Vladimir Alexandrovich Lebedev

Vladimir Lebedev (1918)

Vladimir Alexandrowitsch Lebedew ( Russian Владимир Александрович Лебедев ; * 1881 in Saint Petersburg , † February 22, 1947 in Paris ) was a Russian pilot and industrialist .

Life

Lebedev made his living as a cyclist when he became interested in flying. He trained in France at Henri Farman's flight school . In 1909 he had built his first glider . Lebedev was one of the very first pilots in Russia. He bought a Farman-IV aircraft from Farman, brought it to Russia and used it to train other pilots. On May 15, 1911, he achieved a record flight by taking off with four passengers.

He then went with a company independently , the propellers and parts for Deperdussin - and Nieuport produced airplanes. In 1914 he opened a new company in Saint Petersburg that manufactured Voisin aircraft and later also copies of the German types Albatros CI and Albatros B.II , called Lebedew-12 . There was also a type of float plane. There were also aircraft developments of their own, but they were not put into series production.

In 1915 he devoted himself to the construction of an automobile. On October 20, 1916, the production of bodies for ambulance vehicles began. Lebedev, however, did not manage to start production of the Lebed-A . These were the license replicas of the English Crossley . One reason may have been the order that the Dux works accepted at the same time to manufacture 30 Morane Saulnier MS-3L under license.

The company closed its doors during the October Revolution . After the revolution, it was commissioned to produce other Lebedev-12 machines. Ultimately, it was reopened in August 1920 as a workshop for float planes and motor vehicles.

Lebedev served for a short time in the " White Army " in Denikin's staff during the Russian Civil War . He then emigrated to France via Serbia . He died in Paris in 1947 and was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois .

The automobile works still exist today as Yaroslavl Motor Works ( JaMZ ). The aircraft factories, which last traded as Taganrog Avia "TAWIA" ( Russian ОАО "ТАВИА" ), were taken over and dissolved in April 2011 by the Russian aircraft manufacturer Beriev .

Web links

• Press release from the aircraft manufacturer Beriev on the takeover of TAWIA, April 1, 2011 (Russian)