WWS Wrona bis

The improved Wrona variant was designated the Wrona-bis. It differed from the original version primarily in its 0.5-meter-long wingspan and reinforced structure. Wrona-bis gliders were built between 1934 and 1939 in Antoni Kocjan’s workshops, the Military Glider Workshops in Kraków, the Scout Glider Workshops in Warsaw, and by glider clubs based on documentation – approximately 400 in total. They were used for glider training, including at the famous Bieszczady gliding schools in Bezmiechowa and Ustjanowa. Wrona-bis gliders were also built under license in Estonia, Finland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Palestine. In 1935, renowned Polish glider pilot Piotr Mynarski completed a 4-hour, 7-minute sailing flight in a Wrona-bis.

In 1939, Wrona-bis gliders, along with other Polish gliders, were seized from gliderfields by the occupying forces. Twelve Wrona-bis gliders are known to have been handed over to Slovakia by the Germans. In 1942, Poles trained on Wrona-bis gliders in Palestine. One Palestinian Wrona is preserved at the Israel Air Force Museum in Hatzerim. Only one Wrona-bis, built at the Military Glider Workshops in Krakow, survived in Poland. After the war, it was renovated at the Gliding Institute in Bielsko-Biała and subsequently used for flight tests. Currently, with its post-war registration number SP-127, it is on display at the Polish Aviation Museum.