| Nikol A-2 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Trainer amphibious flying boat |
| Manufacturer | MDLot workshops |
| Designer | Jerzy Nikol |
| Status | Prototype |
| Primary user | Polish Navy |
| Number built | 1 |
| History | |
| First flight | 4 March 1939 |
The Nikol A-2 was a small, amphibious aircraft designed and built in Poland in the 1930s. Only one was completed before World War II.
The Nikol A-2 had a very long gestation time; its designer, Jerzy Nicol started work on it in May 1929, shortly after his graduation from Warsaw Technical University, but the first flight was made almost ten years later on 4 March 1939. In 1934 the Polish Navy, with an interest in a catapult-launched amphibian for a new warship, contacted Nikol. By the end of 1935 wind tunnel tests had been completed and design calculations approved. Construction of the prototype began in 1936 in the Morski Dyon Lotniczy factory at Puck. [1]
The all-wood, two-seat amphibian had a shoulder mounted cantilever wing built around two spars. Tapered in plan, the wing was plywood covered forward of the rear spar, forming watertight compartments to keep the aircraft afloat after severe hull damage. Behind the rear spar the wing was fabric covered. [1]
The A-2 had a wooden fuselage with plywood skin, a single-step planing bottom and flat sides. It was internally divided by bulkheads into watertight compartments. There was a store for mooring gear in the nose and its two crew, provided with dual controls, were seated side-by-side ahead of the wing leading edge under a removable, hinged, framed cover. Behind them, a 89 kW (120 hp) de Havilland Gipsy Major four cylinder, inverted air-cooled inline engine was mounted in pusher configuration high over the wing on inward-leaning N-form struts, its low diameter, three-bladed propeller clearing the wing. The main fuel tankage was in the fuselage, with a reserve tank in the wing centre-section. The compartment under the trailing edge of the wing contained a luggage store, accessed via a watertight hatch. [1]
Its ply-covered tailplane, mounted above the fuselage on a short pylon, was in-flight adjustable. Twin ply-covered, ground-adjustable fins were externally braced to it. Both elevator and rudders were balanced and fabric covered. [1]
The A-2's landing gear was fitted with brakes and retracted into the wings. [1]
Its first flight was made on 4 March 1939 and many test flights followed which confirmed good air and water handling, suggesting that the A-2 had a future with both naval and civil operators but because of the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 only the prototype flew. [1] Its later history is uncertain: Cynk reports it as destroyed in the invasion but other sources suggest it survived the war, though without flying again. They claim that after the German invasion of Poland and the first unsuccessful air raid on a base in Puck on 1 September 1939, all Polish seaplanes, including the undamaged A-2 prototype, were evacuated from Puck to the naval harbour in Hel. It was slightly damaged due to further air raids, then captured by the Germans and taken to Travemünde for repairs and was later seen at other Polish bases. [2]
Germany 
Poland Data from J. Cynk, 1971 [1] except where noted.
General characteristics
Performance
The RWD 5 was a Polish touring and sports plane of 1931, a two-seat high-wing monoplane, constructed by the RWD team. It was made famous by its transatlantic flight, being the smallest aircraft to cross the Atlantic.
The RWD 17 was a Polish aerobatics-trainer aircraft of 1937, parasol wing monoplane, constructed by the RWD team.
The RWD-15 was a Polish touring aircraft of 1937, designed by the RWD team and built by the Doświadczalne Warsztaty Lotnicze (DWL).
The PZL-5 was a Polish two-seat touring and sports aircraft of 1930 constructed and produced by the PZL.
PZL.12 (PZL-H) was a prototype of a Polish amphibious flying boat designed and built in 1931 by Zygmunt Puławski, a pioneering Polish designer. He was killed in a crash involving this design.
The Bartel BM.4 was a Polish biplane primary trainer aircraft used from 1929 to 1939 by the Polish Air Force and Polish civilian aviation, manufactured in the Samolot factory in Poznań. It was the first plane of Polish design put into production.
The PWS-20 was a Polish single-engine high-wing 8 passenger airliner, built in the PWS factory and when it made its first flight in 1929 it became the first Polish-designed transport aircraft to fly.
The P.W.S.8 was a 1930 Polish sports plane, constructed by the Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów (PWS), that remained a prototype.
The RWD 23 was a Polish low-wing trainer aircraft of 1938, constructed by the RWD team, that remained a prototype.
The RWD-19 was a Polish two-seat low-wing sports aircraft of 1938, constructed by the RWD bureau.
The PWS-52 was a Polish sports aircraft of 1930, a single-engine high-wing monoplane, constructed by the Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów (PWS), that remained a prototype.
The P.Z.L. 27 was a prototype airliner/mail plane designed by Zbysław Ciołkosz and constructed at P.Z.L. in 1933.
The WT-1 was a 1931 high performance sports aircraft designed in Poland. It only made two flights.
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.
The ITS-II was a Polish intermediate training glider. Only about five were built as it was soon outclassed by newer Polish aircraft but some were used until 1935. ITS-IIs were used in early training courses on air towing and another gave the first demonstration of glider aerobatics in Poland. It was also used to set one national record.
The Tarczyński and Stępniewki TS-1/34 Promyk was a Polish short span, high performance sailplane from the mid-1930s and was the first Polish sailplane equipped with flaps. Its construction was delayed by a financial crisis and its development terminated by World War II.
The PWS-103 was a high performance, Polish 15 m span sailplane developed from the longer-span PWS-102 just before World War II.
The Czajka (transl. Lapwing) or Kocjan Czajka after its designer was a Polish secondary training glider which was in continuous production from 1931 to the start of World War II. More than 160 were completed in Warsztaty Szybowcowe in Warsaw.
The Warsztaty Szybowcowe Sroka, or Kocjan Sroka after its designer, was a Polish intermediate training glider. About sixty were built between 1934 and 1939.
The Warsztaty Szybowcowe SG-7 was a Polish high performance, single seat sailplane. Two prototypes flew in 1937 but, outperformed by their contemporaries, no more were built.
Andrzej Glass: "Polskie konstrukcje lotnicze 1893-1939" (Polish aviation constructions 1893-1939), WKiŁ, Warsaw 1977 (Polish language, no ISBN)
