Avia BH-21
The Avia BH -21 was a Czechoslovakian biplane fighter aircraft from the second half of the 1920s. It was designed by Pavel Beneš and Miroslav Hajn.
History
It was created as a successor to the BH -17, which was built only in a small number of pieces, because it was difficult to fly. With the BH -21, this problem should be solved. There have been some changes; as the I- stems were replaced between the upper and lower wing by N- stems, improves forward visibility and installed another cooler. As with all fighters this time from the house of the Avia BH -21 received a slightly larger lower than upper wing.
The first flight took place in January 1925. Testing showed better performance compared to the BH- 17th The Czechoslovak Air Force ordered then a series of 137 aircraft, which they put under the military designation B -21 until the early 1930s into it.
The BH -21 took in 1925 successfully in an international competition in Belgium in part, what with Belgian company license agreements were concluded. 39 B-21 originated at SABCA and five more at SEGA.
A special version for racing competitions emerged in the spring of 1925 under the name BH- 21R. In contrast to the conventional BH- 21, this version had a more powerful Hispano -Suiza 8Fb with 400 hp and a special reed Levasseur propeller. In September of the same year the national speed race over 200 km was won with an average speed of 300.59 km / h with this type. An unarmed training version was designated BH- 22nd
An entity known as bra - 21J version was tested with a Bristol Jupiter radial engine. From this model, later the BH -33, which replaced in the Air Force, the BH -21 the early 1930s emerged.
Military use
- Belgian air component
- Czechoslovak Air Force