PZL P.24

PZL P.24

The second prototype of the PZL P.24
Role	fighter
Manufacturer	PZL
Designer	Zygmunt Puławski
First flight	May 1933
Introduction	1936
Retired	1960 Turkish Air Force ^[1]
Primary users	Turkish Air Force Romanian Air Force Bulgarian Air Force Hellenic Air Force
Developed from	PZL P.11
Variants	IAR 80

The PZL P.24 was a Polish fighter aircraft, designed in mid-1930s in the PZL factory in Warsaw. It was exported to several countries, but not used in Poland.

1 Design and development
2 Operational history
3 Variants
4 Operators
5 Specifications (P.24C)
6 References
7 External links
8 See also

Design and development

The PZL P.24 was developed as an export version of the PZL P.11, a gull-wing all-metal fighter designed by Zygmunt Puławski. The P.11 was powered with a license-built Bristol Mercury engine. The license did not permit export sales, so the French Gnome-Rhône company proposed using their engines in the P.11. The first P.24/I prototype, based on the P.11a and powered by a Gnome-Rhône 14Kds 760 hp (570 kW) engine, was flown in May 1933. The second P.24/II prototype, named the "Super P.24", set a world speed record for radial engine-powered fighters (414 km/h). The third P.24/III prototype was the "Super P.24bis" with a more powerful 14Kfs engine. The type was shown at the Paris air show in 1934 attracting great interest from the participants.

The aircraft was conventional in layout, with high wings. It was all-metal and metal-covered. The wings had a gull-wing shape, with a thin profile close to the fuselage, to provide a good view for the pilot. This configuration was developed by Zygmunt Pulawski and called "the Polish wing". The canopy was closed (apart from prototypes). An internal 360 liter fuel tank in the fuselage could be dropped in case of fire emergency. It had conventional fixed landing gear, with a rear skid.

The armament was a combination of 20 mm Oerlikon FF cannon and 7.92 mm Colt-Browning machine guns in the wings.

P.24A, P.24E and P.24F had two cannon and two machine guns.
P.24B, P.24C and P.24G had four machine guns.

Operational history

Despite being a better fighter than the P.11, there were few acquired by the Polish Air Force, which preferred to wait for the PZL.50. When it became clear the PZL.50 would not be ready in time to counter the imminent German attack, the PAF resumed production of the P.11 and ordered the P.24. However, no PZL.24s were produced before the war started, and only two were used in the Polish Campaign. The aircraft had greater success abroad, though.

Turkey: Turkish P.24s were used for training until the late 1940s. Some were refitted with Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp engines. The only surviving example of a PZL P.24 in the world is an example in Turkey. Photographs of the Turkish museum piece show a variety of serial numbering (2015, 2017, 2147) and are shot at different locations: (Ankara and Istanbul), suggesting that there may be more than one survivor. ^{[N 1]}

Greece: The PZL P.24 was the main Greek fighter at a time of the Italian attack in 1940, and engaged Italian bombers during the Greco-Italian War.

Romania: The Romanian Air Force already used PZL P.11Fs built under license in the IAR factory, and decided to acquire the P.24 as well. Romania bought five P.24Es and a production license, and built 25 IAR P.24E aircraft at the IAR factory between 1937 and 1939.^[2] Some components of the P.24E, mainly its tail section, were used in construction of the Romanian low-wing fighter IAR 80. The fighters were used to guard Bucharest and the Ploieşti oilfields from Soviet bombers at the start of Operation Barbarossa. Flying from Otopeni military airbase, the PZL P.24 fighters managed to shoot down 37 unescorted VVS bombers.^[3] The P.24E was also used for ground attack missions until the end of 1941 and after 1942 it was relegated to training duties because of its obsolescence.

Variants

During the development of Pulawski fighters, a new version of the P.11, the P.11c, was developed for the Polish Air Force. It had a new, reconfigured fuselage, and the radial engine was lowered to give a pilot a better view. These changes were applied also to the new P.24 prototype, flown in 1936.

The P.24A and P.24B models could carry 4 x 12.5 kg bombs, while the P.24C, F and G could carry 2 x 50 kg bombs.

P.24: This design used the whole tail fuselage section from the P.11c, was powered with a Gnome-Rhône 14Kfs engine (930 hp), and was armed with two 20 mm cannon and two machine guns.
P.24A: It entered production as the P.24A.
P.24B: The P.24B version was armed with four machine guns.
P.24C: The P.24C was armed with four machine guns and two 50 kg bombs.
P.24D

The P.24D was developed for sale to Hungary, but it was not completed, Hungary purchasing the Fiat CR.32 instead.

IAR P.24E: The P.24E version was license-built in Romania by IAR as the IAR P.24E.
P.24F: The P.24F was armed with two cannon and two machine guns and bombs and powered with the more powerful 970 hp (720 kW) Gnome-Rhône 14N-07 engine..
P.24G: The last production version was the P.24G, produced from 1937 and powered with the more powerful 970 hp (720 kW) Gnome-Rhône 14N-07 engine. The P.24G was armed with four machine guns and bombs.
P.24H: The P.24H was to be powered with a Gnome-Rhône 14N-21 engine (1,100 hp) and carry four cannon or two cannon and two machine guns, but it was not completed. The P.24H was considered for purchase by the Polish Air Force, but progress was slow due to the P.24's similarity to the PZL P.11, which was already in service, and also interest in the hypothetically superior PZL.50 Jastrząb then under development. World War II started before any of these plans could be realized.

