Kārlis Irbītis was a Latvia

Latvia

Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n aeroplane designer.

His greatest successes, for the VEF

VEF

VEF, Latvian acronym for Valsts Elektrotehniskā Fabrika , is a manufacturer of electrical and electronic products in Riga, Latvia. VEF was the biggest Latvian factory in Soviet era and the leading communication technology producer in the Soviet Union...

 Factory, were the sports plane VEF I-12 (1935) and the monoplane VEF I-16

VEF I-16

The VEF I-16 was a prototype Latvian fighter aircraft designed by Kārlis Irbītis and produced by VEF in 1939. Development was halted by the Soviet occupation of Latvia and subsequent purges of VEF personnel...

 (1939), used as a fighter. After World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, when he had emigrated to Canada, he was the designer of the experimental Canadian vertical landing and take-off

VTOL

A vertical take-off and landing aircraft is one that can hover, take off and land vertically. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and tiltrotors...

 aeroplane, the CL-84 (1950).

VEF-I-16

When the German Army

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...

 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

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

, 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.

Sources

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