The glider was designed at the Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering of the Warsaw University of Technology under the supervision of Roman Świtkiewicz. It was originally built by PZL at its factory in Świdnik and first flew in 1993. By the end of 2000 the new private company PZL-Bielsko1 was established by the original members of the design team from Warsaw University of Technology and the DWLKK company. A new factory at Bielsko produced a modified version of PW-5 glider called B1-PW-5.