Pavel Beneš (14 June 1894 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

- 31 May 1956 in Prague) was a chief designer at

ČKD-Praga ČKD-Praga (Českomoravská-Kolben-Daněk Prague) was a Czechoslovakian aircraft manufacturer. The company was founded in 1915 as an engine manufacturing company, under the designation Praga. The company started designing aircraft in 1930–31 w ...

, one of the largest engineering companies in the former

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

and today's

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. Beneš was first a founder and chief designer at

Avia Avia Motors s.r.o. is a Czech automotive manufacturer. It was founded in 1919 as an aircraft maker, and diversified into trucks after 1945. As an aircraft maker it was notable for producing biplane fighter aircraft, especially the B-534. Avia ...

, along with Miroslav Hajn, in 1919. The two began repairing planes in a workshop within the complex of an old sugar factory in

. One year later, they designed their first two-seater plane, the

Avia BH-1 The Avia BH-1 was a two-seat sports plane built in Czechoslovakia in 1920. It was the first product of the Avia company, and it was originally designated BH-1 exp. The BH-1 was a low-wing braced monoplane of wooden construction, with tailskid ...

. From 1923 to 1925, the two developed the BH-7, BH-9, and BH-11 monoplanes, launching the era of biplane fighters. The BH-11 won the

Coppa d' Italia The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) is a United States federal law, located at (). The act, effective April 21, 2000, applies to the online collection of personal information by persons or entities under U.S. jur ...

prize. Three years later, their BH-21 fighter was considered one of the world's best planes. In 1930, Beneš and Hajn came to ČKD-Praga. The first aircraft they designed was the

Praga E-39 Praga E-39/BH-39 was a Czechoslovak trainer aircraft. History This aircraft was designed by Pavel Beneš and Miroslav Hajn, engineers at the Czech aviation company ČKD-Praga in 1931. It flew for the first time in June of that year. The bipla ...

in 1931. In April 1935, he joined

Jaroslav Mráz Jaroslav (also written as Yaroslav or Jarosław in other Slavic languages) is a Czech and Slovak first name, pagan in origin. There are several possible origins of the name Jaroslav. It is very likely that originally the two elements of the nam ...

to form the

Beneš-Mráz inž. P. Beneš a inž. J. Mráz, továrna na letadla was a Czechoslovak aircraft manufacturer of the 1930s. History Beneš-Mráz was established at Choceň by Pavel Beneš and Jaroslav Mráz on 1 Apr 1935 and manufactured a series of light a ...

aircraft factory in

Choceň Choceň (; german: Chotzen) is a town in Ústí nad Orlicí District in the Pardubice Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 8,500 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Březenice, Dvořisko, Hemže, Nová Ves, Plchůvky and Podráž ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benes, Pavel Czech aerospace engineers Aviation inventors Aerodynamicists Czechoslovak inventors 1894 births 1956 deaths Engineers from Prague Aircraft designers