Avia B-534

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Avia B.534

Avia B-534, 42nd letka
Type Fighter aircraft
Manufacturer Avia
Designed by František Novotný
Maiden flight 25 May 1933
Introduced 1935
Status Retired
Primary user Czechoslovakian Air Force
Number built 445

The Avia B.534 is a Czechoslovakian biplane produced during the period between the Great War and World War II. The B.534 is considered one of the last aircraft built with a classic biplane design.

Contents

[edit] Design and development

The Avia B.534 was designed as a single-engine biplane fighter with a license-built Hispano-Suiza inline powerplant, and fixed landing gear. Four 7.92mm machine guns were located in the sides of the fuselage, firing through the propeller. The air forces of the 1930s were reluctant to abandon the maneuverability of biplanes for the speed of monoplanes, even in the face of new and better technology. The success of the Soviet pilots with biplanes may have contributed to this reluctance; they were known to strip their aircraft of sliding canopies, preferring to have the wind in their faces. Aircraft with two fabric-covered wings and fixed landing gear were also less expensive to manufacture.

The first Avia B.534 prototype flew in late May 1933. More work followed and the first order for the Czechoslovakian air force was placed in mid-1934. At that time, the B.534 was well ahead of its contemporaries. The United Kingdom was still dependent on Hawker Furies, with the first Gloster Gladiators being produced at this time. The Soviet Union was placing its hope on its Polikarpov aircraft designs. The United States was still using descendants of the Curtiss Hawk series, with the Seversky P-35 and Curtiss P-36 just about to fly prototypes. First deliveries of the B-534 to the Czechoslovakian air force began in late 1935, and 445 or so had been completed by 1938.

The abrupt partition of Czechoslovakia in 1939 prevented the use of the Avia B.534 in combat by the nation that had produced it. By then, high performance monoplanes such as the German Messerschmitt Bf 109, Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire were raising the bar of fighter/interceptor standards. Four sub-types were produced during the B.534's production run, all with mostly minor improvements.

One major variation was introduced in this production run. The B.534 was designed to carry one 20 mm cannon firing through the nose and only two 7.92 mm machine guns to the sides. Developmental problems prevented the cannon from ever being used and, desperate to get more aircraft in the air, Avia decided to use a third machine gun in the nose only weeks before the German annexation of Czechoslovakia. Only three machines were completed for the Czech air force, and the remaining production block was finished for the Germans.

[edit] Operational history

The B.534 was first used in combat by the Slovak Air Arm. Germany took control of the “Czech” part of Czechoslovakia as Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, leaving the “Slovak” part, Slovakia, as a minor ally. Slovakia acquired some 80 B.534s and Bk.534s from the Czech air force and quickly had to use them against Hungary during the border war of 1939. Later, two squadrons of B.534s assisted the German Luftwaffe during the Invasion of Poland in September 1939. The same squadrons served with the Germans in Ukraine during summer 1941, with one squadron returning in 1942 for anti-partisan duty. Obsolescence, lack of spare parts and the old Czechoslovak air force’s curious fuel mixture (BiBoLi, or some other mix of alcohol, benzol and petrol) finally relegated the surviving B.534s to training duties.

This would have been the last of the B.534s in Slovak colors if not for the Slovak National Uprising of September-October 1944. The rest of the Slovak air assets did not turn-coat as expected and the leaders of the uprising were faced with using a rag-tag collection of leftover aircraft, including several B.534s at Tri Duby airfield. On 2 September 1944, Master Sergeant František Cyprich, just after testing a repaired B.534, downed a Junkers Ju 52 transport under Hungarian colors on its way to a base in occupied Poland. This was at once the first aerial victory for the Uprising and the last recorded biplane air-to-air victory. As the Slovak National Uprising was desperate for available aircraft, Sergeant Cyprich was derided by his colonel for not trying to force the Junkers Ju 52 to land and be captured instead. The last two B.534s at Tri Duby were burned as the base was evacuated on 25 October 1944.

Bulgaria bought 78 B.534s in 1939, well after the partition. The last batch of these aircraft arrived in March 1942. On 1 August 1943, seven of these aircraft were able to make two passes at American B-24 Liberator bombers returning from the raid on Ploieşti. Hits were scored but no B-24s were shot down and some of the B.534s that received damage in the combat, cracked up on landing. After the anti-German coup of 9 September 1944, Bulgaria switched sides overnight and its B.534s were often used in ground attacks against German units. On 10 September 1944, six B.534s were involved in a brief melee with six German Bf 109s at low altitude. One B.534 was lost, but the Germans quickly broke off, wary of the low altitude and the B.534's maneuverability.

