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The P11c, serial number 8.63, preserved in the Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow comes from the first series manufactured at the PZL factory at Okęcie-Paluch in 1935 fitted with a PZ Skoda-Bristol Mercury V S2 radial engine rated at 565 hp (max 600 hp). It was issued to the 121 Eskadra stationed at Krakow. It was the only machine in the unit fitted with four machine guns. Among other pilots it was probably flown by Wacław Król (officially assigned the aircraft numbered 8, he did not fly it). It is also believed that Tadeusz Arabski flew this aircraft when he shot down a Do 17(some sources record this as a probable). The slightly damaged aircraft was captured by the Germans. The Germans came into possession of at least two machines from the unit, one flown by Marian Futro and the other by ppor. Chciuk. 8.63 is likely to be one of them. The Germans overhauled it and put it on display in Berlin's Air Force Museum. After the museum was damaged by bombing the remaining exhibits were evacuated east to Wielkopolska province where they were discovered at Czarnkow in 1945. Subsequently it was stored in Gaskow, Pilawa and Wrocław. In 1964 it was presented to the Museum of Aviation and Astronautics (which became the Polish Aviation Museum). At first is was displayed in an incorrect scheme, which is why profiles from the 1960s and 70s are dark green with yellow bands around the rear fuselage, and for a while it had a red and white spinner. In the 1990s the 1990s the airframe was painstakingly reconstructed and the original looks recreated (with the exception of the wheels that are not original).

I came across this whilst trawling the internet. My usual scale is 1/48 but Silverwings PZL 11Cc was too tempting an opportunity, for me, to miss. Like you I became less enamoured with it once I started to build it. At times I wonder if the design had actually tried building the kit. So many questions, so many problems. Too much to answer in one go I think. Lets start with the options in the kit. Think off square brackets [ ] as foot notes. Serial number 8.14, 112 Eskadra. Photographed during an official visit to Stockholm in 1936. [A flight of five P.11cs led by Col Rayski participated in the opening of Bromma Airport.] A very early example, it was not fitted with bomb racks and so strictly speaking the wings in the kit are not correct for it. [The earliest examples did not have bomb racks. A small number of early examples had bomb racks fitted two bays out from the spent cartridge ejection blisters. The majority had bomb racks fitted four bays out from the spent cartridge ejection blisters.] Serial number 8.66 142 Eskadra. Photograph 19th June 1938, ToruÅ„. As I will explain later, this is not the correct serial number. Two Guns or Four? For the 'c' version of the P.11, provision was made for the installation of a pair of machine guns in the wings to supplement the pair in the fuselage. The P.11cs delivered to squadrons were armed with two 7.7 mm KM Wz 33 guns with 500 rounds per gun, in the fuselage. The ammunition, in steel link belts, being loaded in the sequence armour-piercing/incendiary/explosive. The two wing guns, with 300 rounds per gun, were to be installed during 1937 by Service maintenance units. However, production of the guns fell seriously behind schedule and did not become available in quantity until the summer of 1938. By this time the P.50 JastrzÄ…b prototype was approaching completion and the Department of Aeronautics concluded that it would not be worth spending on the P.11c and stopped the fitting of additional guns. At the outbreak of war only about 20% of the aircraft had been provided with four guns. On formation of the Pursuit Brigade during mobilisation in August 1939, the following are listed. 111 Eskadra, three four gun, nine two gun. 112 Eskadra, one four gun, five two-gun, four P.11a. 113 Eskadra, one four gun, four two-gun, five P.11a. 114 Eskadra one four-gun, seven two-gun, four P.11a. The wing guns were not liked by pilots as they affected the agility of the aircraft. It is the belief of some, for this reason, that the wing guns had been removed from most aircraft in the September Campaign. They point to the absence of any P.11cs with wing guns in the photographs of wrecked and abandoned P.11s taken by German tourists that have turned up on auction sites. So you can ignore the depictions in profiles, model kits, etc., of guns sticking out of the wings. There are in fact only five examples that can be identified from photographs of P.11cs fitted with wing guns. The prototype P.11 / IV exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1934. The museum P11c. Number "2" serial number 8.63 with buzz code (underwing) 39-K (black) belonging to 121 Eskadra. Number "64" with buzz code 64T (black), serial number unkown belonging to 142 Eskadra, 19th June 1938. Number "9" with buzz code under wing 74-S (black), exhibited at the Kraowej Aviation Exhibition in Lvov in 1938, later with 161 Eskadra with winged-ermine emblem version, serial number uknown. P.11c exhibited at Milan Exhibition of Aviation in 1935 serial number unknown, probably the same airframe exhibited at WILIS in Stockholm in 1936, serial number 8.30. Skalski's Aircraft? That de[ends upon what you think Skalski's aircraft means. Going back 15 to 20 years the P.11c flown by Skalski in the September Campaign was said to be number 66, buzz code T-66, serial number 8.66. The origin was probably a book written by Skalski, the tile of which translates as something like 'Black Crosses Over Poland'. The book, however, in many places is at odds with Skalski's recollections. It may be that some passages in the book underwent some editorial reworking to improved the reception of the book. Therefore it should not be seen as a historical account, rather a collection of loose memories. Then in an interview, 5th September 2000, Skalski emphatically stated that the aircraft he flew was number 64. “Let me add also that the inscription 'Zosia' was on the tail rather than the fuselage as it say in Black Crosses.......â€. It should be noted that there were 19 pilots and ten aircraft so it should be expected that there would be a certain amount of sharing of aircraft. The serial number 8.66 for 66 or 64 can be quickly discounted as 8.66 was assigned to the 3rd Air Regiment and crashed on the 7th May 1937 killing the 131 Eskadra pilot Lieutenant WÅ‚odzimierz Kujwski. There are no known photographs in which 66 can be seen and all representations of it are surmised. 64 appears in two photographs taken on 19th June 1938 at a parade at ToruÅ„. Frustratingly, most of the serial number is hidden by someone's head. It is possible to exclude some digits but not confirm what they are. Krzysztof Sikora [Mini Replika 59] is convinced that the serial number is 8.62. The recently released Modelmaker [D48057] decal sheet for Skalski's aircraft includes both 64 and 66 stating that 66 was flown by Skalski before the war until it suffered an engine failure. They use 8.62 as the serial number for 64 which I guess is as good as any. Don't go thinking this is how it looked in September 1939. 141 and 142 Ekadras were unique in using two digit numbers on the side of the aircraft and the buzz codes. So aircraft number 64 would have the buzz code T-64. In August 1939, probably as part of the mobilisation process, the buzz codes were changed to three digits. In the 141 Eskadra it appears the buzz codes were altered to the side number minus 1 with a zero in the middle. E.g., aircraft number 59 changed its buzz code form T-59 to T-508. If the same rule was applied to 142 Eskadra, then T-64 would become T-603. However, it has been suggested that it might have been T-640. No explanation or the logic for this is given. It may be that it is based on a listing in Monografie Lotnicze 37 PZL P.11 part 2 that says the buzz code for number 61 as T-610. Other references say that the buzz code is not known. A photograph exists of number 61 after it was abandoned in September 1939 but the buzz code cannot be seen in it. Of course there may have been other differences. Apart from the serial number it is an accurate representation as it was in June 1938. Back soon. In the meantime some moving pictures (suggestion, turn of the sound).