The Avia B.35 ( RLM designation Av-35) was a

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

built in Czechoslovakia shortly before World War II.

Design and development

The B.35 was designed to meet a 1935 requirement by the Czechoslovakian Air Force for a replacement for their B-534 fighter

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

s. The B.35 was an elegant, low-wing monoplane with an elliptical wing. The fuselage was constructed from welded steel tube, covered in metal ahead of and including the

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

and fabric aft of the cockpit, while the wing was of entirely wooden construction. Rather anachronistically, the Air Force specified a fixed

tailwheel undercarriage Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynami ...

for the aircraft, in the hope that this would speed development, as the mechanism for retracting the undercarriage was not yet available. The first prototype, the B-35/1, displayed excellent flying characteristics and high speed and was originally powered by a Hispano-Suiza 12Ydrs

piston engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...

. The powerplant was later changed to a 12Ycrs with an identical power output, but with provision for an

autocannon An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber ( or more) armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bull ...

to be fitted between the cylinder banks to fire through the propeller hub. Testing continued until 22 November 1938, when the aircraft was destroyed in a crash that killed the Military Technical and Aeronautical Institute test pilot Arnošt Kavalec. Nevertheless, a second prototype, B-35/2, was already reaching completion, and was fitted with redesigned ailerons and flaps. It first flew on 30 December with testing beginning in earnest in February 1939. A preproduction series of ten aircraft was ordered, but before these could be built, Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in March 1939. Development however was resumed under German control, with the substantially revised B.35/3 flying in August 1939. The elliptical leading edges of the wings had been replaced with straight ones, and an outward-retracting main undercarriage was fitted. This prototype was the first to actually carry its intended armament. With German markings and the registration ''D-IBPP'', it was displayed at the '' Salon de l'Aéronautique'' in Brussels, where enough interest was generated to spur development of an improved version of the aircraft as the B.135.

Variants

* B-35/1: First prototype. * B-35/2: Second prototype. * B-35/3: Third prototype.

Specifications (B.35/1)

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * . * Green, William. ''War Planes of the Second World War, Fighters, Volume One''. London: Macdonald & Co.(Publishers) Ltd., 1960 (10th impression 1972). . * Taylor, Michael J. H. ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation''. London: Studio Editions, 1989. * ''World Aircraft Information Files''. London: Bright Star Publishing. (pages=File 889 Sheet 85)

External links

Article from Flying Review International, April 1968

Text and photographs of accident of B.35/1
{{Avia aircraft Low-wing aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft 1930s Czechoslovakian fighter aircraft B.035 Aircraft first flown in 1938

Design and development

Variants

Specifications (B.35/1)

See also

References

External links