Bartini, Robert
Bartini, Robert Liudovigovich
(also Roberto Oros di Bartini). Born May 14, 1897, in Fiume, Italy; died Dec. 6, 1974, in Moscow. Soviet aircraft designer and scientist. Member of the Italian Communist Party (1921). Member of the CPSU from 1927.
Bartini graduated from officer training school in 1916, flight school in 1921, and the Polytechnic Institute of Milan in 1922. In 1923, after the Fascist regime had come to power in Italy, Bartini was sent illegally by the Central Committee of the Italian Communist Party to the USSR as an aviation engineer. He immediately assumed engineering and command positions in the air force of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, and in 1930 he was named chief designer and head of a design department of the Scientific Research Institute of the Civil Aviation Fleet. Bartini is credited with the development of the DAR long-range arctic reconnaissance aircraft, the Stal’-6 and Stal’-7 aircraft, original aerodynamic configurations, and propulsion systems.
Bartini’s principal works dealt with aircraft materials and technology, aerodynamics, and flight dynamics. Bartini was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and various medals.