Avia
3 types · 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
Narrative coming soon.
Aircraft Types
Avia B-534
The Avia B-534 was a Czechoslovak single-seat biplane fighter designed by František Novotný and built by Avia around a licence-built Hispano-Suiza 12Y engine. First flown in 1933, it became Czechoslovakia's standard fighter, with 328 equipping 21 squadrons in September 1938 and 568 completed by 1939; the partition of the country kept it out of Czechoslovak combat, and it fought the Second World War instead with Slovakia, Bulgaria, Germany and other operators. Its last victory, in September 1944, was the last recorded by a biplane fighter, and no complete example survives.
Avia B.71
The Avia B.71 was the Czechoslovak licence version of the Soviet Tupolev SB (ANT-40) fast bomber. Under a 1937 agreement Czechoslovakia received 61 Soviet-built aircraft fitted with Avia-built Hispano-Suiza engines and Czech armament, and Avia, Aero and Letov were to build 161 more under licence. None was completed before the German occupation of March 1939: the delivered aircraft were seized, and licence production ran under the Protectorate from July 1939 to April 1941, when Avia and Aero completed 111 aircraft, used by the Luftwaffe mainly for training and target towing, with part sold to Bulgaria.
Avia S-199
The Avia S-199 was a Czechoslovak fighter built after the Second World War from the Messerschmitt Bf 109G airframe, re-engined with a Junkers Jumo 211F bomber engine after the stock of Daimler-Benz DB 605s was lost in a 1945 fire. The substitution made it heavy, torque-bound and unpopular, but more than 550 were built; it served Czechoslovakia until 1957 and became the first fighter of the Israeli Air Force in the 1948 war.