Russo-Baltic Wagon Works
Automobile firm made also Biplanes, Monoplanes, Biplane Seaplanes. [Note, if a floatplane is different than a seaplane, we need to add it.]
Spring 1912: Sikorsky joins along with team of six and previous designs; they made 20+ new aircraft designs, notably "the Grand" in 1913 and "Ilya Mourometz" in 1914. See Ilya Muromets for specific relations. Used [Argus motors]] among others. A succession of Ilya Murometzes after that were built to serve the Russian Army in World War I. Sikorsky left for France in spring 1917, escaping Bolshevik Revolution.
The company was headquartered in Riga, Latvia, Russia. Its aviation branch factory was established St. Petersburg. We could code this place as being in Latvia, which was part of Russia at the time but perhaps worth analyzing separately.
Naming, lexicography, archives, and sources
Variously written in Cyrillic Wikipediae: Руса-Балт, Русско-Балтийский вагонный завод, in Latvian: Krievu-Baltijas vagonu rūpnīca
Sikorsky (1967) refers to it as both the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Factory and as the Russian Baltic Company, and in one place, states the complete name of the organization as the Society of Russia Baltic Railroad Car Factories. It does not provide the firm's Russian name
Finne et al refers to the firm as R-BVZ and provides the transliteration used here in an editor's note, where it makes the direct translation, Russo-Baltic Wagon Company. Finne reprints a 1913 Russian advertisement, courtesy of the U.S. National Air and Space Museum, and a direct transliteration of the Russian characters made for this page (by CKR) reads: Russko-Baltiiskago Vagonnago Zavoda (RBVZ)
There are many pictures of this company's vehicles and some of its documents, in Wikimedia Commons here: [1]
Sources
- Igor I. Sikorsky, The Story of the Winged-S, New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1967 ed. pp 62-145
- K.N. Finne, Igor Sikorsky, the Russian Years; translated and adapted by Von Hardesty; Carl J. Bobrow and Von Hardesty, eds., Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987. pages 7-55, 159-161
- Gunston p249
- Gunston, 2005, p385
- Smithsonian Directory
- To do: Cite or at least draw more from sources, e.g.: Stamper, 1995, Tkachuk, Kharuk, Soliar, and Skorych, 2022, and Vaniuha et al, 2022
| Names | Ruskii Baltiskii Vagon Zavod, Russo-Baltic Wagon Works, Russo-Baltiiskiy Vagonnyy Zavod, Russian Baltic Carriage Factory, Russian Baltics Carriage Factory, RBVZ, RBCF |
|---|---|
| Country | Russia, RU |
| City | Riga; St. Petersburg |
| Affiliations | |
| Keywords | |
| Started aero | 1912, first aviation factory. |
| Ended aero | 1917 |
| Key people | M. V. Shidlowskiy, Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky |
| Wikidata id | Q2177339 |
