Wagons, then motor cars

Russo-Balt began as a branch of the Cologne wagon builder Van der Zypen & Charlier, set up in Riga in 1869 to fill a large Russian order without paying customs duty. In 1874 it became the Russo-Baltic Wagon Factory, and by 1900 it was building more than 5,500 goods wagons a year and was one of the biggest engineering works in the Russian Empire, eventually employing 3,800 people. When orders fell after the Russo-Japanese war, chairman Mikhail Shidlovsky turned to motor cars: about 625 were built between 1909 and 1915, and a Russo-Balt was the first car to reach the summit of Vesuvius.

A 22-year-old chief engineer

Aircraft followed. A workshop opened in Riga in 1910 and moved to St Petersburg in 1912, where from 1911 the company built French Nieuports, Blériots and Farmans for the army. In April 1912 Shidlovsky hired Igor Sikorsky, then 22, as chief designer. Sikorsky’s aircraft had just won a military competition in Moscow, and he agreed that the company would own his designs for five years. His single-engined S-6B and S-10 won the military contests of 1912 and 1913, and the S-12 monoplane and S-10 floatplane were built in small numbers.

The Grand

Sikorsky had been thinking since 1911 about an aeroplane far larger than anything that existed, at a time when no aircraft could lift more than 600 kg. Experts predicted failure. On 10 May 1913 his Grand, later renamed Russky Vityaz, or Russian Knight, took off in St Petersburg. With four engines it was the first four-engined aeroplane in the world, and it had an enclosed cabin in which passengers could walk about without upsetting the balance. On 2 August it flew for nearly two hours with eight people aboard. After 53 flights it was crushed on the ground by an engine that fell off a passing Morane.

The Ilya Muromets

Sikorsky’s next design, the Ilya Muromets, flew in 1913 as an airliner with an insulated saloon, wicker chairs, a bedroom, electric light, heating and the first airborne toilet. On 11 February 1914 it lifted 16 passengers, a record, and that summer it flew from St Petersburg to Kiev and back. War turned it into a bomber. In December 1914 Russia formed the Squadron of Flying Ships, the first unit of four-engined strategic bombers. The Muromets flew more than 400 sorties, dropped 65 tons of bombs and, in 1916, became the first aircraft with a tail gunner. Only one was lost to enemy fighters.

Revolution and dispersal

In 1915 the Riga works was evacuated ahead of the German advance, to Petrograd, Moscow, Tver and Taganrog. The company built about 240 aircraft between 1912 and 1917, including its own RBVZ-6 engine and the S-16 escort fighter. Revolution ended it. The aviation department was nationalised in 1918, Sikorsky left for France, and Shidlovsky and his son were killed in 1919 trying to reach Finland. The Petrograd works became the Krasny Lyotchik aircraft factory. The new Fili works in Moscow passed to Junkers in 1923 and was later evacuated to Kazan, where it grew into today’s Kazan aircraft plant.

Fábricas

• Riga works · Volmar Street (Avoti), Riga — Wagons, cars and early aircraft; more than 20 hectares by 1912; evacuated 1915
• St Petersburg aircraft division · St Petersburg (Petrograd) — From 1912; became the Krasny Lyotchik state aircraft works
• Fili works · Pokrovskoye-Fili, Moscow — Bought 1916, opened July 1917; Junkers concession from 1923

Gente

• Mikhail Shidlovsky · chairman — Started car and aircraft production; killed with his son in 1919
• Igor Sikorsky · chief designer from April 1912 — Designed the Grand and Ilya Muromets; left for France in 1918
• Julian Potterat · car designer — Swiss engineer who led the car department at 26

Récords y primicias

• First four-engined aeroplane in the world, Russky Vityaz, first flight 10 May 1913
• Ilya Muromets: first aircraft with an insulated passenger saloon and the first airborne toilet
• Passenger record of 16 aboard, Ilya Muromets, 11 February 1914
• First four-engined bomber to equip a dedicated strategic bombing unit, December 1914
• First aircraft with a tail gunner position, Ilya Muromets S-25 Geh-2, March 1916