The Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków has enriched its collection with a unique exhibit — the prototype of the PW-5 Smyk glider, specimen K-01, registration no. SP-8005. The official handover took place on 20 February 2025 at the Museum headquarters, with the donor being the Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering.
PW-5 Smyk is a single-seat glider designed and built at the Research Team for Composite Aviation Structures at the Institute of Aeronautics and Applied Mechanics of the Warsaw University of Technology. The design work was led by a team under the direction of Dr Eng. Roman Świtkiewicz, and the first flight of the prototype took place on 5 September 1992.
This Polish design achieved international success, and the Museum’s specimen of the glider won the prestigious international competition at the Oerlinghausen airfield in Germany in 1992.
After the completion of ground and flight tests, the Civil Aviation Authority issued a Type Certificate, which allowed serial production to begin at WSK Świdnik S.A. Today, over 300 examples of this exceptional machine fly on all six continents. On 27 September 1994, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) recognised the PW-5 Smyk as a world-class glider for Olympic competitions.
Gliding was a demonstration sport at the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936 and was formally accepted into the programme of the 1940 Games. However, due to the outbreak of World War II, those Games were not held, and gliding never returned to the Olympic programme.
Today, gliding is divided into several classes, each with specific technical parameters:
The World class was created with the aim of standardising equipment in gliding competitions to promote pilot skills rather than technological superiority of equipment. In this class, only one type of glider is used — the PW-5 Smyk. No modifications to the design are permitted, ensuring equal competition conditions.
The newly acquired glider will be presented at the currently being created permanent exhibition “With the Wind and Against the Wind. Civil Aviation”, which will be housed in the Museum’s new hangar on the grounds of the historic Rakowice-Czyżyny airfield — the cradle of Polish aviation.
Thanks to this exhibit, the Polish Aviation Museum’s collection of Polish gliders has been enriched with a world-class design, a symbol of innovation and the successes of Polish aviation thought.
