The Seckja Lotnicza (SL) or Aeronautical Section of Warsaw Technical University, set up in 1916 by Ryszard Bartel and revived in 1921, played a significant part in the growth of Polish club flying. The 1925
Drzewiecki JD-2 was the first of their powered aircraft designs to be built and the second, designed by SL members
Stanislaw Rogalski and
Stanislaw Wigura, was the R.W.1. Its construction in the SL workshop was funded by
LOPP and they were helped by staff from the factory of E. Plage and T. Laśkiewicz. Its parasol wing was
trapezoidal in plan and had an aerodynamically semi-thick section. It was built in two parts, each based on two
spars. In front of the forward spar the wing was
plywood-covered, with
fabric aft. The two halves were joined centrally and held over the fuselage on a pair of transverse inverted-V
cabane struts. On each side a pair of parallel struts from the spars to the lower fuselage
longeron provided the primary wing bracing. The R.W.1 was powered by a
Anzani 6 six-cylinder
radial engine. Fuel tanks, together holding , were in the wing roots. Behind the engine
fire wall the simple fuselage had a tapered, rectangular section, built around four longerons and
frames and ply covered. It contained two open
cockpits in
tandem under the wing, fitted with dual control. The
empennage was conventional with its
tailplane mounted on top of the fuselage and with a rounded vertical tail. The tail surfaces were built in a similar way to the wings and the rear control surfaces, like the
ailerons, were
unbalanced. The mainwheels of its fixed
landing gear were on a single axle with rubber shock absorbers at each end and supported by steel V-struts from the lower longerons. There was a tailskid under the fin. It flew for the first time in about September 1927. ==Operational history==