4 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Avia BH-33 L'Aéronautique July,1927: L'Aéronautique magazine· Public domain
- 2. Avia BH-33 L'Aéronautique June,1927: L'Aéronautique magazine· Public domain
- 3. Avia BH-33 L'Aéronautique June,1928: L'Aéronautique magazine· Public domain
- 4. Avia BH-33L L'Aérophile October,1929: L'Aérophile magazine· Public domain
what is it?
The Avia BH-33 was a biplane fighter aircraft built in Czechoslovakia in 1927. It was based on the BH-21J which demonstrated promising results by combining the original BH-21 airframe with a licence-built Bristol Jupiter radial engine. Other than the peculiar Avia hallmark of having an upper wing with a shorter span than the lower, it was utterly conventional, even featuring a tail fin for the first time in a Pavel Beneš and Miroslav Hajn design (previous aircraft had a rudder but no fin).
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · 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 99 years ago, in 1927.
- Top speed is 2.3× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1927-10-21
- number built
- —
- role
- fighter
- origin
- 🇨🇿 Czechoslovakia
- makers
- Avia
- engines
- 1× Škoda L / Jupiter VI
- length
- 7.2 m
- wingspan
- 8.9 m
- height
- 3.1 m
- max take-off weight
- 1,560 kg
- top speed
- 298 km/h
- cruise speed
- 280 km/h
- range
- 450 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 Q787356, Wikipedia: Avia BH-33 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.