Vecihi Hürkuş
Turkish aviator (1896–1969) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Vecihi Hürkuş (6 January 1896 – 16 July 1969) was a Turkish fighter pilot, aviation engineer and aviation pioneer. He built Turkey's first aircraft, the Vecihi K-VI, and founded the first civil flight school of the nation.
Vecihi Hürkuş | |
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Born | (1896-01-06)6 January 1896 Arnavutköy, Istanbul, Ottoman Empire |
Died | 16 July 1969(1969-07-16) (aged 73) Gülhane Military Medical Academy, Ankara, Turkey |
Buried | |
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Service/ | |
Rank | First Sergeant |
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Battles/wars | |
Other work | Member of the Turkish Aeronautical Association |
Born in Istanbul, Hürkuş graduated from the Tophane Art School and later joined the Ottoman Army in the Balkan Wars in 1912. Upon his return from the wars, he became the commander of a prisoner-of-war camp in Beykoz. In 1914, he was sent to Baghdad as a mechanic in the Mesopotamia campaign. He was sent back to Istanbul in 1916 after suffering minor injuries in a crash. He was trained to become a pilot and, together with captain Şükrü Koçak, became one of the first two Turkish pilots to shoot down another plane. He was taken prisoner by Russian forces in 1917 after making an emergency landing and was confined in a camp in Nargin, from which he escaped in 1918. During the Turkish War of Independence, he was a pilot involved in bombing Greek forces and a minor friendly fire incident.
After the war, Hürkuş started to work on building his own aircraft, which would become Turkey's first aircraft. He was given a jail sentence for flying the plane without a permit. Although the sentence was later suspended, it caused him to leave the air force to join the Turkish Aircraft Society (TTaC), where he handed out leaflets of the TTaC after demonstration flights. In 1930, Hürkuş built his second aircraft, the Vecihi K-XIV, and had it transported to Czechoslovakia to get it certified. He used the plane to fly domestically to introduce aviation, hold conferences and collect donations for the TTaC, which he later left after his assistant was fired.
He founded his own flight school in 1932 and trained several students, including Bedriye Tahir Gökmen. The school was shut down in 1934 by the Müdafaa-i Milliye Vekâleti. On 27 February 1939, he received a diploma in aircraft engineering from the Weimar Engineering School in Germany. In the 1940s, Hürkuş started writing books and publishing a magazine. He founded an airline in 1954, which was later banned from flying. He died on 16 July 1969 in Ankara and was buried at the Cebeci Asri Cemetery. Hürkuş was the recipient of three commendations from the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the Medal of Independence. Hürkuş and Hürjet are named after him.