Author: Dušan Vrážel

In 1927, the Letov factory modified the Š-20 fighter plane of designer Alois Šmolík with a Škoda H-S 8Fb in-line engine for a Walter Jupiter radial engine (Ghone-Rhone license according to Bristol Jupiter) with an output of 480 HP (353 kW). This is how the unique Š-20J was created.

In the middle of 1920s our army had two main fighter planes – Letov Š-20 and Avia BH-21. Both manufacturers offered a trainer aircraft, which featured the main fuselage of the production aircraft, but with reduced weight and weaker engine Škoda HS 8Aa. Those trainers were Letov Š-21 and Avia BH-22 respectively. In the end, the army chose Avia, while Š-21 was produced in only two examples. The first Š-21 had a three-colour camouflage and was completely destroyed when its pilot Andrej Beneš couldn’t pull it out of the spin. The pilot survived thanks to the plane’s metal frame. Letov didn’t give up and built a second prototype (marked again as Š-21.1).

Avia BH-3 was a fighter plane designed by Pavel Beneš and Miroslav Hajn for Czechoslovakian Air Force and holds the position of one of the first monoplane aircraft ever put into serial production worldwide. Test pilots praised the plane’s speed and agility, however, the military pilots were less impressed, as they were used to much more stable biplanes which were easier to handle. The new Avia, on the other hand, required the pilot’s attention during every part of the flight and was difficult to land safely.

Little Aero A-18 called “Špaček” (Starling) was the first serial production fighter plane of Aero, a small new factory back then. One of the conditions set by MNO (Ministry of National Defence) was to use WW1 engines BMW IIIa with an output of 136 kW. It is not a lot of power, but A-18 was a small and light aircraft. Despite the small engine output, A-18 was capable of reaching a speed of 229 km/h and was capable of climbing up to 8000 meters.

František Novák, Josef Hubáček, and Petr Široký, three of our excellent aerial acrobats, first introduced themselves during an army airshow in the year 1936 on Prague-Kbely airfield. They were flying three specially camouflaged aircraft: Avia BA-122 OK-AVE, OK-VIM, and OK-VIL.
In the air, the group was always flying in such a formation, that the color scheme of their planes created the Czechoslovak flag, tricolor in order white-blue-red.