BILL EWING COLLECTION
No. 12518. Avia B 35.2 Czechoslovakian Air Force
Photograph from Musée de l'Air

Avia B 35.2

08/31/2014. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "To provide a potential successor to the B 534 in service with the Czechoslovak air arm, the Ministry of National Defense prepared an outline requirement for a single-seat fighter monoplane in late 1935. To meet this requirement, Ing. František Novotný designed the B 35 for which a two-prototype contract was awarded in 1936. The B 35 was of mixed construction, with wooden wings covered by plywood bonded to an outer duralumin skin - a stressed skinning similar to Plymax that was being used for the Morane-Saulnier MS 405 - and a welded steel-tube fuselage with duralumin paneling forward and fabric skinning aft.

With an Hispano-Suiza 12Ydrs rated at 860 hp at 13,125 ft (4,000 m), the first prototype, the B 35.1, flew on September 28, 1938. It was reengined with a 12Ycrs which, similarly rated to the 12Ydrs, made provision for a 0.787 in (20 mm) cannon in the Vee of the cylinders, but it crashed on November 21, being replaced in the test program on December 30, 1938 by the above pictured second prototype, the B 35.2. This featured some increase in fuselage cross section, smaller ailerons and extended flaps.

Work continued after the German annexation of Bohemia and Moravia, a third prototype, the B 35.3, flying on June 26, 1939. This had a retractable landing gear, a non-elliptical wing leading edge and an armament of a 0.787 in (20 mm) cannon and two 0.312 in (7.92 mm) machine guns. Prior to the commencement of flight test, the B 35.3 was exhibited at the Salon de l'Aéronautique in Brussels as the Avia B 135."


Created August 31, 2014