Aleksandre Kartvelishvili
We decided to create the most informative and useful guidebook, which will include all the main and less known facts about Georgia and Georgians. Time by time, I will post the most interesting facts about Georgia. Today i decided to introduce you Aleksandre Kartvelishvili – he was a Georgian emigrant to the U.S. who went down in history as one of the greatest innovators in aviation. Alexander Kartveli’s real name was Aleksandre Kartvelishvili. Born in Tbilisi, he escaped to the West to avoid the Bolsheviks. At the start of his career, he worked at the Louis Blériot Company and designed the Bernard and Ferbois aircraft. In 1924, one of his planes established a world speed record. Later, American millionaire Charles Levine invited Kartvelishvili to New York, to join the Atlantic Aircraft Corporation. His offer was accepted. Together with another well-known engineer Alexander Seversky, Kartveli designed several planes, with one of them, the Republic P-47, becoming the workhorse of the U.S. Air Force in the last years of World War II. For his achievements in aircraft design and aeronautics, the Georgian engineer was awarded with U.S. National Medal of Science. He was also granted the title of an honorary member of U.S. National Academy of Engineering. Have you ever heard about Kartveli before?!