RWD-6

The RWD-6 was a Polish sports and tourist aircraft in the high-wing, mixed construction, with a fixed undercarriage from the interwar period. The drive was provided by a single AS Genet Major engine with a maximum power of 160 HP. The prototype flight took place in June 1932. Only three copies of this plane were built. The RWD-6 was developed by a well-known team of Polish engineers including S. Rogalski, S. Wigur, J. Drzewiecki, and its short production was carried out at the Experimental Aviation Workshops (DWL) in Warsaw. The new plane was specially developed for the Challenge in 1932. Although the RWD-6 was based on other successful designs from the RWD series, it was characterized by a few novelties, in particular a very rich and extensive wing mechanization, the use of a new drive unit and the fact that the crew sat in the cabin next to each other, and not in a tandem configuration . The plane turned out to be very difficult to pilot and not free from design flaws, but despite these flaws, in August 1932, Franciszek Żwirko and Stanisław Wigura on it won the Challenge competition, which was the greatest achievement of Polish civil aviation in the Second Polish Republic! Unfortunately, a month later, both titled and distinguished pioneers of aviation in Poland died in a plane crash while flying on the RWD-6. It is quite commonly assumed that the cause of the catastrophe was the design errors of the RWD-6 machine.