Russo-Balt
Russo-Balt ( Russian Руссо-Балт , also Russo-Baltique) was a Russian automobile manufacturer in Riga from 1909 to 1923 . It was there that the world's first mass-produced heavy bomber , the four-engine Sikorsky Ilja Muromets, was built .
history
The company was founded in 1869 as a Riga branch of the Cologne-Deutz company Van der Zypen & Charlier . To avoid customs duties, a railway wagon construction factory was built immediately . In 1874 the branch was converted to the Russian-Baltic Waggonbau Aktiengesellschaft , which in 1900 produced 5513 freight cars and 219 passenger cars. After the Russo-Japanese War , the number of orders decreased. The chairman of the board, Mikhail Vladimirovich Schidlowski , initiated the production of automobiles , for which a new department was founded in 1908.
Between 1909 and 1915 automobiles were produced in the Russian-Baltic Wagon Factory , or RBWS for short (Русско-Балтийский вагонный завод, РБВЗ) in Riga (now Latvia ). The first car was the work of the then chief designer, a Swiss named Julien Potterat. In 1911, Potterat drove from Riga through Europe, including Switzerland. In 1915 the plant was evacuated to Petrograd to protect it from the First World War .
From 1916, the factory delivered chassis to the Ischorski Sawod in Petrograd, where the chassis were fitted with a tank structure.
In 1922 the remnants of the production were relocated from Petrograd to Fili near Moscow in the First Armored Car Factory (1-BTAS for short, Russian Первый бронетанко-автомобильный завод (1-й БТАЗ), transcribed by the Mark-19 from Avodenname Bronetanko and Perwy22 until 1923 current car production changed to Prombron . Russo-Balt produced both trucks and cars, including licenses for the German Rex-Simplex and Belgian Fondu . The Moscow operation then merged into today's GKNPZ Khrunichev .
Today Russo-Balt manufactures car trailers in Riga .
Concept car 2007
In the spring of 2007, Alevel exhibited a prototype with the brand name Russo-Baltique at the Geneva Motor Show , which was developed in collaboration with Gerg.
literature
- Лев Шугуров (Lev Michailowitsch Schugurow): Погоня за Руссо-Балтом ( Pogonja za Russo-Baltom ), ЦДТС (CDTS), Moscow 2004, Russian, introductory in English. Language, 240 S, ISBN 5-94675-009-7 .
- LM Shugurov: АВТОМОБИЛИ России и СССР. First part. Ilbi / Prostreks, Moscow 1993, ISBN 5-87483-004-9 .
- Maurice A. Kelly: Russian Motor Vehicles. The Czarist Period 1784 to 1917. Veloce Publishing, Dorchester 2009, ISBN 978-1-84584-213-0 . (English)
Web links
- Website of today's company (English, Russian, Latvian, accessed December 30, 2012)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Канунников С. В .: Отечественные легковые автомобили. 1896-2000 гг . ООО "Книжное издательство" За рулём "", Moscow 2007.
- ↑ a b L. M. Shugurow: АВТОМОБИЛИ России и СССР. First part. P. 47.
- ↑ LM Shugurow: АВТОМОБИЛИ России и СССР. First part. P. 54.
- ↑ Kelly: Russian Motor Vehicles. The Czarist Period 1784 to 1917.
- ↑ www.gergmotion.com with information on the Russo-Baltique Expression (English, accessed December 30, 2012)