PZL TS-8 Bies

TS-8 Bies

Picture - TS-8 during Gx³raszka Air Show 2007

Role: Trainer aircraft
Manufacturer: WSK PZL-Mielec
First flight: 23 July 1955
Introduced: 1957
Retired: 1978
Primary users: Polish Air Force Aeroklub Polski
Produced: 1957-1960
Number built: 251

The PZL TS-8 Bies is a Polish trainer aircraft, used from 1957 to 1970s by the Polish Air Force and civilian aviation.

Development

The aircraft was designed in response to a Polish Air Force requirement for a modern piston engined trainer with a retractable tricycle landing gear to replace Junak 3 and Yak-11 aircraft. The main designer was Tadeusz Sołtyk - hence a designation letters TS. The plane was named Bies - a folk name for the devil. Work started in 1953, the first prototype was flown on July 23, 1955. In 1956 and 1957 it beat three international records in its class. The second prototype was showed on the 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 251 TS-8 were produced (229 in TS-8 BII variant).

The TS-8 had good handling and performance, a noisy engine was one of its few flaws. It was the first really modern aircraft designed in Poland after the war, also using a Polish engine.

Design

All-metal low-wing cantilever monoplane. A semi-monocoque fuselage, oval in cross-section, metal-covered. Crew of two, sitting in tandem in a closed cockpit, with twin controls (a student in front, an instructor in the rear). Canopy sections above crewmen are sliding rearwards. Three-part single-spar wing, of semi-monocoque design, creating a transverse "W" shape. Tricycle retractable landing gear. 7 cylinder radial engine WN-3 in front, delivering 330 hp take-off power and 283 hp normal power. Two-blade wooden propeller of variable pitch, 2.2 m diameter. 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.

Operational history

The TS-8s started to be withdrawn from the Polish Air Force in the mid-1960s, replaced by jet trainers PZL TS-11 Iskra.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 handed over to the civilian aviation (aero clubs) then. Most TS-8s were withdrawn from civilian aviation by 1978. Three fly until today. Two TS-8s were used in Indonesia.

Variants

Picture - TS-8 Bies

Picture - TS-8 BII at the Polish Aviation Museum

TS-8
3 prototypes.
TS-8 BI
First experimental series, 10 built.
TS-8 BII
Improved TS-8 BI. Main production version, 229 built.
TS-8 BIII
Version equipped with better avionics, 10 built.

Operators

Picture - TS-8 Bies

Indonesia

Indonesian Air Force received two aircraft which were based in Bandung.

Poland

Polish Air Force
Aeroklub Polski

Specifications

Data from {name of first source}

General characteristics

Crew: Two (student & 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 weight: 1,292 kg (2,842 lb)
Loaded weight: 1,550 kg (3,410 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 1,672 kg (3,678 lb)
Powerplant: 1x— Narkiewicz WN-3 7-cylinder radial engine, (330 hp)

Performance

Maximum speed: 315 km/h (171 knots, 197 mph)
Range: 620 km (335 nm, 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)

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Source: WikiPedia