09/30/2012. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "The Polish DWL stemmed directly from the activities of Sekcja Lotnicza Kola Mechaników Studentów Politechniki Warszawskiej (Aviation Section of Warsaw Technical University Engineering Students' Circle) (Sekcja Lotnicza for short), which was formed in 1921 as the successor to the earlier Aeronautical Section founded at the Warsaw Technical University in 1916 by Bartel, Brunner and Suchos.
The RWD team was formed by three of the Sekcja Lotnicza's most active and promising light aircraft designers, Stanislaw Rogalski, Stanislaw Wigura and Jerzy Drzewiecki. This team managed in 1929 to obtain the exclusive rights to the use of the Sekcja Lotnicza workshop at Warsaw-Okecie. The facility, at first known as Warsztaty Lotnicze, was used to build light aircraft and gliders. In April 1931, the DWL was formed, and the RWD team formally separated from the Sekcja Lotnicza.
DWL set itself the task of designing and developing light aircraft as a prime concern. Small-scale production of the selected types, in batches of 10 to 20, was envisaged to cover the cost of experimental and development work, and in the case of large orders license rights were to be offered to other Polish factories. DWL successfully resisted all attempts by the Department of Aeronautics to nationalize the company and was the only privately-owned aircraft factory in existence in Poland in the late 'thirties.
In the final years before the war, DWL employed on average about 300 people, and the total number of airframes completed at the DWL's Okecie establishment exceeded 300. When war came in September 1939, DWL evacuated its Okecie factory, and nine of its airworthy aircraft reached Rumania on September 14. Eventually DWL ceased operations, Rogalski, Wigura, Drzewiecki and many staff members went separate ways, about 25 ending up in Turkey, organizing and running the Türk Hava Kurumu-Uçak Fabrikasi (Turkish Air League-Uçak Factory).
In 1930 the RWD design team conceived a new two-seat high-wing cantilever light tourer monoplane, designated RWD 5, which represented a further evolution and refinement of earlier models. The aircraft was of composite construction and embodied a completely new fuselage with a rectangular-section structure of welded steel-tubes covered with fabric. Two fully-enclosed amply-glazed tandem cockpits, with provision for dual controls, were situated below the wing. Aft of the rear seat was a large baggage locker. Doors to both cockpits were on the starboard side of the fuselage, and cabin windows were made to hinge outwards from the bottom for ventilation.
The undivided tapered wing, a two-spar structure of wood with plywood D leading edge, was covered with fabric and bolted direct to the top of the fuselage. On the standard production aircraft the wing aspect ratio was slightly reduced, the overall span being cut from 34 ft 5.5 in (10.5 m) to 33 ft 10 in (10,3 m), and wing area increased from 161.5 sq.ft (15 sq.m) to 166.8 sq.ft (15.5 sq.m). The tail unit, with a cantilever tail plane, was constructed of wood. Fin and tail plane were ply-covered, and rudder and elevators were fabric covered, in later models a taller fin and rudder was employed. The tail plane was adjustable in flight.
The landing gear of the production model was of the divided type and consisted of two DWL rubber-in-compression legs, running from the sides of the fuselage, with the lower ends hinged to the bottom of the fuselage by short axles and radius rods. The compression legs were enclosed in streamlined fairings, and the medium-pressure Dunlop wheels were often fitted with large spats. A semi-leaf spring tail skid was used. The wheel track was 5 ft 11 in (1.8 m).
Alternative power plants included the 105-115 hp Cirrus-Hermes IIB, 120-130 hp Cirrus-Hermes IV, 130 hp de Havilland Gipsy-Major, or 110 hp Walter Junior four-cylinder inverted in-line air-cooled engines, driving a Szomanski two-blade wooden airscrew. Other in-line engines of similar output could be installed. Two fuel tanks, with a total capacity of 58.12 gal (220 l) were mounted side-by-side in the wing above the cabin. The oil tank was carried externally at the bottom of the fuselage on the port side.
Work on the machine was delayed by the move from the University's primitive workshop to the new establishment at Warsaw-Okecie. Construction of the prototype began at the new factory in September 1930, but due to extreme financial difficulties and other problems arising from the move, the aircraft was not finished until July 1931. Powered by the Cirrus-Hermes IIB the RWD 5 flew for the first time on August 7, 1931, proving eminently successful. Registered SP-AGJ (c/n 34) the aircraft was flown a week later to victory in the 3rd Tour of Southwestern Poland by Mieczyslaw Pronaszko, and less than two months after its first flight it came first in the 4th National Lightplane Contest, piloted by Franciszek Zwirko.
The first year of DWL's existence was a critical one, and, apart from the RWD 5 prototype, only one other aeroplane, the record-breaking RWD 7, was completed in 1931. Soon, however, the prospects began to improve, and in addition to a Government contract for a new Challenge tourer, the RWD 6, orders for the RWD 5 were mounting. In the spring of 1932 work on the first batch of ten RWD 5s began, and this was followed by another batch of ten in 1933.
The production model differed from the prototype in having a redesigned landing gear with medium-pressure wheels and a more efficient windscreen and improved cabin windows. The first two production machines, the Cirrus-Hermes IIB powered SP-AJA and SP-AJB, c/ns 58 and 59, named Kolejarz I (Railwayman) and Kolejarz II, were financed by the Railwaymen's Union, and officially presented to the Warsaw Aero Club on November 13, 1932.
