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  • Pre-war voiturette
  • Czechoslovakia
  • Four wheels
  • One door

Aero 10

Also known as Aero 500, Aero 10 HP, “Cinkač”, “Klingler”

Its only door was on the passenger’s side, it had no differential and it braked on the back wheels only, and its starter rang like a bell, which earned it the name Cinkač. Before it was even shown to the public, one had driven from Prague to Brest and back and won.

A maroon open two-seater with a chrome radiator, two headlamps and cream wire wheels on a pale floor.
Maroon Aero 10 HP roadster of 1930 at the Veletržní palác, Prague, in May 2008.Photo: Tony Hisgett, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

The spec plate

Aero 10

Aero 500 · Prague

Built
1929–⁠1932Shown at the Prague motor show in October 1929; to 1932, or 1933 by Czech Wikipedia
Country
CzechoslovakiaPrague-Vysočany
Maker
Aero, továrna letadelThe Prague aircraft maker, developing the Enka of Novotný and Kolanda
Engine
499 cc two-stroke singleWater-cooled, 85 × 88 mm
Power
10 PSAt 2,700 rpm
Length
3,200 mm1,190 mm wide, 1,460 mm high
Weight
460 kgThe open car; closed cars were heavier
Seats
2 to 4Two or three in the roadster, four in the sport and the saloon
Wheels
4Engine at the front, the rear wheels driven, with no differential
Price new
18,000 Kč1929, the price of a motorcycle and sidecar
Production
about 1,3601,360 or 1,359, by source
Top speed
70km/h70 km/h60–70 km/h by the Aero owners’ group

How big is it?

True proportion

3.20 m

It is 230 mm longer than a Fiat 500, about 1.8 adults laid end to end.

  • 1.19 m wide
  • 460 kg: about six adults
  • One door, on the passenger’s side
Drawn at true proportion. The track is 3.6 metres long; the adult stands at the same scale. The Peel P50 is the smallest production car, on every page for comparison.

The story

History

Aero was a Prague aircraft maker, and from 1929 to 1951 it also built cars, at Vysočany (see our aircraft makers page).1 It did not start from nothing. The engineer Břetislav Novotný had designed the Omega prototype, which Zbrojovka Brno built as the Disk from 1924, and then went into partnership with František Kolanda in Prague. From 1926 they built the Enka, named from the sound of their initials, N and K: a 499 cc two-stroke single of 10 PS, with one door and brakes on the rear wheels only. German Wikipedia says about 65 were built before production ended in 1929; the Aero owners’ group says about 60, in 1928. Aero took the design over and made the Aero 10 from it.231

A little car that looked grown-up

The Aero 10, also sold as the Aero 500, kept the Enka’s recipe. Its water-cooled single gave 10 PS at 2,700 rpm, and drove the rear wheels through three speeds and reverse, with no differential; the brakes, cable-operated, were on the rear wheels only.43 Early cars had a single door, on the passenger’s side.3 There were roadsters for two or three, a four-seat sport, a four-seat saloon, an imitation cabriolet, and open and closed vans.43 The car measured 3,200 mm (126 in), and the open version weighed 460 kg (1,014 lb). It did about 70 km/h (43 mph) and used some 5 litres per 100 km (56 mpg).43 Czech Wikipedia calls it technically a vozítko, a “little car”, that looked and behaved like a grown-up one.1 The starter’s ringing gave it its nicknames: Cinkač or Cililink in Czech, Klingler in German.43

It was shown at the Prague motor show in October 1929.4 At 18,000 Kč it cost the same as a motorcycle and sidecar.1 The roadster cost 18,800 Kč in 1931 and 16,600 Kč in 1934.3

