PZL 106-A „Kruk“ – the Polish agriculture plane

The PZL 106-A "Kruk" is a typical example of a specialized aircraft design - an agricultural work plane. The prototype was built in 1973 at the PZL "Okęcie" workshop in Warsaw. Andrzej Fridrichiewicz led the design team. "Kruk", according to the authors' idea, was supposed to replace the outdated and decommissioned PZL-101 "Gawron". The biggest difference between the “Gawron” and the “Kruk” was, that the PZL 106-A was specially designed for agricultural work, while the “Gawron” was a universal machine, only adapted for such work. This difference greatly affects the appearance of the machine and the production methods. At first glance, the “Kruk's” silhouette appears to be overloaded and underdeveloped aerodynamically. But the agricultural plane must have a large payload, so the size and wing area must be of an appropriate size. The fuselage must be spacious and have a large capacity, as a considerable load must be lifted into the air and flown. The cockpit is placed behind the cargo in order not to crush the pilot in case of an accident. To provide the pilot with the best and widest possible view, the cockpit is placed high and has large-area windows. Since "Kruk" has to work on unprepared and not the best quality landing-take off areas, the plane may overturn and here the high and abundantly glazed cabin again poses a danger to the pilot. Therefore, the cab frame and the cab itself are designed as a safety capsule. Since the plane must fly at a low speed during operation, aerodynamics plays almost no role here. And for low-speed flight characteristics, to improve landing and take-off characteristics, a powerful mechanization is installed on the wing - fixed for-wings and after-wings over the entire wing length. "Kruk" works not only in Poland, but is exported to many European and African countries.

The model is of medium complexity, but requires a lot of work due to the rather atypical shapes and production of the agricultural equipment model. But, when working under the supervision of a more experienced colleague, this model will stick perfectly even a modeler with little experience, who has made several more complex models. There is just no need to hurry and it is advisable for beginners to make this model without detailing the cabin equipment and with opaque cabin glasses. Antiquarian publication.