Avia B-534

Avia B-534 was designed by a team led by František Novotný and was based on the older, not very common airplane Avia B-34. The prototype was built in May 1933 and after it had won the competition of the Ministry of National Defence it was chosen as the standard fighter plane of the Czechoslovak Air Force. A total of 566 airplanes, in five slightly different versions, were produced by 1939. It was a single-seat biplane with a fixed landing gear, whose metal frame was covered by fabric and partly also aluminium alloy, for example in the engine compartment. Its maximum speed was alleged to be between 353 and 410 km/h, depending on the airplane’s version. It was armed with 2 to 4 synchronised Vz. 30 7.92 mm machine guns, and under the wings it could carry a small number of bombs: 6 10-kilogram bombs or 4 20-kilogram ones. Although Avia B-534 was one of the most efficient biplanes of its time, it could not compete with the oncoming generation of monoplanes, such as the German Messerschmitt Bf 109.

The first mass-produced airplanes entered service in 1935. Their elegance soon made them popular with the citizens and the success of the Czechoslovak pilots at the air show in Zurich in 1937 also contributed to their popularity. During the Munich crisis, Czechoslovakia had approximately 380 Avia B-534 airplanes at its disposal, but most of them, along with the newly-produced aircraft, were used by Nazi Germany after its occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939. Only 81 were left in the air force of the newly-founded Czechoslovak state and as such participated in the border conflict with Hungary in 1939 and in the operation of the Slovak Expeditionary Army Group on the eastern front in 1941. In 1944 they were an important part of the resistance air force during the Slovak National Uprising. A total of 78 were bought by Bulgaria from Germany. These airplanes unsuccessfully fought the American bombers returning from their air raids on the Romanian oil fields in Ploiești. They were used for ground attacks as late as autumn 1944. The remaining Avia B-534 aircraft were used by Nazi Germany as trainers, with two airplanes used in experiments as potential carrier fighters for the Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier.