PZL.43

Key facts

Aircraft.name: PZL.43
Aircraft.image: PZL.43.jpg
Aircraft.type: Light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft
Aircraft.manufacturer: Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze
Aircraft.first_flight: February 1937
Aircraft.introduction: 1937
Aircraft.retired: 1946 (Bulgaria)
Aircraft.primary_user: Bulgarian Air Force
Aircraft.more_users: Polish Air Force
Aircraft.produced: 1937 – 1939
Aircraft.number_built: 54
Aircraft.developed_from: PZL.23 Karaś

via Wikipedia infobox

Article

10 sections

Contents

Design and development
Operational history
Variants
Operators
Specifications (PZL.43B)
See also
References
Notes
Further reading
External links

The PZL.43 was a Polish light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft designed in the mid-1930s by PZL in Warsaw. It was a development of the PZL.23 Karaś. Its main user was the Bulgarian Airforce who called it the Chaika (Чайка, gull).

==Design and development== The standard Polish light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, the PZL.23 Karaś could not be exported because of licence restrictions on the use of the Polish-built (PZL) Bristol Pegasus engine. The PZL.43 was a development of the PZL.23, powered instead by a Gnome-Rhône 14K engine. It was first offered to Romania, but they rejected it in favour of domestic designs. The PZL was more successful in Bulgaria, then reforming their airforce after a period of post-World War I treaty constraints. An order for 12 aircraft was placed in April 1936.