Kārlis Irbītis

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Kārlis Irbītis (born October 14, 1904, Lāde civil parish, Valmiera district, Latvia; died October 13, 1997, Saint-Laurent, Quebec, Canada) was a Latvian aeroplane designer.

His greatest successes, for the VEF Factory, were the sports plane VEF I-12 (1935) and the monoplane VEF I-16 (1939), used as a fighter. After World War II, when he had emigrated to Canada, he was the designer of the experimental Canadian vertical landing and take-off aeroplane, the CL-84 (1950).

[edit] VEF-I-16

When the German Army occupied Latvia, they used all possible resources to add to their war machine. This included the military radio YU4 and the aircraft VEF-12 and VEF-16 produced in the VEF Factory, although unfortunately for the Luftwaffe, only three examples of these two models were available.

After the Soviet occupation of Latvia, the Soviet forces also tested the Latvian fighter. Further information on its future development was classified.

[edit] Sources

• Latvian Academy of Sciences: Inventors of Latvia website - Karlis Irbitis (in English and Latvian)