[edit] Variants

  • B-534/1 : First prototype.
  • B-534/2 : Second prototype.
  • B-534-I : First production version.
  • B-534-II :
  • B-534-III :
  • B-534-IV :
  • Bk-534 :

[edit] Survivors

One B.534 replica is on display in Aviation Museum Prague-Kbely.

[edit] Operators

Flag of Bulgaria Bulgaria
Bulgarian Air Force operated between 48,[1] and 100 aircraft (though mostly the number 78[2] is named), which they called "Dogan" (Hunting Hawk).[3]
Flag of Croatia Croatia
An unknown number of Avia B-534 aircraft were supplied by the Germans.[1]
Flag of Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia
Flag of Germany Germany
The German Luftwaffe used most of the airframes confiscated from the Czechs. These aircraft served through the early years of the war as trainers, night fighters, glider tugs, and three were used to test carrier landing operations for the aborted Graf Zeppelin.[4]. The Germans had another use as well: B-534s also starred disguised as Polish fighters in a German propaganda film, "Kampfgeschwader Lützow".[5]
Flag of Greece Greece
A Greek businessman bought two B.534s and presented them to the Greek government. They were lost in the chaos of 1941.[6][1]
Flag of Hungary Hungary
One B.534 was captured by the Hungarians during the border war in 1939 and tested for a period, carrying the code HA-VAB,[7][2] later serialled G.192[8].
Flag of Romania Romania
Together with three DFS 230 gliders, Romania received an unknown number of Avia B-534 tugs according to one source.[2]
Flag of Slovakia Slovakia
Slovenské vzdušné zbrane (Slovak Air Force) operated several B.534s from Czechoslovakia.[9][10]
Flag of the Soviet Union Soviet Union
A number (eight is given in some sources) of B.534s were allegedly used by the Soviets in a secret NKVD squadron to shadow flights of German aircraft.[2]

[edit] Specifications (B-534 IV)

Data from The Great Planes[11]The Avia B.534[12]

General characteristics

  • Crew: 1
  • Length: 8.2 m (27 ft)
  • Wingspan: 9.4 m (31 ft)
  • Height: 3.1 m (10.2 ft)
  • Wing area: 23.5 m² (253 ft²)
  • Empty weight: 1,460 kg (3,220 lb)
  • Loaded weight: 1,985 kg (4,376 lb)
  • Max takeoff weight: 2,120 kg (4,680 lb)
  • Powerplant: 1× Hispano-Suiza 12Ycrs liquid-cooled V12, 620 kW (830 hp)

Performance

Armament

  • Guns: 4× 7.92 mm (0.312 in) machine guns
  • Bombs: 6× 20 kg (44 lb) bombs

[edit] See also

Related development

Comparable aircraft

Related lists

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c Krybus 1967, p. 10.
  2. ^ a b c d Vraný 1994, p. 45.
  3. ^ Vrany 1994, p. 34, 45-46.
  4. ^ Vrany 1994, p. 39, 44.
  5. ^ Krybus 1967, p.8.
  6. ^ Vraný 1994, p. 46.
  7. ^ Vraný 1991, backcover
  8. ^ Kudlička 2006, backcover.
  9. ^ Šumicrast 2003, p. 2-51.
  10. ^ Vraný 1994, p. 46-49.
  11. ^ Tagliaferri 2002
  12. ^ Krybus 1967

[edit] Bibliography

  • Green, William. War Planes of the Second World War, Fighters, Volume One. London: Macdonald & Co.(Publishers) Ltd., 1960. ISBN 0-356-01445-2.
  • Krybus, Josef. The Avia B.534 (Aircraft in Profile number 152). Leatherhead, Surrey, UK: Profile Publications Ltd., 1967. ISBN B000-7K11J-M.
  • Kudlička, Bohumil. Avia B.534 Czechoslovakian Fighter 1933-45. Praha, Czechia: CMK, 2006. ISBN 80-903778-0-7.
  • Šumicrast, Peter. "Avia B.34, B.534 a Bk.534, Slovenských Pilotov 1939-1944." HT model špeciál 905. Poprad, Slovakia: HT Model, 2003, ISSN 1335-3667.
  • Tagliaferri, Paul. "Avia B.534" The Great Planes, 3 June 2002. Retrieved: 5 July 2006.
  • Titz, Zdenek. Czechoslovakian Air Force, 1918-1970. Reading, Berkshire, UK: Osprey Publications Ltd., 1971. ISBN 0-85045-021-7.
  • Vraný, Jiří. Avia B.534. Praha, Czechoslovakia: AeroArchiv, 1991. ISBN 80-7030-114-7.
  • Vraný, Jiří. Avia B.534. Praha, Czech Republic: MBI, 1994. ISBN 80-901263-6-7.

[edit] External links


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