Selling it by distance

Aero sold the car by driving it a long way (see racing and rallying). Before the show, Bohumil Turek and Antonín Nahodil drove the Prague–Paris–Brest–Prague star rally, 3,613 km (2,245 miles), and then Prague–Hamburg–Prague, 1,300 km more: 184 hours 35 minutes in all, at an average of 26.6 km/h (16.5 mph), and they won outright. Turek became head of Aero’s test department.4 In 1930 he drove the ADAC run from Berlin by way of Prague to Manzanares, in Spain, and back, averaging 48.8 km/h (30.3 mph), and won the small-car class; that year a works team took the make prize in the star rally to the Prague show, with the car that had been to Spain among them.4 In 1931, on the ADAC’s Berlin–Manzanares–Berlin, Turek won outright, ahead of Hans Stuck’s Mercedes-Benz, though whether he drove an Aero 10 or its new successor is not recorded.4 In 1932 the journalist František Alexander Elstner took one with two passengers more than 3,300 km (2,050 miles) to Albania and back, by way of Austria and Dalmatia.4

Successors

The Aero 662, or Aero 18, of 1931–⁠34 put a 662 cc twin of 18 PS into the Aero 10’s chassis and body, and from about late 1931 it had a door for the driver too; the Aero 1000, or Aero 20, followed in 1933.13 The Aero 10 itself ended in 1932, or in 1933 by Czech Wikipedia; about 1,360 were made.413 Aero was nationalised in the autumn of 1945 and its own car-making ended; from 1947 to 1951 it built the Jawa-designed Aero Minor II.1

Front view of a bright blue open two-seater with red wire wheels and Aero script on the grille, people around.
An Aero 500 of 1931, with its crew aboard, at a veteran car meeting in 2009.Photo: Jozef Kotulič, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Rear three-quarter view of a maroon two-seater with a spare wire wheel on its tail and a folded hood.
A 1930 Aero 10 roadster from behind, its spare wheel on the tail, in Prague in 2008.Photo: Tony Hisgett, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Front view of a red roadster with large headlamps, race number 84 and plate 1AE 2860 on tarmac.
The successor, an Aero 662 roadster, at Pražské legendy in Prague in 2023.Photo: Ltosnar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Pictures

More photographs, old and new

The car 4

  • A red open two-seater with cream wire wheels on gravel beside an Aero 10 HP information panel. Opens a larger view

    1 Red Aero 10 HP roadster of 1930 in a museum in May 2016.

  • A red open two-seater with black wings and red wire wheels on paving, visitors crowding behind. Opens a larger view

    2 Red and black Aero 10 roadster at a veteran car meeting in August 2005.

  • Rear three-quarter view of a red two-seater with cream wire wheels and a spare wheel on its tail. Opens a larger view

    3 Red Aero 10 HP roadster of 1930 at the National Technical Museum, Prague, in June 2012.

  • Front view of a red two-seater with a chrome radiator behind a rope, mannequins in period dress behind. Opens a larger view

    4 Red Aero 500 of 1930 among costumed figures in a museum in the Czech Republic in August 2021.

Period photographs 3

  • A side view of a small open two-seater with wire wheels, a spare wheel strapped to the tail and no doors. Opens a larger view

    5 Enka prototype of 1927, the doorless forerunner of the Aero 10, in a works photograph.

  • A small dark van with a box body, an open cab and wire wheels, shown from the front quarter on a white ground. Opens a larger view

    6 Enka closed van of the late 1920s, a forerunner of the Aero 10, in a works illustration.

  • Two smiling men in a mud-spattered open two-seater numbered 42, a wreath on its bonnet, a hangar lettered AERO behind. Opens a larger view

    7 Bohumil Turek in his Aero 500, number 42, outside the Aero works, November 1929.

Picture credits (7)
  1. 1 Addvisor, CC BY-SA 4.0
  2. 2 Fidsoft, CC BY-SA 3.0
  3. 3 Alf van Beem, CC0
  4. 4 Addvisor, CC BY-SA 4.0
  5. 5 Unknown photographer, Public domain
  6. 6 Unknown photographer, Public domain
  7. 7 Unknown photographer, Magazin Auto (1929), Public domain

