Orlik History

Orlik (Eagle) History

In 1994 the 60th Flight Training Wing from Polish Air Force, based in Radom, receives the new Polish built turbo-prop training plane PZL-130 Orlik. The good maneuverability of the plane gives an opportunity to form an aerobatic team flying on these planes, mostly like advertise of the planes abroad. This idea come try on 1 Jan 1998, when the commander of the Air Force Officers College give an order to established display team flies on PZL-130 planes. Like other Polish aerobatic team Iskry, that team receives the name of its planes - Orlik. In March four College instructors begin training in formation flying with PZL-130 and on 15 Apr the new Polish team Orlik made its first demonstration. At the beginning team consist of three formation pilots and one solo, but later is added another solo pilot. The first foreign appearance is on July at RIAT'98 in Fairford, England.

At the end of 2000 team's planes increase to seven and later in 2003 to nine planes. Orlik planes are equiped with white smoke generators and don't have special color paintings. All of the team members are volunteers from 2nd Basic Flight Training Center in Radom. Team's demonstration is about 20 minutes long.