Cars first

Praga was a car company long before it flew. Founded in 1907 as a venture between František Ringhoffer and the First Bohemian-Moravian Machine Works, it took its Latin name for Prague in 1909 and became famous for cars and trucks. In 1929 it merged with ČKD, one of Czechoslovakia’s largest engineering groups, and around 1929–30 ČKD opened an aircraft department under the Praga name at its Karlín works.

Beneš and Hajn change sides

Its talent came from a rival. When Avia was absorbed by Škoda in 1929, designers Pavel Beneš and Miroslav Hajn walked out, bringing engineers, foremen and workers with them. In 1931 they produced three aircraft at once: the BH-39 primary trainer, which became the most widely used military trainer in pre-war Czechoslovakia with 139 built; the BH-41 advanced trainer; and the BH-44 fighter, which lost to the Avia B-34 after a prototype crash killed its test pilot.

The Air Baby

After the duo left in 1932–33, Jaroslav Šlechta took over. His E-241 trainer sold 95, but his most charming design was the E.114 Air Baby of 1934, a two-seat wooden light aircraft with a 36 hp engine. About 275 were built, some under licence by Hills of Manchester as the Hillson Praga; one flew from Britain to South Africa in a record 16 days in 1936. War ended the aircraft business, but Praga survives today as a maker of karts and racing cars.

Fábricas

• Karlín works · Karlín, Prague — ČKD plant housing the Praga aircraft department

Pessoas

• Pavel Beneš · designer — Joined from Avia; left 1933
• Miroslav Hajn · designer — Joined from Avia; left for Letov in 1932
• Jaroslav Šlechta · designer — E.114 Air Baby and E-241

Recordes e pioneirismos

• E.115: class speed record of 171.5 km/h over 100 km, 1938
• UK to South Africa in 16 days 4.5 hours in an E.114, May 1936