Polish Wings

Polskie Linie Lotnicze "Lot" (1957-1967 - Turboprop modernization

Year 1956 bring an end to hardline stalinism in Poland and change of rule from totalitarian to relatively soft autoritarian (difference between totalitarianism and authoritarism was once summarised as between government trying to control what people think and government that contents itself with controlling what they say in public). While censorship remained, listening to western music was no longer considered anti-state activity at all, cinemas and television were showing western-produced movies etc. Restrictions on travel abroad were also gradually relaxed (relatively, for a Soviet-bloc country, that is), and while a trip to the other side of the Iron Curtain always demanded significant effort on the bureaucratic front (besides of cost), it was no longer something limited to government officials. For the Polish Airlines LOT it meant an opportunity to increase the number of its international connections, as well as to modernize it's fleet of aircraft with aircraft originating not only from Soviet Union. First new international line was opened in 1957, to Athens. In 1958 lines to London and Zurich were opened, in 1959 to Brussels and Amsterdam and in 1960 to Rome. Year 1963 bring the extending of the web of LOT's connections outside the European continent with opening of the line to Cairo. In the years 1965-1966 connections to Helsinki, Zagreb, Frankfurt am Main, Milano and Beirut were established, and in 1967 to Split and Shannon.
In the early 1960s new livery was also introduced, that basically remained in use until 1977, with certain variations due to differences of shape between airplanes. Also, the shade of blue used, while initially light one, was sometimes during repaints changed to darker ones, and the thin stripe of white below the blue fuselage belt was since early 1970s much widened on some aircraft.

Post-stalinist modernization of LOT's fleet began with obtaining in 1957 from Belgian airlines SABENA three US-produced Convair CV-240 airplanes (SP-LPA, -LPB and -LPC), joined in 1959 by two more (SP-LPD, -LPE) obtained from KLM and Varig (with SAS acting as intermediary) respectively. SP-LPB was damaged and subsequently scrapped in 1958, while remaining Convairs were used very extensively until mid-1960s and were finally sold to USA in 1966 due to problems with spare parts.

Poland, Convair CV-240
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Prototype of the Polish-built, four-engined MD-12 made it's first flight in 1959, and it's passenger modification in 1961. It was designed for service on domestic lines, and with that purpose in mind it entered test service in LOT. While mostly good design (however with one small, but ultimately fatal flaw in the construction of tail that led to crash of the first prototype), beginning of the series production was found uneconomical, as at that time it was more practical for LOT to move its older planes to domestic lines instead of producing special plane for them. New lease of life for the design gave military aviation, specifically Miiltary Topographical Service that needed new planes for aerial survey. In that purpose one (of three built) MD-12 with glazed nose was serving until late 1960s and now can be seen in museum in Kraków.

Poland, PZL MD-12
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Next step on the road of LOT's modernization was buying in 1962 from British United Airlines three Vickers Viscount turboprops (SP-LVA, -LVB, -LVC). While hugely succesful worldwide, in Polish service Viscounts were extremely unlucky - already in 1962 SP-LVB crashed during approach to Warsaw-Okęcie airport with 33 (all) fatalities, and in 1965 in Belgium crashed SP-LVA (4 - all - fatalities, there were no passengers on board). Remaining SP-LVC was sold in early 1967 to New Zealand National Airways.

Poland, Vickers Viscount 800
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Large, four-engined turboprop Ilyushin Il-18 were from the from the early 1960s to late 1980s main workhorse of LOT's fleet on medium and long-range lines. First three of them, in Il-18W version were bought already in 1961 (SP-LSA, -LSB, -LSC), joined by one more in 1964 (SP-LSD). In 1965 one more Il-18W was bought (SP-LSG) and two Il-18E (SP-LSE, -LSF), joined year later by one more Il-18W (SP-LSH) and finally in 1975 one more Il-18W (SP-LSI) from the Air Force. Initially they were in 87-seat configuration, but subsequently were all modified into 99-seat one and later to 105-seat one. In 1977 SP-LSA and in 1978 SP-LSC were converted to cargo version. Il-18 in LOT had extremely good service record with none of them ever crashing and causing a loss of life. They were all retired by 1991 and sold to other users, where some of them remained in operation by mid 2000s.

Poland, Ilyushin Il-18V
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From the mid-1960s to early 1990s on domestic and shorter international lines LOT was using Antonov An-24 airplanes. First ten of them were bought in 1966 (SP-LTA, -LTB, -LTC, -LTD, -LTE, -LTF, -LTG, -LTH, -LTI, -LTK), wit one more added in 1967 (SP-LTL), one in 1968 (SP-LTM), three in 1969 (SP-LTN, -LTO, -LTP - two latter ones from Air Force), one in 1970 (SP-LTR), one in1972 (SP-LTS), two in 1974 (SP-LTT, -LTU) and final one in 1977 (SP-LTZ). An-24's had somewhat worse safety record than Il-18's - two crashed in 1969 (SP-LTE near Wrocław - no fatalities - and SP-LTF at Zawoja near Kraków - 53 fatalities), SP-LTU in 1981 (near Słupsk, 1 fatality) and SP-LTD in 1988 (near Rzeszów, 1 fatality) - that last accident hastened the decision to buy replacements for worn-out Antonovs. Also, in 1973 An-24 of the Polish Air Force crashed near Szczecin with 18 fatalities, including ministers of internal affairs (security) of Poland - Wiesław Ociepka and Czechoslovakia - Radko Kaska. Service of An-24's in LOT was also very "colourful", as they were frequently hijacked by Polish citizens wanting to urgently leave their socialist motherland - one was hijacked in 1969 to Austria, two in 1970 (one to Denmark one to Tempelhof airfield in American Sector of West Berlin) and around dozen in 1981-1982 (shortly before and during Martial Law period in Poland) - all of these to Tempelhof, which gained that way certain notoriety in Poland's popular culture of that time (leading to many jokes: Drunken guy enters the taxi. Driver asks him: Where You want to go? Then guy pulls a gun from the pocket and shouts: To Tempelhof! Immediately!). That string of hijackings was stopped only when all domestic flights got heavily armed guards (with one exception in 1982 when it was the pilots that were defecting). Some 20 more attempts were foiled, including one particularly dramatic one in 1970 when cube of TNT held by hijacker exploded accidentaly, heavily wounding him and scores of passengers.

Many thanks to Cplnew83 for his Antonov An-24. I allowed myself to make certain changes to it, mainly in the engines area.
Poland, Antonov An-24
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An-12's used by LOT were actually planes of the Air Force. Two of them (only ones in Polish military aviation) were regularly leased by airlines from 1967 as SP-LZA/-LZB/-LZC (registrations weren't fixed to particular planes). In 1977 one of them (SP-LZA) crashed in Beirut, while the other one, while formally remaining part of the Air Force, was in the 1980s used by LOT practically permamently, until it was sold to Bulgaria in 1993.

Many thanks to Guillermo2312 for his Antonov An-12.
Poland, Antonov An-12
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