For a good many years I wanted to build a model of the German Sheibe L-Spatz as a balsa model. I never go to realize that dream, but when I got introduced to paper models, I came upon the Polish SZD-15 Sroka (”Magpie”) glider, which struck me as looking a lot like the L-Spatz:
In reality, I believe the L-Spatz was a much superior glider with a best glide angle of 29:1, as compared to the 19:1 of the Sroka/Magpie. This notwithstanding, I like the Sroka, which was completely built up of wood, plywood-covered fuselage and fabric-covered wings and rudders, as compared to the steel tube framework of the L-Spatz with its fabric cover. Here’s a see-through sketch of the Sroka:
The Sroka/Magpie and the L-Spatz are both of the same vintage, mid-50s. The L-Spatz flew for the first im 1954, and the Sroka/Magpie in 1956. The Sroka was designed as a single-seat trainer, which was the preferred training method of the glider training organized by the Polish military up until the late 1950s, when that regime was abandoned for two-seater training gliders, which was the method the club flyers prefered. (I hope to get back to some of those two-seaters eventually).
From the 1960s and onwards the remaining Srokas were used at club single-seaters, until replaced by higher performance club aircraft in the mid-1970s. Let’s have a look at some period photos of the Sroka/Magpie:
The two photos above are of the Sroka prototype 1957. They are of special interest to me, as they indicate that at least some Srokas came in a different livery from that seen in photos ot the two Srokas still extant in museums:
I couldn’t find an easy way to recolor the original kit model (it will have to be completely redrawn), so this first build will be of the same red hue as above.
Here are three more evocative period photos of the Sroka/Magpie as flown from a slope, bungee-launched in the classical manner:
The date is only given as ”before 1973”. Note that the glider photographed here, SP-1726, is the very same that still can be seen in the color photo above, now hanging from the roof at the Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow!
Leif
Sources for the SZD-15 Sroka (”Magpie”):
• Wikipedia
• ”Polnische Segelflugzeuge präsentiert” (Piotrp.de)
• Polish period photos
• Polish Aviation Museum Krakow
• Build thread at Kartonwork (Polish). Note that the builder, Ostoja, also has presented his build here on this site.