New Permanent Exhibition – You Will See Gems of the Skies!

The new exhibition will tell the story of Polish aviation from the legendary pioneers of our aviation to the present day, with particular emphasis on air sports, airline aviation, medical aviation and agricultural aviation. We want to emphasise the successes of Polish pilots and designers who over the years have built the prestige of Polish wings. In addition to its educational functions, the exhibition also has an important mission to fulfil — reminding people of individuals who can serve as role models, especially for young people — says Tomasz Kosecki, Director of the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków.

The first works related to the construction of the exhibition have already begun, and restored gliders and aircraft are being transported to Hangar No. 5, located on the grounds of the historic Rakowice-Czyżyny airfield.

Already in 2022, with the new permanent exhibition “With the Wind and Against the Wind. Civil Aviation” in mind, we began the process of restoring unique Polish gliders that reflect the history of the development of Polish civil aviation — explains Ewa Cuber-Strutyńska, Head of the Collections Department.

These include the gliders WWS Wrona bis, IS-B Komar 49, IS-A Salamandra, IS-C Żuraw, IS-1 Sęp and SZD-10 bis Czapla, SZD-9 Bocian. In addition, the exhibition will feature:

• a true gem: the prototype of the PW-5 Smyk glider, donated by the Warsaw University of Technology, which in 1994 won the competition and was recognised by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) as a world-class glider for Olympic competitions.
• the S-1 Swift prototype, designed in the 1990s by Edward Margański and Jerzy Cisowski, was a groundbreaking project in the field of glider aerobatics, and its design became the foundation for further innovations in this field — including the new JAY aerobatic glider of the Institute of Aviation.
• the IS-4 Jastrząb aerobatic glider, which was capable of reaching speeds of up to 450 km/h!

There will also be relics from the very beginnings of aviation development in our country — the exhibition will display the hang glider of Czesław Tański from 1895, reconstructed by the Museum, as well as a replica of the SL-1 Akar glider, made by the Warsaw University of Technology, on which Tadeusz Karpiński won the first gliding competition in Poland in 1923.

In addition to gliders, visitors will also be able to admire unique sports and civil aircraft — including:

• PZL-106 Kruk — the first Polish-designed specialist agricultural aircraft (with a pressurised and air-filtered cabin), designed at WSK PZL Warszawa Okęcie;
• CSS S-13 — a multi-purpose aircraft built at the Central Aircraft Research Centre in Warsaw; the exhibit presented at the Museum served medical purposes — it has a special place in the fuselage for a stretcher with a patient;

• the Albatros B.II from 1919 in special livery advertising the E. Wedel chocolate factory — it was the first aircraft used for marketing purposes;
• a replica of the interwar RWD-8 aircraft, being built by the Museum — it was the most widely produced aircraft before the war, yet no surviving example has been preserved to this day;
• the newly restored PZL-104 Wilga — a flagship product of the post-war aviation industry, on which Poles competed in world championships in precision and rally flying, winning numerous medals;
• amateur-built aircraft — including: the Kukułka by Eugeniusz Pieniążek, in which he escaped from the People’s Republic of Poland to Yugoslavia, and the collection of the outstanding Polish designer Jarosław Janowski: the J-1 Prząśniczka, built in a flat in a block of flats in Leszno in 1969–1970, the J-2 Polonez — whose first example was powered by a modified Trabant car engine, and the J-5 Marco — the first composite ultra-light motor glider in Poland.

The exhibition has been designed to present the heritage of Polish civil and sports aviation as broadly as possible. It will include not only aircraft but also many small-scale exhibits such as documents, photographs, uniforms, trophies, decorations, etc. The exhibition layout has been designed as 7 complementary thematic areas:

1. The beginnings of aviation in Poland,
2. Gliding and sports aviation,
3. Women in Polish aviation,
4. Amateur aviation,
5. Service aviation — postal, medical, agricultural,
6. Polish Airlines LOT,
7. Parachuting and hang gliding,
8. Aviation modelling.

The opening of the exhibition “With the Wind and Against the Wind. Civil Aviation” will certainly be one of the most important cultural events of the year. We will keep you updated on the progress of the exhibition’s construction — it is an extremely interesting creative process that we would like to share with aviation enthusiasts — announces Zuzanna Kaczorowska, Marketing and Promotion Specialist at the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków.