| BH-6 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Role | Fighter |
| Manufacturer | Avia |
| Designer | Pavel Beneš and Miroslav Hajn |
| First flight | 1923 |
| Number built | 1 |
The Avia BH-6 was a prototype fighter aircraft built in Czechoslovakia in 1923. It was a single-bay biplane of unusual configuration, developed in tandem with the BH-7, which shared its fuselage and tail design.
The BH-6 had wings of unequal span, but unusually, the top wing was the shorter of the two, and while it was braced to the bottom wing with a single I-strut on either side, these sloped inwards from bottom to top. Finally, the top wing was attached to the fuselage not by a set of cabane struts, but by a single large pylon.
The BH-6 crashed early in its test programme, and when the related BH-7 did also, both implementations of this design were abandoned.
General characteristics
Performance
Armament
Related development
The Avia BH-4 was a prototype fighter aircraft built in Czechoslovakia in 1922. It was a development of the BH-3 fitted with a Hispano-Suiza 8 engine in an attempt to improve the aircraft's performance. To accommodate the new powerplant, the forward fuselage was considerably redesigned, and the structure in general and undercarriage in particular were strengthened. Performance was found to be only marginally better than the BH-3, and development was quickly abandoned.
The Avia BH-7 was a prototype fighter aircraft built in Czechoslovakia in 1923. It was a parasol-wing monoplane developed in tandem with, and as an alternative to the BH-6, which shared its fuselage and tail design. Like the BH-6, the BH-7 was involved in a number of serious crashes during its test programme, which led to its abandonment as a fighter. Undaunted, however, Avia used the design as the basis for a racing aircraft, shortening the wingspan by 1.4 m, fairing the wing directly onto the top of the fuselage and dispensing with the cabane struts. This revised version was designated BH-7B and the fighter (retrospectively) as the BH-7A. When the design proved no more successful as a racer, it was finally put to rest.
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