PZL TS-8 Bies
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The PZL TS-8 Bies (Polish "the Deuce") is a Polish trainer aircraft, used from 1957 to 1970s by the Polish Air Force.
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Development
The aircraft was designed in response to a Polish Air Force requirement for a modern piston engined trainer with tricycle landing gear to replace Junak 3 and Yak-11 aircraft. The main designer was Tadeusz Soltyk - hence a designation letters TS. Work started in 1953, the first prototype was flown on July 23, 1955. In 1957 it beat three international records in its class. The second prototype was showed on a Paris Air Show in 1957.
In 1957 the first experimental series of 10 aircraft was produced in WSK-Okecie (designated as TS-8 BI). A slightly improved main variant (designated as TS-8 BII) was produced from 1958 to 1960 in WSK Mielec. The last 10 machines were built with better avionics (TS-8 BIII). Total of 250 TS-8 were produced (229 in TS-8 BII variant).
The TS-8s started to be withdrawn from the Polish Air Force in the mid-1960s, replaced by jet trainers PZL TS-11 Iskra. Over 100 aircraft were given to the civilian aviation (aeroclubs) then. Most TS-8s were withdrawn from civilian aviation by 1978. Two TS-8s were used in Indonesia.
The TS-8 had good handling and performance, a noisy engine one of its few flaws. It was the first really modern aircraft designed in Poland after the war, also using a Polish engine.
Description
All-metal trainer plane, conventional in layout, with low-wings. 7 cylinder Radial engine with two-blade propeller. Tricycle retractable landing gear. The plane had no armament, except for the experimental series TS-8 BI, which had one 12.7mm machine gun and two small bomb pylons.
Specifications
General characteristics
- Crew: Two - student and instructor
- Length: 8.55 m (28 ft 5 in)
- Wingspan: 10.5 m (34 ft 5 in)
- Height: 3.0 m (9 ft 10 in)
- Wing area: 19.10 m² (205 ft²)
- Empty: 1,292 kg (2,842 lb)
- Loaded: 1,550 kg (3,410 lb)
- Maximum takeoff: 1,672 kg (3,678 lb)
- Powerplant: 1x Narkiewicz WN-3, 211 kW (283 hp)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 315 km/h (197 mph)
- Range: 620 km (386 miles)
- Service ceiling: 5,900 m (19,352 ft)
- Rate of climb: 378 m/min (1,240 ft/min)
- Wing loading: 81 kg/m² (16.6 lb/ft²)
- Power/Mass: 0.14 kW/kg, 0.08 hp/lb
Operators
- Poland, Indonesia.
Related content
Comparable Aircraft: Yak-18 - Yak-52 - T-34 Mentor
Designation Sequence: TS-7 - TS-8 - TS-9 - TS-11 - TS-15
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