PZL P-11C (oz7333)

About this Plan

PZL P-11C. Radio control scale model Polish fighter, for .40 power.

Quote: ".40 size sport scale model of Poland's famous gull wing fighter of the 1930's. The Pulawski P-11c, by Thomas Haney.

For lovers of gull-winged aircraft, here is a .40 sized R/C model of the Polish P-11c that should whet your appetite to see the gull wing in flight.

The prototype of the P-IIc, Zygmunt Pulawski's P-1, had for a brief period, carried Poland into the forefront of international fighter development. Many of the technical innovations of the P-1 were quickly copied by other aircraft companies around the world in the thirties, only to provide an example of the speed with which the innovatively advanced could become obsolete in the few years before WWII.

Flown for the first time on September 25, 1929, two of the P-1's most noteworthy features were its all metal construction and its unique gull wing. The wing design was later to become known as the 'Polish' or 'Pulawski' wing. The ultimate development of the Pulawski wing fighter was the cannon-armed P-24. The P-24 was produced for export only going to Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. The P-24's sent to Turkey saw action until Mid-1943.

The P-11c was the mainstay of the Polish Air Force when Hitler's forces invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Although obsolete in comparison to the German aircraft, the excellent flight characteristics and durability of the P-11 enabled the Polish pilots to destroy 14 German aircraft on the first day of battle.

My fascination with the P-11c started in 1967 when I purchased a Revell 1/72 plastic model of the P-11. When I got into R/C modeling in 1980, I had hopes of finding an R/C model of the P-11. These hopes faded fast as I got more involved in modern day R/C modeling. In 1985, I saw a picture of Harry Apoian's 1/4 scale, scale model of the P-11. Harry was gracious enough to send me copies of 1/48 drawings of the full scale P-11. After months of trying to obtain drawings from a number of different sources, I decided I would have to draw my own plans using the drawings from Harry. My purpose for creating an RIC model of the P-11 was not to produce an exact scale replica suitable for competition, but to have a semi-scale model that would be capable of good performance on a .40 engine and to satisfy my desire to see the gull wing in flight.

Here then are the results of my efforts.

Construction. Before going into some details of construction, it should be pointed out that the following information assumes that the builder has the basic knowledge and skills of model building. If you have ever built a stick type model, constructing the P-11e should not present any surprises. Study the plans and photographs thoroughly to acquaint yourself with the plans.

Fuselage: Begin by constructing two sides over the plans. The use of thin CA makes this a fast job. After the two sides have been built, taper the tail end of each side (see top view of plans) so the total thickness at the tail is 1/4 in. Assemble the two sides over the plans using the cross pin method of holding the sides to the building board where the bottom rails do not touch the board..."

Note this is a low resolution plan.

Update 25/08/2016: Replaced this plan with a clearer copy, thanks to DPlumpe.

Quote: "Here's my shot at restoring T.C. Haney's 53in PZL P.11c gull-wing fighter, from the scan posted by Aeromeddeler back in November. His scan was only 72dpi but was in color so, after converting to grayscale, justified increasing resolution to 200dpi since my final file would be in black & white. Because of the considerable noise, dozens of sections had to be treated differently and required manual erasing, etc. I think it turned out pretty good, considering. Dave"

Supplementary file notes

Article pages.

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