Kurt Berger
Encyclopedia
Kurt Volmar Berger was an aviation engineer and the chief designer at the Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 aircraft manufacturing company Valtion Lentokonetehtaat
Valtion Lentokonetehtaat
Valtion Lentokonetehtaat was the National aircraft manufacturer of Finland, evolving through several companies until taken over by Patria on 5 September 1996.-Aviation:...

.

K. V. Berger's father, Arnold Berger, was a minister and his mother was Fanny Berger. He became an abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...

ient from Helsingin Uusi Yhteiskoulu in 1916 and began studies as an electrical engineer at the Helsinki University of Technology
Helsinki University of Technology
Aalto University School of Science and Technology , was the temporary name for Helsinki University of Technology during the process of forming the Aalto University...

 the same autumn, but volunteered for service with the Helsinki Jaeger Brigade.

In 1918 he traveled to Libau
Liepaja
Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...

 in Germany, to start pilot training with floater-equipped aircraft. However, his studies were interrupted by the end of World War I and Germany's loss. Berger managed to receive his international civil pilot papers in 1921.

In order to continue with his studies, he enrolled in the East London College in 1919 (nowadays called Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London
Queen Mary, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

), graduating on 5 September 1922. He was appointed Engineer at the Finnish Air Force
Finnish Air Force
The Finnish Air Force is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. Its peacetime tasks are airspace surveillance, identification flights, and production of readiness formations for wartime conditions...

 Headquarters at Santahamina
Santahamina
Santahamina is an island and neighbourhood of Eastern Helsinki, Finland. At present it is a military base housing the Guard Jaeger Regiment, making access restricted...

 on 1 November 1923, and later Chief Engineer in 1 March 1924. He was therefore sent to the Finnish Air Force Aircraft Manufacturers company (Ilmavoimien Lentokonetehdas), where he would design the IVL C.24
IVL C.24
-See also:...

, IVL Haukka I, IVL Haukka II, IVL Sääski and IVL Kotka aircraft.

Berger also participated in the Finnish Air Force's purchases of foreign fighters from Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

, Great Britain, Italy and France in the late 1920s and 1930s.

Berger was acquitted from his position at the VL during a company restructuring in 1933 and he continued to work as aircraft inspector at Lentoasema I and Flight Regiment 2. After the Soviet-Finnish Winter War
Winter War
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...

 1939–40 he supervised the assembly of the Brewster Buffalo
Brewster Buffalo
The Brewster F2A Buffalo was an American fighter aircraft which saw limited service early in World War II. Though the Buffalo won a competition against the Grumman F4F Wildcat in 1939 to become the US Navy's first monoplane fighter aircraft, it turned out to be a big disappointment...

fighters in Sweden, as well as served as Chief Engineer of Maintenance and Office Engineer at the Finnish Air Force Headquarters. After the wars he continued as a private entrepreneur.
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