The elusive Flat-nosed Wilga

ThinkingManNeil

ThinkingManNeil

Charter Member
I'm a big fan of Joe Binka's and Bruce Thorson's radial-engined PZL 104 Wilga, but I thought I saw somewhere that someone did the later PZL 104 2000 version for FS9 that employs a Lycoming flat six (the IO-540) and a Lopresti-style cowling along with some airframe and aerodynamic tweaks which makes it a better looking aircraft IMO. For those not familiar here's a pic of the final marque, the PZL-104MA Wilga 2000:

View attachment 31900

N.
 
That is a sleeker looking job there N. That thing out to be a bit faster than the round engined one would think.

Seems like I remember too that there was one FS model that came out with the horizontally opposed engine too. I just looked through Flightsim and could find nothing.
 
It's possible I may be remembering it wrong and it was done for FS98 or FS2000. I still think it's a neat looking bird with that closely cowled engine and three blade prop, along with the re-vamped gear legs and those smooth, upturned winglets. I'm not sure but it looks like there maybe vortex generators atop the wings.

Sadly, the Wilga 104 and 2000 are no more thanks to the economic downturn over the past few years. The 2000 turned out to be such a good aircraft that it had been selected by the Air Cadet League of Canada for power pilot training and glider towing duties as it meshed with their program perfectly, and there were serious talks going on to transfer full production to Canada but those plans didn't pan out.

Turbine Wilga, anyone?

N.
 
IIRC there was a thread here at the Outhouse (couple of crashes ago) regarding the then-upcoming Binka-Thorsen Wilga. Our own Piglet had openly mused about making the flat-engined Wilga and there was some support for it. Unfortunately this never came to pass as there was some sort of controversy about the current Wilga coming out (probably has something to do with the passengers, again I'm working of an increasingly fuzzy memory).
That being said, a Wilga 1000/2000 would absolutely rock in the virtual bush. I'm quite frankly surprised there aren't more of these (even the radial engined ones) out in the wilds of Canada or Alaska.
 
Sorry to hear that the PZL 104 1000/2000 are noi longer produced. The 2000 is one of the nicest looking freak show airplanes I've seen in quite a while. PTTP, LA
 
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