Aviation History - March 2016 USA

12 AH march 2016

Extremes

P

oland boasts the only production jet biplane in aviation

history, and that’s no joke. As boasts go, however, this one

is bound to raise a few eyebrows, and cause some to ques-

tion the rationale for creating such a contraption. The

answer lies in the parallel universe occupied by agricul-

tural aircraft, where form follows function and aerodynamics

and aesthetics are of secondary importance.

In 1971 the Soviet Union asked Poland’s Panstwowe Zaklady

Lotnicze (State Aviation Works) at Mielec to design a turbojet-

Crop-duster

From Hell

POLAND’S GROTESQUE M-

BELPHEGOR, THE WORLD’S ONLY

JET BIPLANE, WAS DESIGNED TO

TOIL OVER THE FIELDS OF RUSSIA

BY JON GUTTMAN

Utility Aviation at Krasnodar.

Since PZL Mielec was

already license-producing

An-2s, a conceptual proto-

type was cobbled together

by combining the forward

fuselage and wings of an

An-2 with a frame construc-

tion to support the jet engine,

empennage and agricultural

devices. The bizarre-looking

result, called Latajace Labora-

torium 1 (contracted into

the somewhat humorous

IKZWVaU4ITIÅZ[\ÆM_WV

February 10, 1972, and over

the next year or so the design

team set about developing it

into something more original.

They eventually succeeded,

IVL\PMÅZ[\XZW\W\aXMWN\PM

powered agricultural air-

plane to replace the Antonov

An-2SKh for use on its

sprawling collective and

state-owned farms. The

Soviet-dominated Council

for Mutual Economic

Assistance, or Comecon, was

at that time delegating in -

dustrial specialties to various

members of the Warsaw

Pact, and in Poland’s aviation

industry that included

“aggies.” Since the aircraft

was being designed to meet a

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neers from both countries

were involved, primarily PZL

Mielec’s Kazimierz Gocyla

and Soviet engineer Riamir

Izmailov. Its agricultural

equipment would be jointly

developed at the Aero-

nautical Institute at Warsaw

and the Soviet Research

Institute of Sp e cial and

spray job The Soviets, who

had ordered the PZL Mielec

M-15 built, found it useful but

not at nearly as cost-efficient

as they anticipated.