Panstwowe Zaklady Lotnicze PZL P.23

PZL P.23 Karas was the most numerous type of aircraft in service with the Polish Air Force in September 1939. It saw extensive action in the first two weeks of the war, and suffered heavy losses, only 15% of the planes from first-line units making their escape to Romania. However, the plane's role in World War 2 was not finished. Impressed for Romanian service, P.23s flew missions against the USSR till the summer of 1943, and the Bulgarian PZL 43 Tchaikas - the export derivative of the P.23 - were withdrawn from first-line units only in September 1944. In early 1936 Bulgaria placed an order for 12 P.23s, with the additional requirement of a more powerful engine and an additional forward-firing machine gun. The fuselage was thus redesigned to accept the Gnome-Rhone 14N-01 engine, and the plane was given the designation PZL 43A Tchaika (seagull in Bulgarian).

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p23_2.gif	75939 bytes	407x191
p23_3.jpg	44201 bytes	600x307	PZL P.23B at Cracow Rakowice airfield, spring 1939
p23_4.jpg	47747 bytes	599x377	Very nice interior shot of P.23 cockpit
p23_5.jpg	7064 bytes	240x143	A crash-landed P.23 of 41 Eskadra
p23_6.jpg	26101 bytes	600x296	The first PZL P.23 prototype
p23_7.jpg	39907 bytes	600x375	A crashed P.23 of 41 Eskadra being examined by German soldiers, September 1939
p23_8.jpg	74553 bytes	600x481	Romanian P.23s on the eastern front, summer 1941
p23_9.jpg	27981 bytes	600x296	P.23 flightline