Tuesday 21 January 2020

WSK-Mielec Lim-5, other variants

The Lim-5 was built in various variants. There was the Lim-5R which was a reconnaissance variant of the regular Lim-5, fitted with an AFA-39 camera placed under the cockpit. Only 36 exemplars were converted from regular Lim-5 in 1960 and them all served with the Polish Air Force.
The Lim-5M was an attack variant sourcing from an study made in the late 1950s looking for a light attack aircraft based on the Lim-5. As both the MiG-17 and the Lim-5 could only carry 250 kg of bombs underwings, which replaced their external fuel tanks. After the prototype, designated as 'CM' flew for the first time on 2nd June 1959, some months later, in 1960, the Poles began the production of an attack aircraft, the Lim-5M. It introduced many modifications to the fighter, most of which stressed on allowing the modified plane to be based on ground airfields. It had double undercarriage wheels, a braking parachute and sockets for RATO (Rocket Assisted Take Off). The wing sections close to the fuselage were noticeably thicker, as they contained additional fuel tanks. Instead of the two bombs, it could carry two launchers for eight 57 mm S-5 air-to-ground rockets. Sixty of them were built from 1960 until May 1961 and, in November 1961 they started to serve with the Polish Air Force, where they weren't successful as thicker wings decreased performance and made flying tricky, while increased drag meant that increased range wasn't achieved.
The Lim-5P was a Polish licensed version of the MiG-17PF. It was equipped with the Izumrud 5 (RP-5) radar and 130 of them were manufactured by WSK at Mielec from 1959 to 1960. As it was a copy of the MiG-17 it was powered by the Klimov VK-1F (named in Poland as Lis-5F) and although not many of them were built, some of them were exported. They were exported to Bulgaria, Indonesia (which we couldn't find reliable pics of them, so the drawings are speculative) and East Germany. They also served with the Polish Air Force were they were kept active until the 1980s when they were written off. At least one of them was experimentally fitted with ventral cameras under the cockpit at starboard, similar to the Lim-5R.










Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL-Mielec_Lim-6
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klimov_VK-1
3. https://www.valka.cz/WSK-Mielec-Lim-5-t196637
4. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/44624
5. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/80676
6. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/80677
7. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

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