Michael Gregor (aircraft engineer)

Michael Gregor, born Mikheil Grigorashvili (Georgian: მიხეილ გრიგორაშვილი) or Mikhail Leontyevich Grigorashvili (Russian: Михаил Леонтьевич Григорашвили) (1888–1953) was an aircraft engineer of Georgian origin, one of the pioneering aviators in the Russian Empire, the United States, and Canada.

[1] Born in Derbent, Russia, Grigorashvili graduated from the Imperial Institute of Communications in St. Petersburg and was trained as a pilot in France in 1911.

Upon his return to Russia, Grigorashvili worked as an instructor for pilots and joined the army as an officer in World War I.

The Bolshevik coup in 1917 forced him to retire to a newly independent Georgia where he worked as a road engineer in the Georgian ministry for communications.

[2] Despite being an advanced and innovative design, incorporating all-metal construction with flush riveting, retractable undercarriage and a sleek shape, the FDB-I was overtaken by events and, after being unable to find a buyer, was lost in a fire in 1945.