Operators

Poland

Polish Air Force had one PZL P.11g Kobuz which was used during Invasion of Poland. This aircraft, piloted by H. Szczęsny shot down two German aircraft on 14 and 15 of September. Usually this victorious aircraft is identified as a P.24.^[4] ^{[N 2]}

Bulgaria

The Bulgarian Air Force ordered 14 PZL P.24Bs in 1937–1938. It later ordered 26 PZL P.24Fs, 22 of which were delivered from Poland in July 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II. ^{[N 3]} The remaining four, lacking propellers, were bombed in the Okecie factory in September 1939 by the Germans.

Greece

The Greek Air Force first bought five P.24As in 1937, then 25 P.24Fs and six P.24Gs in 1938.

Romania

The Romanian Air Force ordered five PZL P.24E fighters in 1937 and built 25 IAR P.24E aircraft under license.^[5]

Turkey

The Turkish Air Force ordered 14 P.24A and 26 P.24C, delivered by 1937. Another 20 P.24A/Cs were built under license in Turkey in Kayseri, followed by an additional 30 P.24G aircraft.

Specifications (P.24C)

General characteristics

Crew: 1
Capacity: fighter
Length: 7.81 m (25 ft 7 in)
Wingspan: 10.68 m (35 ft 1 in)
Height: 2.7 m (8 ft 19 in)
Wing area: 17.90 m² (192.7 ft²)
Empty weight: 1,330 kg (2,930 lb)
Loaded weight: 1,915 kg (4,220 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 2,000 kg (4,400 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Gnome-Rhône 14Kfs 14-cylinder double row radial engine, 900 hp / 930 hp (max) (671 kW / 693 kW (max))

Performance

Maximum speed: 430 km/h (270 mph)
Range: 550 km (340 mi)
Service ceiling: 10,500 m (34,449 ft)
Rate of climb: 11.5 m/s (2,260 ft/min)
Power/mass: 0.376 kW/kg (0.230 hp/lb)

Armament

4 MGs
2 x 50 kg (110 lb) bombs

References

Notes

^ This is not the case, however, and there is only one example in Turkish possession: the aircraft had simply been repainted with different numbers over the years. The real aircraft is in the Istanbul Aviation Museum, and at least one full-scale fiberglass replica is exhibited in other museums in Turkey.
^ This P.11 aircraft had flown to Romania on 17 September 1939 and later was modernised to P.24 standards, fitted with a Mercury VIII 9-cylinder radial.
^ Poland considered stopping the delivery, but feared financial penalties.

Citations

^ "Historical Listings: Brazil (BRZ)."] World Air Forces. Retrieved: 19 May 2011.
^ Bernád 1999, p. 45.
^ Bernád 1999, p. 15.
^ Skrzydlata Polska, October 2005.
^ Axworthy 1995, p. 254.

Bibliography

Axworthy, Mark. Third Axis, Fourth Ally. London: Arms and Armour, 1995. ISBN 1-85409-267-7.
Bernád, Dénes. Rumanian Air Force: The Prime Decade 1938-1947. Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications Inc, 1999. ISBN 0-89747-402-3.
Cynk, Jerzy B. Polish Aircraft 1893-1939. London: Putnam & Company Ltd., 1971. ISBN 0-370-00085-4.
Cynk, Jerzy B. The P.Z.L. P-24 (Aircraft in Profile no. 170). Leatherhead, Surrey, UK: Profile Publications Ltd., 1967.
Eberspacher, Warren and Jan P. Koniarek. PZL Fighters Part Three - P.24 Variants. Austin, CO: Creative & Customized Support, 2002.
Glass, Andrzej. Polskie konstrukcje lotnicze 1893-1939 (in Polish). Warszawa, Poland: WKiŁ, 1976. No ISBN.
Glass, Andrzej. PZL P.24 (Wydawnictwo Militaria 2) (in Polish). Warszawa, Poland: Wydawnictwo Militaria, 1994. ISBN 83-86209-13-5.
Glass, Andrzej. PZL P.24 A-G (Monographie no.7) (Bilingual Polish/English). Lublin, Poland: Kagero, 2004. ISBN 83-89088-33-9.
Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Volume Three: Fighters. London: Macdonald & Co.(Publishers) Ltd., 1961. ISBN 0-356-01447-9.
Napier, Sid. "Le PZL P.24 en Grèce" (In French). AirMagazine, No. 34, October–November 2006.
Skulski, Przemyslaw. PZL P.24 (Seria "Pod Lupą" 15) (in Polish with English captions). Wrocław, Poland: ACE Publication, 2002. ISBN 83-86153-24-5.
Skulski, Przemyslaw. "PZL P.24, The Last Polish Gull-wing Fighter". Scale Aviation Modeller International, Vol. 10, Issue 9, September 2004.

External links

- The Greek pilots fighting with PZLs - 1940