TS-11 Iskra Po co Polska wymieniła swój samolot szkolny na włoski, który dziesięć razy droższy

Fifty-eight years. Four hundred twenty-four aircraft. Four world records. And one Polish design school, which we ourselves destroyed. The history of the TS-11 Iskra is a story of Polish ambition, Soviet veto, and Western commercialism. In August 1961, the Iskra prototype flew to Monino, where it was to compete with the best designs from the Eastern Bloc. The prototype was powered by an engine smuggled through Yugoslavia to circumvent the NATO embargo. The Polish aircraft won the tests of the Warsaw Pact commission. The Kremlin chose the Czech L-29 for political reasons. Poland, alone in the bloc, said no and retained its own aircraft. Since 1963, the Iskra has trained Polish pilots. Future pilots of the L-21, MiG-29, Su-7, and Su-22 have flown it. Finally, in the 2000s, the Iskra trained American pilots with the F-16 Block 52 Plus. India flew the Polish aircraft for thirty years. Sweden, which offered us the Gripen for factory work, had to watch our training aircraft compete with global standards. But in 1966, the designer who built the Iskra was forced out of the Polish aviation industry. The Iryda program, which was supposed to be its successor, ended in disaster in the 1990s. After that, Poland never built its own jet again. Instead, it began buying. In February 2014, the Polish government signed a contract for eight Italian M-346 Masters for one billion one hundred and sixty-seven million złoty. The Italians missed the delivery deadline. Poland demanded penalties of up to one hundred million złoty. On December 22, 2020, the Iskra's last training flight ended in Dęblin. Seven aircraft in the White and Red Iskra colors remained. These were finally withdrawn in August 2021. Today, WSK Mielec, the factory where the Iskra was born, produces components for the F-16 and assembles the Black Hawk for the United States. The Polish jet school no longer exists. This isn't a film about technology. This is a film about how a state chooses between ambition and convenience. And what happens when it chooses convenience. An hour of flight in the Iskra cost the Polish taxpayer several thousand złoty. An hour of flight in the Italian Bielik costs six to seven and a half thousand dollars. Like, subscribe, and let us know in the comments whether you think Poland should have continued the Iryda program in the 1990s. In the next video, we'll tell the story of the program that was supposed to save the Polish aviation industry: Iryda. The program, which burned two test pilots, was closed by order, and the technical documentation was ordered archived. Find out who really closed this project and why in the next episode.