This pre-war Polish parasol-wing aircraft will soon be on display at the new permanent exhibition “With the Wind and Against the Wind. Civil Aviation”, which is planned to open in Hangar No. 5 in autumn 2025.
We present a unique example of the RWD-8 aircraft being built in the conservation workshop of the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków!
The replica being built features an original PZInż. Junior 5800cc engine (4-cylinder inverted, air-cooled), and although the complete construction documentation for this aircraft has not survived to the present day, thanks to historical photographs, descriptions and the unique skills of the Museum’s conservators, its appearance will be as close to the original as possible.
The RWD-8 was created in the 1930s at the workshops in Okęcie. Its designers were: Stanisław Rogalski, Jerzy Drzewiecki and Leszek Dulęba. First flown in early 1933, it won the competition for a training aircraft for the Polish Army, which was a great success for the small RWD workshop.
This type of aircraft possessed excellent aerodynamic properties — glider pilot Szczepan Grzeszczyk gave a demonstration: sitting at the controls of an RWD-8 with the propeller removed, he was towed to an altitude of 600 m, after which he landed the machine just like a glider!
The replica shown in the photographs currently has a historic engine cowling, on loan from the Museum of Polish Military Technology — a branch of the Polish Army Museum — and serves as a model for recreating a new cowling. The tail surfaces have already been fully fabric-covered, while the wing structure awaits its turn.
