Avia BH-26

The Avia BH-26 was a two seat armed reconnaissance aircraft built in Czechoslovakia in 1927.

It was a single bay unstaggered biplane with equal-span wings and a fixed tailskid undercarriage.

Both upper and lower wings featured long span ailerons, which were dynamically balanced by a small auxiliary airfoil mounted to the upper surface of the lower ailerons.

Its design was typical of this type of aircraft built during World War I and the years following, pilot and observer sat in tandem open cockpits with the observer armed with a machine gun on a ring mount.

As with many other Avia designs, the BH-26 originally had no fixed fin, only a rudder, but this was changed in service.

Specifications

Crew

2

Length

8.93 m (29 ft 4 in)

Wingspan

10.8 m (35 ft 5 in)

Height

3.35 m (11 ft 0 in)

Wing area

31 m2 (330 sq ft)

Empty weight

1,080 kg (2,381 lb)

Gross weight

1,760 kg (3,880 lb)

Fuel capacity

380 kg (840 lb) fuel and oil

Powerplant

1 × Walter-built Bristol Jupiter, 9 cylinder air cooled radial piston engine,

340 kW (450 hp)

Propellers

2 bladed fixed pitch propeller

Performance

Maximum speed

250 km/h (160 mph, 130 kn)

Stall speed

90 km/h (56 mph, 49 kn)

Range

530 km (330 mi, 290 nmi)

Service ceiling

7,500 m (24,600 ft)

Rate of climb

6.3 m/s (1,240 ft/min)

Time to altitude

5,000 m (16,000 ft) in 13 minutes 20 seconds

6,000 m (20,000 ft) in 17 minutes 30 seconds

7,000 m (23,000 ft) in 27 minutes

Wing loading

55.6 kg/m2 (11.4 lb/sq ft)

Power/mass

0.205 kW/kg (0.125 hp/lb)

Armament

Guns

2x fixed forward firing synchronized 7.7 mm Vickers machine guns in the forward fuselage upper decking

&

2 x 7.7 mm Lewis guns on a flexible mount in the rear cockpit.