What aircraft could be towed by a car?

Short answer

It was the Avia BH-12, not the BH-9: this 1924 Czechoslovak two-seat sport aircraft, the final development of the BH-9 family, had a redesigned wing that could fold to allow the aircraft to be towed by road. The wing pivoted on its spar and lay flat against the sides of the fuselage.

Published: November 2, 2026 · Updated: November 2, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

Ryan PT-22A Recruit

The wing that folded against the fuselage

The Avia BH-12 was a two-seat sport aircraft built in Czechoslovakia in 1924 and the final development of the Avia BH-9 family, whose roots lay in Avia's first design, the BH-1. It was a braced low-wing monoplane intended for sport flying and carried a redesigned wing that could fold to allow the aircraft to be towed by road. The wing pivoted around its spar and then folded back, flat against the sides of the fuselage. Its empty weight was 320 kg (705 lb) and its maximum speed was 150 km/h (94 mph, 82 kn).

The BH-9 it derived from

The Avia BH-9 was a two-seat sport aircraft built in Czechoslovakia in 1923, based on the BH-5. Like other developments in the BH-1 lineage, it was a braced low-wing monoplane that carried the pilot and passenger in tandem, in open cockpits. The Czechoslovak Army took an interest in it as a trainer and liaison aircraft, and ordered ten examples under the designation B.9.

Races and long-distance flights

A B.9 won the 1925 Coppa d'Italia air race, and the following year one flew a 1,800 km (1,100 mi) Prague-Paris-Prague circuit at an average speed of 131.2 km/h (82 mph).