de Seversky's father was one
of the first Russian aviators to own a plane.
At age 14, when he entered the Imperial Russian
Naval Academy, de Seversky already knew how
to fly. Graduating in 1914, he was serving
at sea when the war began. Requesting a transfer
to aviation, he was reassigned to the Baltic
Fleet as a pilot in the summer of 1915. While
stationed in the Gulf of Riga, he attacked
a German destroyer but was shot down before
he could drop his bombs. When his plane crashed,
the bombs exploded, badly wounding de Seversky's
and killing his observer. Doctors amputated
de Seversky's leg below the knee. Recovering
from his wounds and sporting a new wooden leg,
he was deemed unfit for front line duty. To
prove his superiors wrong, he made a spectacular
but unauthorized flight at an air show and
was promptly arrested for his efforts. The
Czar intervened on his behalf and in July 1916,
de Seversky returned to combat duty, downing
his first enemy plane three days later and
scoring 3 more victories in August. In February
1917, he assumed command of the 2nd Naval Fighter
Detachment until an accident with a horse drawn
wagon broke his good leg. After serving as
an advisor in Moscow, de Seversky returned
to combat duty in the Gulf of Riga and received
confirmation for 2 more of his victories. On
14 October, he was forced down in enemy territory
but made it back to the safety of his own lines.
In March 1918, de Seversky arrived in the United
States to serve as assistant naval attaché at
the Russian Embassy. Due to the revolution,
he never returned home, choosing to become
an American citizen in 1927 and founding the
Seversky Aircraft Corporation of Farmingdale,
Long Island in 1931. Two years later, his company
developed the SEV-3, an amphibious, all-metal,
three man, monoplane with a low-mounted cantilever
wing. On 15 September 1935, at a speed of 230.413
mph, the original SEV-3 set a world speed record
for piston-engined amphibious airplanes that
has never been broken. de Seversky also developed
a turbo-supercharged, air-cooled fighter plane
that served as the protoype for the P-47. In
April 1939, de Seversky was out of the country
on business when the company's board of directors
voted him out of office as CEO and changed
the name of the firm to Republic. He spent
the remainder of his life working as an aeronautical
writer and consultant and was awarded the Medal
for Merit by President Harry Truman. The year
he died, de Seversky was elected to the Aviation
Hall of Fame.
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