Avia B-534

The Avia B-534 is a Czechoslovak biplane fighter developed and manufactured by aviation company Avia. It was produced during the interwar period. The B-534 was perhaps one of the best-known Czechoslovak aircraft of the era. During 1932, work had commenced on the development of a new single-engined biplane fighter aircraft, the Avia B-34, which had been designed by aeronautical engineer František Novotný. During its development, various alternative engines were considered and trialled before eventually settling upon the licence-built Hispano-Suiza 12Y engine. Other improvements during the prototype stage included the adoption of an enclosed cockpit along with a revised tail and undercarriage arrangement. On 14 April 1934, the second prototype, while flown by test pilot Václav Kočí, successfully attained a Czechoslovak national speed record of 365.7 kilometres per hour (227.2 mph). Deliveries of aircraft to the Czechoslovak Air Force commenced in October 1935. Partially as a result of its impressive maneuvrability, as well as some operators continuing to maintain a preference for the established biplane configuration over the incoming generation of monoplane fighters that would soon prove to outperform them, the B-534 stayed in production for considerable time (1933–1939). During the late 1930s, Czechoslovakia sought to expand production of the type in response to German claims over the Sudetenland (the western border area of Czechoslovakia). Large numbers of the type saw combat with multiple nations during the course of the Second World War. While relatively ineffective in combat during the later stages of war due to its obsolescence, the type formed a sizeable proportion of several countries' military aviation components.