DESIGNER UNKNOWN [AIRCRAFT AND HYDROPLANES FACTORY / ARTHUR ANATRA / ODESSA.] 1910.
20 1/4x28 inches, 57 1/2x71 cm.
Condition B+: creases in margins and image; sharp vertical and horizontal folds. Japan.
A very early aviation poster and perhaps the earliest Russian aviation poster advertising a Ukranian aircraft manufacturer. Russia was gripped by the excitement of heavier-than-air flight from the moment French aviators performed shows in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Odessa in 1909. Starting in 1909, Arthur Anatra 's Odessa factory began to manufacture planes of foreign design. Here, we see three Morane-Saulnier monoplanes in the sky along with a hydroplane that appears to be a variation of a machine constructed by Levasque. The entrepreneur also began to produce aircraft of his own design, some of which were used by the Russian military during World War I. The factory was destroyed in 1918 by its former workers. The full text of the poster reads, "Equipped with all recent technologies. Building of aircrafts of original construction and all existing systems." Aeroflot p. 11.