Medwecki M9

Last updated
Medwecki M9
RoleTwo seat training and touring aircraft
National origin Poland
DesignerJózef Medwecki and Władysław Kiryluk
First flightearly August 1939
Number built1

The Medwecki M9 was a 1930s, Polish designed two-seat cabin tourer or trainer aircraft. Only one was completed before the outbreak of World War II.

Poland Republic in Central Europe

Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country located in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, covering an area of 312,696 square kilometres (120,733 sq mi), and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With a population of approximately 38.5 million people, Poland is the sixth most populous member state of the European Union. Poland's capital and largest metropolis is Warsaw. Other major cities include Kraków, Łódź, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.

Trainer aircraft Aircraft designed for training of pilots and aircrew

A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristics and a simplified cockpit arrangement—allows pilots-in-training to safely advance their real-time piloting, navigation and warfighting skills without the danger of overextending their abilities alone in a fully featured aircraft.

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Contents

Design and development

Though Józef Medwecki and Władysław Kiryluk were employed by P.W.S, they designed and built the Medwecki M9 in their own time. Begun in 1937, it was a product of the 1930s revival of amateur aircraft design in Poland and perhaps the last to fly before the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. With funding from LOPP and some aircraft companies, Medwecki, Kiryluk and friends built the M9 in the P.W.S. workshops. [1]

Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów (PWS) - Podlasie Aircraft Factory - was the Polish aerospace manufacturer between 1923 and 1939, located in Biała Podlaska.

The M9 was of mixed construction. Its constant thickness high wing had a rectangular plan apart from blunted tips. The wing was a wooden structure in two parts, had two spars and was plywood-covered ahead of the forward spar with fabric covering elsewhere. A pair of parallel steel tube struts on each side braced the wing to the lower fuselage. Its ailerons were of the Frise type. [1]

Spar (aeronautics) Main structural member of the wing of an aircraft

In a fixed-wing aircraft, the spar is often the main structural member of the wing, running spanwise at right angles to the fuselage. The spar carries flight loads and the weight of the wings while on the ground. Other structural and forming members such as ribs may be attached to the spar or spars, with stressed skin construction also sharing the loads where it is used. There may be more than one spar in a wing or none at all. However, where a single spar carries the majority of the forces on it, it is known as the main spar.

Plywood manufactured wood panel made from thin sheets of wood veneer

Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards which includes medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and particle board (chipboard).

Aircraft fabric covering

Aircraft fabric covering is a term used for both the material used and the process of covering aircraft open structures. It is also used for reinforcing closed plywood structures, the de Havilland Mosquito being an example of this technique, and on the pioneering all-wood monocoque fuselages of certain World War I German aircraft like the LFG Roland C.II, in its wrapped Wickelrumpf plywood strip and fabric covering.

It was powered by a 63 kW (85 hp) Cirrus III upright 4-cylinder air-cooled inline engine with its fuel tanks in the wings. The M9's fuselage was built around a triangular section frame of steel tubes, the nose metal covered and the rest with fabric covering over a light wooden frame giving it an oval section. Its enclosed cabin was under the wing, with its windscreen just ahead of the leading edge. There were two seats in tandem, each with a starboard-side door and dual controls, and a luggage compartment behind the cabin. [1]

Inline engine (aeronautics) Reciprocating engine arranged with cylinders in banks aligned with the crankshaft

In aviation, an inline engine is a reciprocating engine with banks of cylinders, one behind another, rather than rows of cylinders, with each bank having any number of cylinders, but rarely more than six.

Leading edge

The leading edge is the part of the wing that first contacts the air; alternatively it is the foremost edge of an airfoil section. The first is an aerodynamic definition, the second a structural one. As an example of the distinction, during a tailslide, from an aerodynamic point of view, the trailing edge becomes the leading edge and vice versa but from a structural point of view the leading edge remains unchanged.

Tandem arrangement in which people, machines, or animals are in line behind one another facing forward

Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction.

The horizontal tail of the M9, mounted on top of the fuselage, was straight-tapered with rounded tips and the fin was also straight-tapered. It carried a full, rounded rudder which reached down to the keel through a gap between the elevators. The cantilever empennage had a wooden structure with plywood covered fixed surfaces and fabric covered control surfaces. [1] [2]

Rudder Control surface for fluid-dynamic steering in the yaw axis

A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other conveyance that moves through a fluid medium. On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane. A rudder operates by redirecting the fluid past the hull (watercraft) or fuselage, thus imparting a turning or yawing motion to the craft. In basic form, a rudder is a flat plane or sheet of material attached with hinges to the craft's stern, tail, or after end. Often rudders are shaped so as to minimize hydrodynamic or aerodynamic drag. On simple watercraft, a tiller—essentially, a stick or pole acting as a lever arm—may be attached to the top of the rudder to allow it to be turned by a helmsman. In larger vessels, cables, pushrods, or hydraulics may be used to link rudders to steering wheels. In typical aircraft, the rudder is operated by pedals via mechanical linkages or hydraulics.

Elevator (aeronautics) type of flight control surface

Elevators are flight control surfaces, usually at the rear of an aircraft, which control the aircraft's pitch, and therefore the angle of attack and the lift of the wing. The elevators are usually hinged to the tailplane or horizontal stabilizer. They may be the only pitch control surface present, and are sometimes located at the front of the aircraft or integrated into a rear "all-moving tailplane", also called a slab elevator or stabilator.

Cantilever beam anchored at only one end

A cantilever is a rigid structural element, such as a beam or a plate, anchored at one end to a support from which it protrudes; this connection could also be perpendicular to a flat, vertical surface such as a wall. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs. When subjected to a structural load, the cantilever carries the load to the support where it is forced against by a moment and shear stress.

The M9 had fixed, tailskid landing gear with tall, streamlined cantilever legs containing compressed-rubber shock absorbers and mounting wheels enclosed within spats. [1] [2]

Landing gear aircraft part which supports the aircraft while not in the air

Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft and may be used for either takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally both. It was also formerly called alighting gear by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin Company.

It was flown for the first time by Stefan Hanschild in early August 1939. Tests showed the M9 had excellent and docile handling characteristics suiting it to both touring and training roles. The Silesian Aeroclub offered to buy the prototype when its tests were complete and plans were made for production of M9s with a range of more powerful engines and a wing set with light dihedral but these hopes were overtaken by the German invasion. [1]

Specifications

Data from J. Cynk, 1970. [1] Performance figures are estimates.

General characteristics

Performance

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Cynk, Jerzy (1971). Polish Aircraft 1893-1939 . London: Putnam Publishing. pp. 660–1. ISBN   0 370 00085 4.
  2. 1 2 "M9" . Retrieved 6 July 2018.
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