Short story : Time and location is 1947 Finland, Tampere. There was an ambitious and exciting aviation club, Tampereen Ilmailuyhdistys (TIY Ry) seeking good sailplane for their club flying. They set their eyes to WWS.1 Salamander they have seen with their more southern colleagues, PIK. They tried to obtain plans for it but were not so successful. I have read some comments that the plans were too expensive, but who knows.
This small obstacle did not stop TIY. They decided to design an plane inspired by Salamander. And name it as Sisilisko, which is almost directly translated Salamander to finnish. Chief designer was Paavo Järvenpää. Building started same year and was completed 1950. Only one plane was built. Design proved to be great flyer. Fun fact : there is also some links between Salamandra and PIK-5a, but this too long story to put here.
In year 1961, after many flights plane was sold to Jyväskylä. Then after some time it came back. After restoration it spent some time in display at Vapriikki @ Tampere. Then back to storage, Now it is time to take it out of storage and start planning for putting it to display. Again.
I have participated in Pirkanmaa Ilmailuhistoriallinen Seura Ry (PIHIS, Pirkanmaa Aviation Historical Society) projects before (see this then this and finally this). When I heard of this project I knew that I simply must participate it. First step is to get plane out of long term storage. Weather was cold and windy, but plane itself is in good shape. Properly packed in bubble wrap. Which caused some limitations for photography, but still this is great stuff. Actually I had never seen this plane in real life and only seen couple bw-photos of it. So orange colour was real surprise.
We moved plane from one storage to another for further study. I trust that this is really good progress and I am aware of further planning of new location. Hopefully it will find nice home like the PIK-12.
I will keep you updated on further developments, meanwhile some pics below.
Some further reading :
