In 1927, the Polish War Ministry opened a contest for a military liaison and observation plane for use by Army land units operating from casual airfields.

Five pre-series aircraft followed 1929, the first four differing from the prototypes in having a detachable ring mounting for a 7.7 mm (0.30 in) Lewis gun in the rear cockpit.

[1] The R-X was a braced parasol wing design of mixed construction (steel and wood) and conventional in layout.

Its wing was built in two parts based on two wooden spars, with plywood around the leading edge and fabric covered elsewhere.

It was powered by a 220 hp (160 kW) Wright Whirlwind J-5Ab, an air-cooled, nine-cylinder radial engine licence built in Poland by Skoda.

[1] IStarting on 2 October 1932 he began his planned journey from Warsaw to Kabul through Istanbul, Baghdad, Teheran and Herat.

He returned the same way as far as Baghdad, then flew to Cairo, Jerusalem, Aleppo and Istanbul, reaching Warsaw on 24 October via Lublin.

This was a journey of 14,390 km (8,940 mi; 7,770 nmi), with a flight time of 108 hr 50 m.[1] Although the R-X never reached series production, a descendant, the Lublin R-XIII, was built in large numbers.