Antanas Gustaitis was an officer in the Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

n Armed Forces who modernized the Lithuanian Air Force, which at that time was part of the Lithuanian Army. He was the architect or aeronautical engineer

Aerospace engineering

Aerospace engineering is the primary branch of engineering concerned with the design, construction and science of aircraft and spacecraft. It is divided into two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering...

 who undertook the task to design and construct several military trainers and reconnaissance aircraft.

Gustaitis was born in the village of Obelinė, in Javaravas county, in the Marijampolė

Marijampole

Marijampolė is an industrial city and the capital of the Marijampolė County in the south of Lithuania, bordering Poland and Russian Kaliningrad oblast, and Lake Vištytis. The population of Marijampolė is 48,700...

 district. He attended high school in Yaroslavl

Yaroslavl

Yaroslavl is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historical part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, a group of historic cities...

, and from there studied at the Institute of Engineering and School of Artillery in Petrograd

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

. After joining the Lithuanian Army in 1919, he graduated from the School of Military Aviation as a Junior Lieutenant in 1920. Later that year, he saw action in the Polish-Lithuanian War

Polish-Lithuanian War

The Polish–Lithuanian War was an armed conflict between newly independent Lithuania and Poland in the aftermath of World War I. The conflict primarily concerned territorial control of the Vilnius Region, including Vilnius , and the Suwałki Region, including the towns of Suwałki, Augustów, and Sejny...

. By 1922 he began to train pilots, and later became the head of the training squadron. He also oversaw the construction of aircraft for Lithuania in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

. Gustaitis was one of the founding members of the Aero Club of Lithuania, and later its Vice-President. He did much to promote aviation among the young people in Lithuania, especially concerning the sport of gliding

Gliding

Gliding is a recreational activity and competitive air sport in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes using naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to remain airborne. The word soaring is also used for the sport.Gliding as a sport began in the 1920s...

. He also won the Lithuanian Chess Championship

Lithuanian Chess Championship

First unofficial Lithuanian championship was held in Kaunas in 1921. The Champion's title was granted after victorious or drawn match between previous champion and challenger, mostly a winner of Championship of Kaunas in the period from 1922 to World War II. The first official Lithuanian...

 in 1922.

Between 1925 and 1928, Gustaitis studied aeronautical engineering in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. After his graduation he returned to Lithuania, and was promoted to deputy Commander-in-Chief of Military Aviation and made chief of the Aviation Workshop (Karo Aviacijos Tiekimo Skyrius

Karo Aviacijos Tiekimo Skyrius

Karo Aviacijos Tiekimo Skyrius was the Army Aviation Workshops of Lithuania, established at Kaunas. The facility was considerably modernized under the leadership of Antanas Gustaitis, who also designed a variety of aircraft to be built there in small series in the 1920s and -30s under the...

) in Kaunas

Kaunas

Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...

. During this time, he reorganized the workshop and expanded its capability to repair aircraft as well. The aircraft he designed were named ANBO, an acronym for Antanas Nori Būti Ore – "Antanas wants to be airborne".
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In 1934, he became Commander-in-Chief of the air branch, and in 1937, attained the rank of Brigadier General. He reorganized Lithuanian military aviation, forming fighter, bomber, and reconnaissance groups, and developed a system of training for pilots and their crews, and ground crews as well.

After Lithuania's occupation by the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 and the dissolution of the Lithuanian Army, he was a lecturer at Vytautas Magnus University

Vytautas Magnus University

Vytautas Magnus University ) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university...

, but fearing arrest he attempted to flee to Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 in 1941. He was caught attempting to cross the border on 4 March, arrested, and taken to Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 where he was shot on the 16 October.

Following the restoration of Lithuanian independence he was commemorated by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University

Vilnius Gediminas Technical University

Vilnius Gediminas Technical University is a state higher academic school which has the rights of legal entity. The University is a non-profit institution, which was established by the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania....

 when the Antanas Gustaitis Aviation Institute was named after him.

Aircraft

align=center style="background:#BFD7FF"| Summary of aircraft designed by Gustaitis

Model name	First flight	Number built	Type
ANBO I ANBO I |-References:* -See also:...	1925	1	Military Military A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...  trainer Trainer (aircraft) A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate in-flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristics and a simplified cockpit arrangement—allows...  aircraft Aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air, or, in general, the atmosphere of a planet. An aircraft counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines.Although...
ANBO II ANBO II |-References:* -See also:...	1927	1	Military trainer aircraft
ANBO III ANBO III |-References:* -See also:...	1929	9	Military trainer/utility Utility aircraft A utility aircraft is a general-purpose light plane or helicopter, usually used for transporting people or freight, but also for other duties when a more specialised aircraft is not required or available....  aircraft
ANBO IV & 41	1932	34	Military reconnaissance Surveillance aircraft A surveillance aircraft is an aircraft used for surveillance — collecting information over time. They are operated by military forces and other government agencies in roles such as intelligence gathering, battlefield surveillance, airspace surveillance, observation , border patrol and fishery... /light attack Ground attack aircraft Ground-attack aircraft are military aircraft with primary role of attacking targets on the ground with greater precision than bombers and prepared to face stronger low-level air defense...  aircraft
ANBO V & 51 ANBO V |-References:-External links: In Lithuanian...	1931	15	Military trainer aircraft
ANBO VI ANBO VI |-References:* -See also:...	1933	4	Military trainer aircraft
ANBO VII
ANBO VIII ANBO VIII -External links:*...	1939	1	Light bomber