A LOOK INSIDE POLISH AVIATION

摘要

The first flight in Poland took place in 1912, just nine years after Orville and Wilbur Wright were credited with the world's first controlled flight of a powered aircraft in North Carolina. By the 1920s, Poland was producing its own engines and aircraft like the RWD-1 and in the 1930s the PZL LOS. Its aviation industry came to an abrupt halt in the late-1930s because of World War Ⅱ, but once again flourished in the 1950s as part of the Soviet Union's Eastern Block. Poland received state-of-the-art technologies from the Soviets to focus on the production of jets and engines. This included approximately 1,500 MiG 15 and MiG 17 fighter jets through the 1950s and 1960s. The country's prowess in aerospace and aviation continued to grow through the Cold War with the build of significant infrastructure for both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. This infrastructure would prove critical when the Eastern Block collapsed and thousands of aviation workers lost their jobs.