Rubik Erno
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* Pésztergom, November 27, 1910 – † Budapest, February 13, 1997 / mechanical engineer, pilot, aircraft designer ; ; His father was a manor clerk who disappeared on the Russian front in World War I, so his family moved from Pésztergom, which was part of Czechoslovakia after the change of empire, to Hungary. He finished elementary school in Tótkomlós and graduated from the Catholic Grammar School in Vác in 1929. In 1929, he enrolled in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Budapest University of Technology, where he obtained an engineering degree in 1934. Already during his student days, he was involved in gliding and designing aircraft. He organized the gliding group of the Technical University. In 1935–1937 he was an assistant professor at the Technical University, and as a technical inspector he helped spread glider flying in Hungary. He is credited with introducing dual-rudder glider training in Hungary. In 1949–1951 he was an invited lecturer at the Budapest University of Technology and head of the central design office of the National Hungarian Flying Association. Between 1961–1967 he worked at the Ministry of Transport and Postal Services, and in 1967–1971 he was a technical advisor to Malév. When, after World War I, the victorious powers forbade the losing states from developing their military air forces, Ernő Rubik Sr. was one of those in Hungary who initiated the industrial-scale production of aircraft for civil aviation. In 1936, he founded the Aero-Ever Kft. glider manufacturing plant based in Esztergom with Lajos Mitter. Between 1935 and 1987, he designed 28 different types of gliders and 5 motorized aircraft (e.g. Vöcsök, Tücsök, Pilis, Cimbora, Góbé, etc.). Until 1957, he exclusively designed wooden machines, after which he switched to designing metal machines and patented several new manufacturing processes. He received numerous awards, and was awarded the Kossuth Prize in 1963. His son, Ernő Rubik Jr. (Budapest, July 13, 1944–) is an architect, industrial artist, and inventor of the Rubik's Cube.