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POSTER 2015, PRAGUE MAY 14 1
Establishment and development of airplanes production in Czechoslovakia
Tomas Havel
Dept. of Management, Masaryk Institute of Advance Studies of Czech Technical University in Prague, Kolejni 2637/2a, 160 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic
Abstract. This article briefly introduces a reader to an origin and development of airplane manufacturing in Czechoslovakia.
In October of 1918, an independent Czechoslovakia was established, and supported by president, T. G. Masaryk an aircraft industry originated, which had previously been purposely located away from the Bohemian region by the Austro Hungarian government, which had confiscated entire aircraft of our pioneers of aeronautics after the outbreak of the First World War. At the same time, the world superpowers were mass manufacturing hundreds of aircraft.
Due to government support, advanced mechanical industry, as well as sustained work of many professionals, famous aircraft manufacturing companies AERO, AVIA, LETOV, PRAGA had been established, and produced military, training, as well as transportation aircraft. Less known manufacturers with lesser serial production included LETADLA TATRA, ZLINSKA LETADLA, Chocen’s BENES-MRAZ factory, and LETADLA PRIKRYL-BLECHA. Aviation industry cooperated with other manufacturers of engines, propellers, aviation instruments, tires, etc.
Because of rapid development of aviation and transition from wooden to fully metallic constructions, new requirements were made for materials and specialized workers. For that reason Military Aviation Study Institute (Vojensky letecky ustav studijni) was founded and new study areas specializing in aviation were established at technical high schools and colleges.
Key words Aviation development, aviation manufacturing, aviation manufacturers, machine industry, military aviation, civilian aviation.
1. Development of aviation Until the foundation of independent
Czechoslovakia there was no aviation manufacturing in its
region with the exception of plane engine manufacturing which was scattered at several factories during the First World War and a small German-owned repair shop for military planes, Al-Ma in Prague. Austro-Hungarian army owned a reserve airport in Cheb and warehouse for discarded airplanes nearby.
After the independent state had been founded this aviation machinery was commissioned shortly by Letecky sbor (Aviation Corps) led by Jindrich Kostrba. The first pieces of the commissioned airplanes were repaired at the Al-Ma shops and our military airforce was soon expanded by pilots from our foreign army who had been piloting Austrian planes.
France provided the Republic of Czechoslovakia with 115 aviation aircrafts and several planes flew from Germany as a means of war reparations. The military airforce had expanded unbelievably and during mobilization prior to World War II it had 1 514 planes and six aviation regiments. [1]
The majority of military aircraft was produced domestically. It was the army that was mostly responsible for the expansion of aviation manufacturing and was the major customer, further requests for domestic airplanes came from Masarykova letecka liga (Masaryk’s Aviation League) MLL, aviation clubs and developing airlines. Newly established airlines providing domestic air transportation included first Prague’s aviation company FALCO, first Czech aviation company IKARUS and later established large airlines: French airline CIDNA, Ceskoslovenske statni aerolinie (Czechoslovak state airlines) CSA, and Ceskoslovenska letecka spolecnost (Czechoslovak aviation company) provided international air transportation. [3]
2. Establishment and development of aviation manufacturing
The desire of the Czechoslovak government to have its own aviation industry and to become independent from foreign aviation manufacturing was a good choice as it was shortly found that the domestic manufacturers reached comparable quality. LETOV, founded in 1918 by a defense
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ministry, became the oldest aircraft manufacturer followed by companies with private capital AERO and AVIA, founded in 1919 and the same year the PRIKRYL-BLECHA company was established. In 1930 the aviation manufacturing began at CKD-PRAGA followed in 1933 by LETADLA ZLIN company origination and a year later the production began in LETADLA TATRA. The youngest company became BENES-MRAZ in 1935.
Aviation manufacturers cooperated throughout the machine industry. The propeller manufacturing was almost exquisitely ensured by Letov company. Aircraft engines were supplied by companies Praga, Walter, Laurin a Klement, Skoda, Avia, Tatra Koprivnice, Zlinska letecka a.s., ORION-Vilem Michl, JAWA, JPK-20-Josef Pejsek and ZOD-Ceskoslovenska zbrojovka in Brno. [1]
Foundation of Vojensky letecky ustav studijni (VLUS) (Military Aviation Study Institute) in 1922 became an important event in a development of aviation manufacturing. An aerodynamic tunnel was built in VLUS in 1928 where a broad spectrum of entire airplanes testing took place. Based on expanding aviation manufacturing the companies started to need qualified workplace base. CVUT in Prague organized a postgraduate course in aviation from 1929. Later Vysoka skola technicka (Polytechnic University) in Brno started aviation specialization. Polytechnic high-schools did not stay behind with aviation education either. [3]
2.1 LETOV
Temporary place Letov in Prague-Kbely
State-owned company LETOV was founded by Ministry of National Defense (MNO) in Prague’s part of Holesovice in the former aircraft repair shop Al-Ma in 1918. The space was not sufficient for the production capacity and the company later moved to Kbely. Setnik Adamec (setnik was a rank of today’s captain) was a commander of the company. The employees first consisted of the old monarchy’s air force members and other soldiers who returned home from First World War. The company at its origin was accumulating and repairing military airplanes with the goal of ensuring a material base for the MNO.
