Svetopolk Pivko (Serbian Cyrillic: Светополк Пивко; 29 September 1910 – 13 October 1987) was a professor and engineer at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and the Faculty of Mathematics in Belgrade, was a colonel of the Yugoslav Air Force deputy commander of JRV, the founder and the first director of the Aeronautical Technical Institute in Žarkovo.
In March 1941 he was mobilized as a reserve officer of the Yugoslav army and he participated in war operations from 6 April 1941 to capitulation, when he goes into hiding.
He actively participated in the resistance movement as of 1941 in Montenegro, Slovenia and Bosnia, and as an officer of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) during the war, he served in Italy and the USSR.
In 1951 he was reassigned to the Construction Bureau of the General Directorate of the Aviation Industry where he worked for two years as a senior aero dynamics engineer.
S. Pivko's research started with his specialization in France in Saint Cyr Aerospace Technical Institute, where he worked on problem of vertical flight, using aerodynamic forces generated on the wing aircraft under the influence of the air flow behind the propeller.
The idea that the plane lifts vertically using the air flow generated by the propellers of the engine and moving parts wing, was as of 1937 protected by patent.
A number of his papers was devoted to the aerodynamics of aircraft propulsion (piston, turbo-prop and turbojet engines).
Since he was employed full-time in the Aeronautical Institute, he had the status of part-time full professor at faculties until 1964 when he fully transferred to the University.