Polish Forces

PZL.30 Zubr (Poland)

Initially conceived as a passenger aircraft, the astonishingly ugly Zubr (Bison) was converted to a bomber as a backup, in case the somewhat more advanced PZL.37 failed. Romania also expressed an interest in this new design – that is until the aircraft, carrying two high ranking officers, broke apart in midair. With war fast approaching, the Department of Aeronautics ordered Bristol Pegasus engines 50% more powerful than the prototypes. Experts warned that the airframe wasn’t strong enough, but the powers that be decided it was an acceptable risk. Subsequent examples were crudely strengthened by gluing extra plywood onto the wing spars, but a number of serious defects remained. Chief among these was the undercarriage, whose locking mechanism was extremely weak and unreliable, resulting in most aircraft flying with it fixed down. This, and the extra reinforcing, did nothing for the already poor performance and further reduced its payload It was recognized that the Zubr was completely obsolete, and hence assigned to training units. At full weight it could only be operated from paved runways, and even then could only carry a tiny bomb load. Most were destroyed on the ground during the opening days of the war, with Germany operating the few captured survivors. Ironically, they had a longer and more useful life in the hands of the Luftwaffe