Thanks to the previously mentioned generous gift of 115 airplanes from France’s war oversupplies, the new political representation faced a difficult decision to either order new
machines from France as a way of repayment, or to start a serial domestic production of military airplanes in Letov. The decision was made to initiate a domestic aviation industry. Under the leadership of the head designer Alois Smolik the first mass-produced all-wooden reconessaince and bombardment biplane Sm-1 was created. Its quality persuaded MNO to order 50 planes in 1920. This order brought Letov both a prospect of further development, as well as concern, as they had no experience with serial production of this magnitude. [1] The planes were gradually developing from wooden to metal covered by cloth and ultimately full metal. Due to an unusual talent of Alois Smolik the company developed 36 prototypes of military and civilian aircraft, with 18 of them serially manufactured until the Nazi occupation.
2.2 AERO AERO Company was officially
founded by JUDr. Vladimir Kabes in Prague – Bubenec on January 10th, 1919. Despite initial difficulties, his investment later turned out to be very advantageous as AERO rapidly expanded, and in between the world wars became a respected domestic aviation company, both in the number of employees and the number of produced airplanes. The factory, besides its own production, also focused on the manufacturing of licensed products. They were the first licensed manufacturers of the Letov S-10, as Letov had not had enough capacity to satisfy demand. The next licensed production was that of French full metal bombarder MB 200 and British transporter De Havilland DH-50. This manufacturing had brought in enough capital, and based on airplane Hansa-Brandenburg B-1 AERO began producing type A-1. These commissions enabled the company to initiate its own financially demanding development of prototypes. The AERO factory holds several primacies in the history of Czechoslovak aviation. They were the first to develop a fighter jet, a large transportation aircraft, hydroplane, and the first to begin twin-engine aircraft production. From its establishment until 1938 Aero produced 31 types of military and civilian airplanes. [1] During an economic downturn, the factory did not have work for all its employees and between 1929-1951 expanded to quantitatively almost equal automobile production.
New building AERO´s factory in Prague-Vysocany in 1924
2.3 AVIA Engineer Pavel Benes with Vaclav
Maly launched AVIA on June 19th, 1919. Later engineer Miroslav Hajn and J. F. Koch became
POSTER 2015, PRAGUE MAY 14 3
partners of the company as well. The company began working within sugar refinery in Praha –Vysocany as an aircraft repair and manufacturing shop. In the beginning they provided carpentry work and made propellers. They aimed to produce an aircraft of their own progressive design, which they managed a year later. The all-wood motor-powered airplane BH-Exp took off and immediately stirred an interest of professionals as well as amateurs. It was designed as a first single-winged monoplane with a thick wing profile.
Fuselage BH-Exp and his weight
Due to its flight characteristics the professional public understood that it brought a true breakthrough at the area of airplane construction and in 1923 MNO ordered 10 planes with the type designation BH-3. [4] During the same year the AVIA factory was sold to the Bondy brothers, who sold it to SKODA Concern in 1926. This step proved useful for the factory as SKODA invested large capital into AVIA, and built new manufacturing space in Prague-Letnany in 1929. The design department of Benes and Hajn was expanded by engineer Novotny, engineer Dr. Nebesar, and engineer Adar. Due to its strong development base, AVIA received substantial financial rewards from its licensing rights sold to foreign manufacturers. Both chief designers and former company founders, engineers Benes and Hajn left the company after disputes with colleagues for CKD-PRAGA. Same as the competing aircraft factories, in 1925 AVIA also began license manufacturing, which was strongly supported by a status of SKODA Concern and its foreign contacts. From its foundation until 1938, AVIA factory mass produced 46 types of military and civilian aircrafts of its own licensed design. [1]
2.4 PRIKRYL-BLECHA AIRPLANES
In the same year as AERO and AVIA, the PRIKRYL-BLECHA Company was founded in Prague-Vinohrady. Both partners were interested in serial production of aircrafts but unfortunately neither made it to a serial manufacturing. Theirs was rather a small shop in a basement of an apartment house. Both partners were huge aviation enthusiasts and in the beginning were repairing damaged airplanes. They were doing well and started an airplane repair company called ARDEA. They introduced their first prototype PB-1 at the 2nd International Aviation Exhibition in Prague in 1921. It was a fully wooden monoplane which had not launched from the ground yet. The 1921 winter was extremely severe and despite numerous attempts the plane never took off due to freezing temperatures. The prototype PB-1 was then stored at the
ARDEA repair shop site which caught fire, and the airplane burned along with all the other planes awaiting repairs. The partners were financially damaged but did not give up. Until 1934, when the company came to an end, they produced seven prototypes. The testing flights of all the prototypes never succeeded due to some technical difficulty or, in worse cases, due to plane crashes. [3]
