Avia (aircraft manufacturer)
Avia is a former Czechoslovak aircraft manufacturer . In 1992 the commercial vehicle division was spun off as AVIA as . The company is now called AVIA Propeller and is geared towards the production of the same.
history
Avia was founded in 1919 as an aircraft repair shop on the site of a former sugar factory in Vysočany (Prague) by Pavel Beneš and Miroslav Hajn. Shortly thereafter, Jaroslav František Koch and Václav Malý (commercial director) took part in the management. The first design was the low- wing Exprevit from 1920, which was further developed into the Avia BH-1 (BH stands for Beneš / Hajn) and, with its stripped main wing, already had a typical design feature of the Avia developments of the 1920s. Various civil and military aircraft were produced over the next ten years . Best-known types of this period are the travel and training aircraft Avia BH-9 of 1923, the biplane - fighter Avia BH-21 from 1925 as well as the commercial aircraft Avia BH-25 in 1926, the route Prague - Rotterdam beflog. The last model of the designers Beneš and Hajn was the Avia BH-33 fighter plane from 1927, which was also manufactured under license in Poland .
In 1921 the company was sold to millionaire Miloš Bondy, the company name changed to Avia, Miloš Bondy a s. He sold it to the Škoda Group in 1928/1929 . Jaroslav František Koch moved to Praga in motorcycle development. Pavel Beneš and Miroslav Hajn switched to ČKD-Praga in 1930/1931 and continued to develop aircraft there. František Novotný became the new chief designer. Under his leadership, the most popular Czechoslovak aircraft, the Avia B-534 , was built in 1933 with 566 units . Together with Aero , Avia built 74 copies of the French bomber Bloch MB.200 from 1936/37 under license as the Aero MB.200. A year later, the ČSR bought a few copies of the Soviet Tupolev SB-2 bomber and the license rights, but before Avia could start production under the name Avia B-71, Czechoslovakia was occupied by the German Reich . The existing machines were taken over by the German Air Force and a few copies were made (66 in total).
In the course of its long company history, Avia has also repeatedly taken on the license production of foreign aircraft models. In the 1920s these were the French Farman F.60 "Goliath" (as Avia-Farman F.60 "Goliáš") and the Dutch types Fokker F.VIIb / 3m (as Avia-Fokker F.VIIb / 3m) and F.IX (as Avia-Fokker F.IX ). Foreign aircraft engines were also manufactured under license for many years , especially water-cooled V-engines from Hispano-Suiza ( HS 8 as Vr-30 and HS 12 as Vr-36).
During the occupation, Avia did not produce its own aircraft, only German models, such as the Ar 96 , the Bf 109 and parts for the air jet powered fighter Me 262 . Avia designers were also involved in the development of the world's first air jet propelled bomber, the Arado Ar 234 .
After the end of the war, the company was nationalized , renamed Avia Závody "Jiřího Dimitrova" (Avia-Werk Georgi Dimitrova ) and production resumed. German aircraft from the time of the occupation were built, such as the Ar 96 as Aero C-2, the Avia S-99 or Avia S-199 emerged from the Bf 109 and the Avia S-92 , which still emerged from the Me 262 was flown until 1957. In 1946, the Av-36 and Av-236 sports aircraft were also two of their own designs, but they did not go into series production. At the end of the 1940s, Soviet models were manufactured under license. For example, the Il-10 as the Avia B-33, the Il-14 as the Avia Av-14 and the MiG-19 as the Avia S-105 were built under license.
In 1946 Avia began producing truck and bus models. In 1963, aircraft construction ended at the Avia plant. Only a small part continued to work as a manufacturer of aircraft engines and as a supplier for aircraft spare parts , only to produce propellers in the aerospace sector from 1988 onwards .
Replica of the Avia BH-1
Avia B-534
Avia S-92
literature
- Hans-Joachim Mau: Czechoslovak aircraft from 1918 until today. Transpress, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-344-00121-3 .
- Václav Němeček: Československá letadla. Naše Vojsko, Prague 1968.