Variants

From the Enka to the Aero 18

The Aero 10, its parent and its successor
VariantYearsWhat differsHow many
Enka1926–⁠29Novotný and Kolanda’s original: the same 499 cc two-stroke, one door, rear brakes onlyAbout 60, or about 65
Aero 10 (Aero 500)1929–⁠32Roadster, four-seat sport, saloon and imitation cabriolet; one door, on the passenger’s side1,360 or 1,359, all bodies
Aero 10 van and pick-up1929–⁠32Open and closed delivery bodiesIn the total
Aero 662 (Aero 18)1931–⁠34A 662 cc twin of 18 PS on the same chassis; a driver’s door from about late 19312,345 plus 280 and 40, 2,343 or 2,615, by source

Specification

From the Aero owners’ group and German Wikipedia

Engine and drive

EngineSingle-cylinder two-stroke, water-cooled, 499 cc (85 × 88 mm)43
Power10 PS at 2,700 rpm3
GearboxThree speeds and reverse43
Final driveTo the rear wheels, with no differential43

Body and chassis

SpringsQuarter-elliptic, with friction dampers at the front3
BrakesCable-operated, on the rear wheels only43
Tyres4.00 × 19 in or 4.50 × 18 in3

Dimensions

Length3,200 mm (126 in)43
Width1,190 mm43
Height1,460 mm; the saloon 1,570 mm43
Wheelbase2,230 mm43
Track1,050 mm front, 950 mm rear43
Weight460 kg (1,014 lb), open43

Performance and running

Top speedAbout 70 km/h (43 mph)4160–70 km/h by the owners’ group3
ConsumptionAbout 5 litres per 100 km43
Price new18,000 Kč in 1929; the roadster 18,800 Kč in 1931 and 16,600 Kč in 193413

How many were built?

Every figure, with its source

About 1,360 built1,360 or 1,359, all bodies together: the same count, from the Aero owners’ group’s records, rounded or listed differently.

  1. 1,360Aero 10s of all bodiesOne source

    German Wikipedia and the owners’ group’s type table, which gives “about 1,360”43

  2. 1,359Aero 10s of all bodiesOne source

    Czech Wikipedia and the owners’ group’s chronology13

  • Two sources agreetwo good sources give the figure
  • One sourcea good source, alone
  • Unconfirmeda lead only, not yet checked

Famous for

Three points

  1. An aircraft maker’s first car

    Aero of Prague began making cars in 1929 with this small two-stroke, developed from the Enka.

  2. The ringing starter

    Its starter’s bell-like ring gave it the nicknames Cinkač and Klingler.

  3. Across Europe

    Prague to Brest and back, Berlin to Manzanares and back, and Prague to Albania, on 499 cc.

Racing and records

1929–⁠32

Results from long-distance rallies, by German Wikipedia’s account.

3,613 km
of the Prague–Paris–Brest–Prague star rally in 1929, then 1,300 km to Hamburg and back: an outright win for Turek and Nahodil.4
48.8 km/h
Turek’s average on the ADAC run to Manzanares in 1930, for a small-car class win.4
1st
overall for Turek on the ADAC’s Berlin–Manzanares–Berlin in 1931, ahead of Hans Stuck.4
3,300 km
and more, Prague to Albania and back, by Elstner in 1932.4

Survivors and collecting

Today

No survivor count has been found. Aero-IG, the owners’ group, keeps the type data and a list of market prices.3

Sources

Numbered as in the text

The figures go back to the Aero owners’ group, which the Wikipedias cite; the rally results rest on German Wikipedia alone. No period road test was found, and no count of survivors. Sources are given as plain text; the links are on the Credits page.

  1. Czech Wikipedia, Aero (automobilka).
  2. German Wikipedia, Enka (Automarke). It cites Linz and Schrader, Die Internationale Automobil-Enzyklopädie; Georgano, The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile; and Šuman-Hreblay, Encyklopedie automobilů (2007).
  3. Aero-IG, the Aero owners’ interest group, “Aero Fahrzeugtypen”, read in full.
  4. German Wikipedia, Aero 10, read in full. It cites aero-ig.de.