what is it?
The Avia BH-17 was a biplane fighter aircraft built in Czechoslovakia in 1924. It was a development of the BH-6 and BH-8, and work on the latter aircraft was cut short in favour of this one. Operational trials in 1924 revealed performance good enough for the Czechoslovak Air Force to place an order for 24 examples.
How to recognise it: 1 engine · biplane · 8.9 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 102 years ago, in 1924.
- Top speed is 1.8× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1924
- number built
- 26
- role
- fighter
- makers
- Avia
- engines
- 1× Skoda-built Hispano-Suiza 8Fb Vee-8
- length
- 6.9 m
- wingspan
- 8.9 m
- max take-off weight
- 1,155 kg
- top speed
- 235 km/h
- range
- 500 km
- ceiling
- 8,000 m
- wings
- biplane
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q1843832, Wikipedia: Avia BH-17 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.