Soviet Union. Baron Roberto Oros di Bartini, half-Italian but naturalized Russian, and a direct rival of Umberto Nobile, but for “heavier than air,” breaks the speed record, hurtling in his Stal-6 aircraft with retractable landing gear (the first of its kind) at 450 km/h. He will later be arrested during Stalin’s purges, but incredibly, he will continue his engineering projects even under these conditions, and will build bombers that will be used during World War II. He will be released from prison in 1948 and rehabilitated, finally being awarded the Order of Lenin in 1955.
