Avia B-534

Template:Infobox Aircraft The Avia B-534 is a Czechoslovakian biplane. It is considered one of the last planes built with a classic biplane design.

The Avia B-534 was designed as a single engine biplane fighter with a trim license-built Hispano-Suiza inline power plant, enclosed cockpit and fixed landing gear. Four 7.92 mm machine guns were placed in the sides of the fuselage, firing through the propeller. The nations of the 1930s were very reluctant to abandon the maneuverability of biplanes for the speed of monoplanes, even in the face of new and better technology. The confidence 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 weak wings and fixed landing gear bearing on the fuselage were also less expensive to manufacture.

Artist's rendering of the B-534

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. Britain 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 Curtis Hawk series, with the Seversky P-35 and Curtis P-36 just about to fly prototypes. First deliveries 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, the German Bf-109 had outclassed everything but the Japanese Zero, the first marks of the British Spitfire, and the American P-36. Four types were produced during the B-534s 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 canon 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 wings in the air, the Czechlosovakians decided to use a third machine gun in the nose only weeks before the German partition. Only three machines were completed for the Czech air force, and the remaining production block was finished for the Germans.

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 Luftwaffe during the invasion of Poland in September 1939. The same squadrons served with the Germans in the Ukraine during the summer of 1941, with one squadron returning in 1942 for anti-partisan duty. Obsolescence, lack of spare parts and the old Czech air force’s curious fuel mixture (BiBoLi, or some other mix of alcohol, benzol and petrol) finally regulated 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 left over planes, including several B-534s at Tri Duby airfield. On 2 September 1944, Master Sergeant Frantisek Cyprich, just after testing a repaired B-534, down a Ju-52 transport under Hungarian colors on its way to a base in Poland. This was at once the first aerial victory for the Uprising and the last recorded biplane victory of the 20th century. As the Slovak National Uprising was desperate for anything with wings, Sergeant Cyprich was cussed out by his colonel for not trying to force the 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 bombers returning from the raid on Ploieşti. Hits were scored but no B-24s were shot down, and some of the damaged B-534s 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, 6 B-534s blundered into a brief melee with 6 German Bf-109s at low altitude. One B-534 was lost, but the Germans quickly broke off, wary of the B-534's maneuverability and the low altitude.

Germany used most of the airframes confiscated from the Czechs. They 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.

One B-534 was captured by the Hungarians during the border war in 1938 and tested for a period. A Greek businessman bought two B-534s and presented them to the Greek government. They were simply lost in the chaos of 1941. Finally, eight or so, more or less, B-534s were supposedly used by the Soviets in a secret NKVD squadron to shadow flights of German aircraft.

Specifications (B-534 IV)

Data from The Great Planes

General characteristics

• Crew: 1

Performance Armament

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

Operators

• Czechoslovakia
• Germany
• Slovakia
• Bulgaria (100+ planes)

References

• Vraný, Jirí (1994). Avia B-534. Praha: MBI. ISBN 80-901263-6-7.
• Gustavsson, Håkan. "Avia B-534 and Avia Bk-534". Retrieved 2006-07-05.

Related content

Related development

• Avia B-34

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

• Fiat CR.32
• Gloster Gladiator
• Polikarpov I-15

Related lists

• List of fighter aircraft