KÄrlis IrbÄ«tis
Karlis Irbītis ( born October 14, 1904 in charge at Valmiera in Latvia, † October 13, 1997 in Saint -Laurent, Quebec, Canada ) was a Latvian aircraft designer.
Life
In 1925 he studied at the National Technical Institute in Riga. In the same year he built his first aircraft. In 1930 he went as an aircraft developer for valsts elektrotehniskā fabrika (VEF ). His most successful developments for the VEF were the sports plane VEF I-12 from the year 1935 and the fighter VEF I-16 from 1939, which was successively tested by the Soviet and the German Luftwaffe. From 1942 to 1948 he worked for Messerschmitt. From 1950 to 1971 he worked at the Canadian company Canadair, where he was instrumental in the development of VTOL aircraft Canadair CL -84.
In 1986 he published the book " Of Struggle and Flight ". In 1992 he received an honorary doctorate from the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Karlis Irbītis died just one day before his 94th birthday in Saint -Laurent, Quebec.