II, during the
Polish September Campaign, at least three RWD 5 were utilized as liaison
aircraft by the Polish Air Force (SP-ALR, ALX, ALZ).[2] Also, Maj. E. Wyrwicki
flew RWD 5 from Romania to besieged Warsaw (according to other sources, he flew
RWD-5 SP-AJB from Warsaw[2]). None of the RWD 5s survived the war.
One RWD 5 was sold to Brazil in
1938 (former SP-LO, removed from the Polish registry on 4 December 1936) and
registered there as PP-TDX in 1939. Its airworthiness expired in 1943.
In late 1990s, a flying replica
of the RWD 5, named RWD 5R, was built in Poland by EEA991 association. It flew
first on 26 August 2000, and is powered with 140 hp LOM Praha Avia M-332 engine
(registration SP-LOT).
In March 1933 a special
single-seater variant was built, called RWD 5bis (registration SP-AJU), powered
with 130 hp Gipsy Major engine. The rear cabin was replaced with an additional
300 l (79 US gal) fuel tank, and the windows were removed. Additional fuel
tanks were added in wings, the fuel capacity reached 752 l (199 US gal) in
total and a range increased to 5,000 km (3,100 mi). Stanisław Skarżyński flew
this plane from Warsaw to Rio de Janeiro from 27 April to 24 June 1933, on a
path of 17,885 km (11,113 mi).
During his travel, on 7 May/8
May, Skarżynski flew the RWD 5bis across the southern Atlantic, from
Saint-Louis, Senegal to Maceio in Brazil. The flight took 20 hours 30 minutes
(17 hours above the ocean). He crossed 3,582 km (2,226 mi), establishing a
distance record in the FAI light tourist plane class. The RWD 5bis was at that
time the smallest plane that has ever flown across the Atlantic — its empty weight
was below 450 kg (1000 lb), loaded 1100 kg (2425 lb). The plane had no radio
nor safety equipment, due to weight. It returned to Europe on a ship. After its
record-breaking flight, the RWD 5bis was converted to a two-seater variant
without additional tanks, and used by Skarżyński. The SP-AJU was seized by the
Soviets in Lwów in September 1939, after their invasion on Poland.
Mixed construction (steel and
wood) high-wing cantilever monoplane, conventional in layout. The fuselage of a
steel frame, covered with canvas on a wooden frame (with duralumin in engine
section). Trapezoid one-part wing, canvas covered (plywood in front), two-spar,
with no mechanization. A crew of two, sitting in tandem in a glazed cockpit,
with dual controls and individual doors on the right. Conventional fixed
landing gear, with a rear skid, wheels in teardrop covers on serial aircraft.
Engine in front, with tractor
two-blade wooden propeller of a fixed pitch. A variety of 4-cylinder air-cooled
inverted straight engines were used, most typically Cirrus Hermes IIB (105 hp
(78 kW) nominal power and 115 hp (86 kW) take-off power). Used also were 130 hp
Hermes IV or de Havilland Gipsy III, or 120 hp Walter Junior 4. The RWD 5bis
and RWD 5 SP-LOT had a 130 hp (97 kW) de Havilland Gipsy Major.
