Birth, Supremacy and the Decline of Polish Agricultural Aviation

Abstract

The first practical use of crop-spraying aircraft took place in the United States in 1916. In the 1920s, aviation agricultural work was already carried out in a number of other countries. The first attempts were also carried out in Poland. In 1925 and 1927 military aircraft were already protecting forests and sugar-beet fields. Polish agricultural aviation developed after the end of World War II. In the second half of the 1940s and in the 1950s, Polish Airlines, LOT, was protecting fields and forests. From the second half of the 1960s, the Polish People’s Republic became a global power in the field of agro-aviation. Polish pilots worked in over 250 Polish state-owned farms, as well as in over 20 other countries. The apogee of the significance of Polish agricultural aviation in the world is the seventies and early eighties. In the 1980s, the importance of Polish agro-aviation gradually began to decline. Polish planes’ and helicopters’ SP (sierra papa) disappeared from the skies of other countries. In the 1990s, due to the liquidation of state farms, the aircraft ceased operations in Polish agriculture. Polish agricultural companies have also withdrawn from international markets.