Arthur Antonovich Anatra

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Arthur Antonovich Anatra, owner (and designer?); employed French designer Elisee Alfred Déscampes, from late 1914 into 1917; employed Vassili Nikolayevich Khioni as designer and test pilot, apparently 1916-1917. During 1916-1917, the Odessa factory also built more than 150 Voisin of Ivanov, a Voisin LAS that had been redesigned by 2d Lt. Petr Ivanov, a pilot in the 26th Aviation Detachment, with the assistance of mechanic I.I. Dil.

By the end of 1912, Anatra, a businessman of Italian parentage and part owner of an aviation school in Odessa, had converted an Aero Club workshop into a small aircraft factory which, in June 1913, received its first order from the government. After building French Farman, Nieuport, Morane, and Voisin aircraft for the military under license, the factory in 1915 began to produce original designs by Descampes including 2-seat tractor seaplanes and land biplanes under Anatra names including Anade, Anacler, Anasal, Anadis, and Anadva. Production rose from 5 airplanes monthly in 1914 to 2-3 daily in mid 1917. Khioni prototypes were built 1916-1917 but it appears not went into production. At the end of 1917, following the Russian Revolution, the newly independent government of Ukraine took over the Odessa factory. Meanwhile, in 1916, Anatra had built a second aircraft factory in Simferopol, Crimea, which had produced some 50 aircraft before being confiscated by government decree at the end of 1917.

At shutdown, the factory housed some 242 finished aeroplanes and some 150 more in various stages of completion. From May 1918 into November 1918, with Odessa occupied by Austrian troops, the Anatra factory worked under contract, producing aeroplanes for Austria-Hungary. After the city came under jurisdiction of Soviet Russia in 1920, the factory resumed production as State Aviation Workshop No. 7 before being closed permanently in 1924. In 1920, the factory at Simferopol became State Aviation Workshop No. 15, which functioned until 1922.

Ended aero in late 1917; revived 1918 during Austrian occupation; under Soviet Russia, each factory was taken over by a governmental authority.

Sources


Names Arthur Antonovich Anatra, A. A. Anatra
Country Russia, UA
City Odessa; additional factory at Simferopol, 1916
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Started aero 1912
Ended aero Late 1917; revived 1918 during Austrian occupation; ended under Soviet Russia
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