Alexander Kartveli by Levan Urushadze
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Alexander M. Kartveli (Kartvelishvili. 1896-1974) was outstanding engineer and scientist, one of the greatest aircraft engineers of the XX century, one of the pioneers of American aviation.
He was born in 1896, in Tbilisi (capital of the Republic of Georgia). His father Mikheil Kartvelishvili was a famous Georgian jurist and public benefactor.
In 1922 Alexander Kartveli graduated from the High School of Aviation in Paris. In 1922-1927 he worked for a while at the Louis Bleriot Company and designed the "Bernard" and "Ferbois" aircraft . In 1924, one of his aircrafts established a world speed record. In 1925 he received a PhD degree in Mathematics.
In 1927, American millionaire Charles Levine invited Dr. Kartveli to New York. In 1931 Kartveli met well-known engineer Alexander De Seversky, who was also from Georgia, and became Chief Engineer at the Seversky Aircraft Corporation. In 1939 this Corporation changed its name to the "Republic Aviation Company".
Dr. Kartveli and Seversky created a series of aircraft and during World War II they designed one of its greatest planes, the Republic P-47.
After World War II, Kartveli designed well-known aircraft such as the F-84 Thunderjet, the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and the F-84 Republic Thunderstreak.
Dr. Alexander Kartveli died in 1974, in New York.
