Alexander Seversky — aviation (republic p-47) with roots in the Russian Empire
Alexander Nikolayevich Prokofiev de Seversky was born Aleksandr Prokofyev-Seversky in Tiflis, now Tbilisi, then in the Russian Empire, on 7 June (26 May, Old Style) 1894, into an aristocratic family. He was sent to military school at ten and graduated from the Imperial Naval Academy in 1914, just as the First World War began.
In 1915 he transferred to naval aviation and was posted to the Baltic Fleet. Wounded on a bombing mission that year, he lost his right leg, amputated below the knee; fitted with an artificial leg, he returned to flying. He went on to fly 57 combat missions and was credited with thirteen victories, making him by most accounts Russia's leading naval ace, although only six are confirmed according to Wikipedia. In March 1918 he was sent to the United States as assistant naval attaché with the Russian naval aviation mission, to study aircraft design and production, and he remained.
After the war he worked as a consultant to the US Army Air Service and as an assistant to the air-power advocate General Billy Mitchell. He designed a gyroscopic bombsight and an air-to-air refuelling device, used on the 'Question Mark' endurance flight of 1929, and founded the Seversky Aero Corporation in 1922. He became an American citizen in 1927 and was commissioned a major in the Army Air Corps.
In February 1931, with backing from Wall Street investors, he founded the Seversky Aircraft Corporation on Long Island, serving as president and chief test pilot and setting several speed records in its aircraft. His chief engineer was Alexander Kartveli, also born in Tiflis; together they produced the P-35 fighter and the designs that led to the P-47 Thunderbolt. The company lost money, and in 1939 the board voted him out; it was reorganised as Republic Aviation. He received the Harmon Trophy for 1939, presented by President Roosevelt, and again in 1947, presented by President Truman.
In 1942 he published Victory Through Air Power, a bestseller that argued for strategic air power and was made into an animated film by Walt Disney. He wrote two further books, Air Power: Key to Survival and America: Too Young to Die. He died on 24 August 1974, aged eighty.
"Sent to the United States in 1918 as assistant naval attaché with the Russian naval aviation mission; remained, and became an American citizen in 1927."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia)
Born in Tiflis in 1894, he graduated from the Imperial Naval Academy in 1914 and flew with Russian naval aviation in the First World War; in 1918 he was posted to Washington with the Russian naval aviation mission and stayed.
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Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia). At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.