Russo-Balt (sometimes Russobalt or Russo-Baltique) was one of the first Russian companies that produced vehicles and aircraft between 1909 and 1923.
History
Riga factory
The Russo-Baltic Wagon Factory (, RBVZ) was founded in 1874 in Riga, then a major industrial centre of Russian Empire. Originally, the new company was an affiliate of the Van der Zypen & Charlier company in Cologne-Deutz, Germany.
In 1894 the majority of its shares were sold to investors in Riga and St. Petersburg, among them local Baltic German merchants F. Meyer, K. Amelung, and Chr. Schroeder, as well as Schaje Berlin, a relative of Isaiah Berlin. The company eventually grew to 3,800 employees.[1] Between 1909 and 1915 some 625 cars were built at the railway car factory RBVZ, initially to the designs of the young Swiss engineer Julian Potterat. Potterat had formerly been a designer at Automobiles Charles Fondu in Brussels, and was now at age 26, director of the RBVZ car section and a principal designer.[2]