PZL (Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze - State Aviation Works) was the largest Polish aerospace manufacturer of the interwar period, and a brand of their aircraft.

In the post-war era, aerospace factories in Poland were initially run under the name WSK (Transport Equipment Manufacturing Plant), but returned to adopt PZL acronym in late 1950s.

Among the better-known products during this period is the PZL TS-11 Iskra jet trainer and PZL-104 Wilga STOL utility aircraft.

In the case of PZL Mielec, the abbreviation was later developed as Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze - Polish Aviation Works.

In the late 1930s the company also developed several prototypes of more modern fighters and bombers — and a passenger airliner, the PZL.44 Wicher.

A new division PZL WP-2 was built in Mielec in 1938-1939, but production was only just starting there at the outbreak of World War II.

The WS-1 factory was former Polskie Zakłady Skody, the Polish division of Skoda Works, and was nationalized and renamed in 1936.

[4] The post-war communist government of Poland wanted to break all connections with pre-war Poland[citation needed]: from the late 1940s the name PZL ceased to be used, and new aerospace factories were named WSK (Wytwórnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego - Transport Equipment Manufacturing Plant).

Under the Soviet-influenced, centrally planned economy, all indigenous projects were abandoned, in a favour of manufacturing Soviet-licensed aircraft.

After the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, all manufacturers became separate companies, initially state-owned, still sharing the PZL name.

The main factory PZL WP-1 in Warsaw was destroyed during World War II, mostly during the German evacuation in 1944.

In 1946, the CSS construction bureau (Centralne Studium Samolotów - Central Aircraft Study) was set up there.

In 1998 the state factory WSK PZL-Mielec went bankrupt and was changed into the state-owned Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze Sp.z o.o.

The company grew and had production plants in additional locations, during this process it was renamed several times until it got its name PZL-Bielsko in the 1990s.

acquired the production plant in Bielsko-Biala and the Type Certificates of the following SZD sailplanes: SZD-59-1 Acro - a single-seater for aerobatics and cross-country, SZD-54-2 Perkoz – a double-seater training-glider for aerobatic and cross-country, SZD-55-1 Nexus – a single seater glider of the standard class, SZD-51-1 Junior - single seater training glider of the club class, SZD-50 Puchacz - double-seater training-glider and SZD-48-3 Jantar Standard 3 – single-seater glider of standard class.

On the occasion of the air show “Aero” 2019 in Friedrichshafen Allstar PZL Glider has presented its proof-of-concept of a new electric propulsion system for the SZD-55 Nexus.