page_title: Czechoslovak Air Force
section_title: Under the First Republic 1918–38
hierarchical_section_title: Czechoslovak Air Force / History / Under the First Republic 1918–38
caption_attribution_description: English: Czechoslovak Avia B-534 fighter aircraft, late variant. Čeština: Československý stíhací letoun Avia B-534 IV. verze.
context_page_description: The Czechoslovak Air Force or the Czechoslovak Army Air Force was the air force branch of the Czechoslovak Army formed in October 1918. The armed forces of Czechoslovakia ceased to exist on 31 December 1992. By the end of the year, all aircraft of the Czechoslovak Air Force were divided between the Czech Air Force and the Slovak Air Force.
context_section_description: When the First Czechoslovak Republic was founded in October 1918 it was landlocked and surrounded by potentially hostile neighbours. Its government realised the need for an air force, and quickly founded one with the motto "Our sea is in the air".
  From Austria-Hungary the new republic inherited only three military airfields and a handful of Hansa-Brandenburg aircraft. In the First World War few Czechs or Slovaks had served in the Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops or naval air corps, or in exile in the French Air Force or Imperial Russian Air Service.
  But Czechoslovakia inherited much of Austria-Hungary's manufacturing industry, and quickly developed an aircraft industry. At first it tended to build foreign designs of aircraft and aero engines under license. As the industry developed it designed more aircraft and engines of its own. Czechoslovak aircraft builders included Aero, Avia, Beneš-Mráz, Letov, Praga, Tatra and Zlin. Engine makers included ČKD, Walter and Škoda.
  Aero (Aero továrna letadel) was in the Vysočany quarter of Prague. Its mixed construction (wood, metal, and fabric covering) and all-metal aircraft were competitive in the early 1930s, but by 1938, only its MB.200 (a licensed Bloch design) was not totally obsolete.
  Avia (Avia akciová společnost pro průmysl letecký Škoda), a branch of the enormous Škoda Works (Škodovy závody) heavy machinery and military industrial enterprise, was different. Founded in 1919 in a former sugar refinery in the eastern Prague suburbs of Letňany and Čakovice, Avia made entire aeroplanes. Many of its engines were licensed Hispano-Suiza designs. It build the standard Czechoslovak fighter aircraft of the late 1930s, the B-534, of which a total 568 were built. The B-534 and its derivatives were among the last biplane fighters in operational use.
  The state-controlled Letov factory (Vojenská továrna na letadla Letov) was also in Letňany, where in the late 1930s it employed about 1,200 people. It built the Š-28 reconnaissance and army co-operation biplane, of which more than 470 were made. The entire airframe was welded together, not bolted or riveted. The Letov factory was the only Czechoslovak plant that made metal propellers.
  By the late 1930s Czechoslovakia's bomber aircraft were obsolescent and the speed with which Nazi Germany was becoming a threat did not give Czechoslovak manufacturers enough time to develop a new bomber of their own. So in 1937 the government bought Tupolev SB twin-engined medium bombers from the Soviet Union, plus a license to build more in Czechoslovakia as the Avia B-71. 60 Soviet-built SB bombers were delivered in April and May 1938. This was followed by Avia and Aero building 101 of the B-71 version.
  The training of air force recruits had developed from a course of several months in the 1920s to two years by the late 1930s. In 1936 Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring wrote "The Czechoslovak Air Force must be considered as one of the leading air forces as regards personnel, and, considering its limited financial possibilities, more than satisfactory with regard to material and equipment".
caption: Avia B-534 fighter
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