Julius Arigi (3 October 1895 – 1 August 1981) was a flying ace of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I with a total of 32 credited victories.

[1] Initially during World War I, Arigi was assigned to Fliegerkompanie 6, based in southern Dalmatia, flying Lloyd Type LS 2 and Lohner biplane aircraft in operations against Serbian and Montenegrin forces.

On 20 December 1914, Arigi and his observer, Leutnant Levak, crashlanded a Lohner 140 in the Adriatic Sea; fortunately for them, in the shallow water.

In October 1915, Arigi became a prisoner of war when he was forced down due to engine failure during a reconnaissance flight behind enemy lines in Montenegro.

He escaped captivity on his sixth try in January 1916, however, by stealing an enemy staff car belonging to Prince Nicholas of Montenegro, and rejoining his unit which later moved to Albania.

He had flown mediocre aircraft in fronts notorious for changeable weather; mountainous terrain and over-water flights complicated matters.

He had declined a personal offer from his emperor to work as a clerk in Vienna, with an accompanying promotion as a commissioned officer, to remain at the front.

[2] After the war he became a citizen of newly established Czechoslovakia where he in 1919 co-founded Ikarus, one of country's pioneer civil aviation companies; two years later founded another company, air travel named Weltbäderflugverkehr ("World Spa Air Transport"), which operated on the line between the capital Prague and famous spa towns of Mariánské Lázně and Karlovy Vary etc.

[7] In 1935, he partnered with a friend from World War I, fellow ace Benno Fiala von Fernbrugg, in forming the Wiener-Neustadt Airport Management Association.

[3] Their ability to repeatedly shoot down multiple enemies on the same sortie can be traced to Arigi's teaching them to close to minimum range before firing.