Aero A.18

Today we start this friday with the first successfully mass-produced Czechoslovak fighter, the Aero A.18.

Being an evolution of the Ae.04, the A.18 was a fighter designed also by Antonin Vlasák and Antonín Husník in order to fullfil an order coming from the Czechoslavk Army.

It was powered by the 185hp BMW IIIa engine that had already been employed in the previous Ae.04. and was armed by a pair of 7,92 (0,303) synchronized Vickers machine-guns.
It also retained the mixed construction of its predecessors but it featured a different upper wing and strut configuration.

The prototype flew for the first time in March 1923 and 20 airplanes were ordered in order to serve with the Czechoslovak Army Air Force over the other two candidates from Aero, the A.19 and the A.20 which, despite of what their names may suggest, they were developed in parallel to the A.18.

It was pretended for the A.18 stablish three national altitude records and two racing sub-variants were also made, the A.18B and the A.18C, in order to participate in the Czech Aero Club annual race which they won.

Sources:
1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_A.18
2. The Complete book of Fighters

Aero Ae.04

We keep going with the early Czechoslovak fighters and now it comes the turn for the Aero Ae.04.

The Aero Ae.04 was a Czechoslovak fighter of 1921. It was a development of the previous Ae.02 and it didn't attract any purchase order and it only could fly in prototype form.

After testing the Ae.02, Vlasák and Husník revised the basic design of the airplane in order to acommodate it to the requirements of the Czechoslovak army in order to fit it with the 185hp BMW IIIa six-cylinder engine because a license to produce that engine had been adquired.

It flew for the first time in 1921 and the prototype stablished a new national altitude record when it reached 6361m high. After such achievement, it was displayed at the 2nd international aircraft exhibition in Prague.

Even if it held most of the fuselage features of the Ae.02, the external fuel tank of that one was transfered back into the fuselage, in order to make it safer and initialy it flew with an automobile style radiator, however, after some development, it was changed into a chin-type radiator.

Only one prototype was made and the development continued towards the A.18.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Ae_04
2. The complete book of fighters

Aero A.02

With this airplane, we include a new nation.

The Aero Ae.02 was the first fighter designed in Czechoslovakia, it was designed by Antonin Vlásak and Antonin Husnik and it was built by the Aero company.

It was an orthodox biplane design with I-type interplane struts and ailerons on the upper wing only.  It was made of mixed construction with fabric-covered wooden wings and a dural-frame fuselage.

It was powered by an V-type 220hp Hispano-Suiza HS 8Ba eight-cylinder engine with the peculiarity that the only fuel tank of the airplane was fitted between the main wheels of the undercarriage and that could be jettisoned by a quick-release mechanism. It was armed with a pair of 7,92mm Vickers Machine-guns.

It flew for the first time in 1920 and in 1921 ,piloted by Josef Novak, it won the silver club on the Czech aeroclub annual meeting. Even if the performance of the prototype was adequate for it's time, the Czechoslovak Army Air Force wasn't interested in buying it.

Sources: 
1. The complete book of fighters
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Ae_02