The PW-5 was designed for, and won a competition held by the International Gliding Commission for a simple, low cost sailplane that would form the basis for a new competition class, the IGC World Class. Unlike other soaring competition classes, the World Class designation would guarantee that all pilots participated on an equal footing, and that pilots could not gain advantage by spending large amounts of money. The PW-5 was unanimously chosen from 42 design proposals in IGC international World Class design competition. In November 1989, the IGC issued a worldwide call for proposals. By February 1990, it had received 84 requests for design specifications from 25 countries. By August 1990, the IGC had received 42 design proposals from 20 countries. In September 1990, after reviewing the proposals, many of which came with models, the IGC recommended that 11 designs from 9 countries proceed to the prototype competition. In October 1992, the IGC inspected and tested 6 prototypes from 5 countries at Oerlinghausen Germany. After further review and collecting manufacturing data, in spring 1993 the IGC declared the PW-5, designed by a faculty/student team at Warsaw University of Technology, the first World Class glider.