PZL 46 "Sum" – the Polish attack bomber

In 1939 September 27 three "Dewoitine D.501L" fighters of the 1st air squadron were on duty at the Aleksotas airfield in Kaunas. Early in the morning, as soon as it was light, the Military Aviation command received a report from the border monitors, that an unknown plane in the Kalvarija district had violated the airspace of Lithuania and was flying deep into our country. The duty link - lieutenant Bronius Kuzma, senior non-commissioned officer Juozas Dambrava and junior lieutenant writer Jonas Dovydaitis, who was called up from the reserve - received an order to find the violator of the airspace and land him at the Kaunas airfield, and if he does not follow the instructions, to shoot him down. Starting the engines B. Kuzma used up the plane's compressed air reserves and did not start the engine. So only two of our fighters took to the air. Near Marijampolė, at an altitude of about 1200 meters, the pilots noticed the silhouette of an unknown plane. When they flew closer, they noticed, that it was a Polish single-engine low-wing plane, marked with red and white checkerboard diamonds. According to international rules, waving their wings, our pilots warned the Polish plane, that it was a trespasser and must fly together with our fighters. The Polish pilot, also waving his wings, answered, that he understood the command and, accompanied by the Dewoitins, landed at the Kaunas airfield. As it turned out, this is one of the prototypes of the latest PLZ-46 "Sum" light bombers, of which only two units were produced. It is an all-metal low-wing light bomber. The crew consists of three members - a pilot, an aerial scout and a gunner. The observation cabin also had a built-in rudder. The aircraft was armed with six machine guns and could carry 600 kg of bombs. The first prototype was tested in 1938 in August and demonstrated at the international aviation exhibition in Paris. The second prototype landed in Kaunas, tested in 1939 in March, had an air-cooled 918 AJ engine Bristol “Pegasus” XX. The PZL-46 "Sum" aircraft is designed to replace the popular Polish aviation PZL-23 "Karas". Four military personnel got off the plane. Three were crew members, and the fourth was Corporal Radziminski, flown in from Warsaw. The plane was parked in a hangar and the military were interned. The commander of the plane, lieutenant engineer W. Riessa told about the epic of this flight, that had taken place until then: "After two weeks of the war, the skies of Poland were occupied only by planes of the Hitlerite Luftwaffe. And, when the Soviet Union contributed to the collapse of Poland by declaring war on September 17, the Polish military leadership decided to evacuate the remaining aviation to Romania. On August 17-18 about 50 fighters, 18 reconnaissance planes, 30 bombers, including PZL-46 "Sum", flew to Bucharest. In addition, many Polish training, sports and transport planes have flown here. From the very first days, we noticed that the military was very interested in our Sum aircraft. Later the constructors of their factory started visiting. Finally, their command gave the order to fly the PZL-46 "Sum" plane from Bucharest to another airfield, Brasov, where, as we knew, the Romanian aviation factory "Industria Romana" was located. The Polish crew was to be accompanied by two Romanian fighters. The crew boarded the plane and did not even properly warm up the engine, while it was "sneezing" blue smoke, it took off from the Bucharest airfield and, flying low, headed towards Warsaw. The Romanian fighters, that took off later, did not see him. Most of Warsaw and its main airfield, Okęcie, were already occupied by the Germans. The plane, shot at by German soldiers from rifles, landed at the old Mokotow airfield, which was already at the end of its life. Throughout the night, the mechanics repaired the holes, made by the bullets in the wings, and in 1939 on September 27, at 5 o'clock in the morning, the plane took off from Warsaw, which was being completely ocupied. On the way, we were fired upon several times, but we happily reached the border of Lithuania." After staying in Lithuania for a while, the Polish servicemen, who arrived on the PZL-46 "Sum" plane, got their documents in order and went to England via Sweden. Polish army units were formed here, which later joined the fight against Hitler's Germany. The plane was occupied by the Red Army in Kaunas.

A rather complex model of an interesting airplane. Well-designed and well-detailed - assembling it not very suitable for beginner modellers, and the rather complex shapes don't really "bite" for less experienced modelers.