055: Avia BH-7a
HM0055

In response to 1922 Czechoslovak Defence Ministry’s (MNO) competition to design a fighter around the new Hispano-Suiza 8Fb engine, the Avia company entered two parallel designs: a biplane BH-6 and parasol BH-7. Following the unsuccessful BH-3 monoplane, the BH-6 entry heralded Avia’s return to a conventional fighter design (this design line eventually culminated with the famous BH-21). Yet the designers still believed in a monoplane fighter configuration, hence the BH-7 entry. In the event, their vision was too ahead of its time and the BH-7 remained in the prototype stage. A second, slightly modified prototype was built for the national aviation competition (this was the BH-7b, hence the first version became BH-7a), but crashed during taxiing and never competed. BH-7a underwent extensive testing by the military and, following several crashes, was abandoned.