100 years of Czechoslovak aviation

T101FlyingThis year it has been just 100 years since the first take off of an aircraft in Czechoslovakia, done by Jan Kašpar. Czech Republic shall celebrate the 100 years of flying anniversary accordingly to its significance so the first week of June you will encounter aviation on every corner.

The crown of the celebration is the weekend of 5th and 6th June 2010. There will be a series of unique fly shows at the airport of Pardubice. 100 years of Czech aviation history will be introduced in a way of a broad space theatre play of nine linked acts. Based on true events the spectators will experiance perfect flash-backs to key moments of Czech aviation history.

Visit their website: http://100letaviatiky.cz/en/program/concept/

Part of the program will be the appearance of Tatra’s T101, Tatra’s record breaking aircraft.  In 1937, Tatra aeroplanes aroused public notice with international speed records in the light sport aeroplane category on closed triangular curcuit routes. Captain Cervinka obtained a number of records with Tatra T–001: solo over 100 km, 100 km with two persons, solo record of 500 km and the record on a 500 km route with two persons, all with the speed of 231 km/h. On the 16th March 1938, the Tatra T–101 was flown by Major K. Brazda to several height records in the category of light multi-seat sport aeroplanes with engine capacity up to 4 litres. Firstly, a height of 7,113 m was reached, breaking the international record for two-seat aeroplanes and at the same time an old height record for single seat aeroplanes was broken as well. Subsequently, the aeroplane reached the height of 7,470 m, which was 1000 m over the existing acknowledged height record. In the same year, a record distance flight direct from Prague to Al-Khartoum was made, covering some 4,340 km without any stops. Learn more about this record flight.

The  T101 replica with an original 1938 engine, was  finished in 2008 (see http://www.aviators.cz/en/Tatra-T-101.2-airplane and http://www.airplane-pictures.net/news.php?p=328)