2.5 CKD-PRAGA In March of 1930 in the PRAGA
factory in Prague-Karlin, a department for development and manufacturing of aircraft was founded within the industrial concern of Ceskomoravska Kolben-Danek (CKD). Until then PRAGA had concentrated only on automobile production. Engineers Benes and Hajn became chief designers, and with them other designers, foremen, and workers came from AVIA. PRAGA was in a difficult position due to strong competition. Because of restrictions from MNO, which preferred the state owned LETOV with orders, PRAGA focused on production of smaller civilian and training airplanes. [1] In the beginning of the thirties, PRAGA did not have much work commissioned, and in 1932 engineer Hajn left for Letov. Three years later engineer Benes started another company. There work was taken over by engineer Slechta who came to PRAGA from LETOV. Paradoxically, during the second half of the thirties when society became afraid of the expanding Nazi Germany, the army previously without much interest in the PRAGA planes, started to use mainly the type E-39 for military pilot training in aviation clubs. The aviation company CKD-Praga from its foundation until 1938 manufactured serially 5 types of planes. [4]
2.6 ZLIN AIRPLANES
Racing and courier Zlín Z-XIII
Zlinska letecka spolecnost (Zlin Aviation Company) was founded in Otrokovice in 1933 with local BATA Company holding the majority of shares. Despite unsupportive attitudes of the government officials who did not want to further expand the aviation industry because of lack of employment in other local factories, the company launched from a local small shop repairing unpowered aircraft where enthusiasts from MLL met. [5] The factory first focused on serial production of unpowered aircrafts and one year later J. A. Bata initiated serial production of powered aircraft. The most famous type became the Z-XII,
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and 201 planes were manufactured as well. The ownership of several foreign-manufactured airplanes by J. A. Bata became very useful as designers learned new information from these machines. From its launch, Zlinska letecka spolecnost, a.s. serially manufactured 9 types of training unpowered gliders and 7 types of training powered airplanes. [1] Bata’s dream was to achieve in airplane manufacturing the same success that he achieved in shoe production. However, this dream was soon thwarted by the Nazi occupation.
2.7 TATRA AIRPLANES The leadership of industrial concern
Ringhoffer-Tatra decided to manufacture its own airplanes in 1934. They had their own underemployed workers as well as a sufficient materials base. The company had only repaired airplanes until an arrival of the chief designer engineer Karel Tomas from Letov. Engineer Tomas quickly assembled a team of professionals who began aircraft production. The leadership decided for licensed manufacturing of airplane Bucker Bu 131 Jungmann specializing in aerobatics, and it was produced as TATRA 13-T 131 for the total of 35 planes. [3] The factory was also producing aircraft engines, and 3 airplane prototypes were developed, the most famous of which being the T-101, which in a one-seater version reached a world record of 7470 meters. Another world record was reached by a long-distance flight between Prague and Chartum in the total length of 4340 kilometers. This hopeful aircraft manufacturing came to the end by the Nazi occupation. [1]
Sports Tatra T-201
2.8 BENES-MRAZ In 1935 engineer Benes left
CKD-PRAGA with a goal of starting his own business. He succeeded, and contracted with engineer Mraz, who was producing refrigeration equipment out of Chocen. With great enthusiasm, the aircraft production company BENES-MRAZ was founded on April 1st, 1935. In humble conditions they set a goal to serially produce training and small civilian sport airplanes. The choice was right as they later found out. As the world economic crisis was ending, the sport of aviation was resurrecting itself and, because of the concerns about the Nazi Germany, MNO supported aviation training which produced future army pilots. Army pilots found the training on the small and nimble machines very helpful. The first serially manufactured airplane was
type Be-60, which was ordered by MNO, and 19 planes were delivered to aviation clubs and MLL. During its short existence until the occupation, the BENES-MRAZ Company serially produced 16 types of airplanes. [3]
Engineers first Czechoslovak airplanes from left: Alois Smolik, Miroslav Hajn, Antonin Husnik and Pavel Benes.
Acknowledgements Research described in the paper was supervised by
PhDr. Nikolaj Savicky, Ph.D. Supervisor MUVS CTU in Prague and supported by the CTU Students Grant Competition under grant No. SGS15/123/OHK5/1T/32
References [1] V. Nemecek: Ceskoslovenská letadla I, Praha 1983
[2] V. Nemecek: Civilní letadla I, Praha 1983
[3] P. Kucera:Aero 1919-1999, Praha 1999
[4] J. Strejcek a kol.: Leta letaní, Praha 1979
[5] Z. Karnik: Ceske zeme v ere prvni republiky, dil prvni LIBRI 2001
About Author Author is external doctor student on Dept. of
Management of The Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies of Czech Technical University in Prague. He had studied Entrepreneurship and Commercial Engineering in Industry on Dept. of Management of The Masaryk Institute of Advanced Studies of Czech Technical University in Prague. He specializes in civil aviation, management of airlines, aviation history and sport aviation.
