The IS-C Zuraw glider, which can be admired at the new permanent exhibition “With the Wind and Against the Wind. Civil Aviation”, underwent comprehensive conservation at the “Jezow” Glider Workshop in 2023-2024. The conservation work included, among other things, cleaning all components, reconstructing missing parts and re-covering the structure with fabric.
IS-C Zuraw is a Polish two-seat competition and training glider, developed in the early 1950s at the Gliding Institute in Bielsko-Biala by engineers Jozef Niespal and Andrzej Kokot. It was a modernised version of the German DFS Kranich II glider, whose documentation was discovered in 1945 in an NSFK workshop in Lodz.
The Zuraw prototype was first flown on 22 April 1952 in Gdansk, and serial production was carried out in 1952-1953 in Poznan and Gdansk, with a total of 51 units built. The glider featured a wooden construction with a gull-wing shape, which gave it a distinctive appearance.
It was used in aero clubs and gliding schools for training and competition flying until the end of the 1960s. The collection of the Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow includes two examples of the IS-C Zuraw glider, built at OWL Gdansk:
SP-1213 – donated to the Museum in 1964 (this example underwent comprehensive restoration)
SP-1295 – donated in 1966
These gliders are valuable exhibits, illustrating the development of Polish gliding in the post-war period.
