Exactly a century ago, aviation engineer and designer Antanas Gustaitis, who would later lead the Lithuanian Air Force, successfully tested the aircraft he had designed himself – the ANBO-I. A new exhibition at the Vytautas the Great War Museum in Kaunas marks the centenary by showcasing the story of the aircraft and the early days of Lithuania’s military aviation.
Suspended beneath the museum’s roof beams is the ANBO-I – the first and only surviving model from Gustaitis’s ANBO series.
“Gustaitis bought the engine in England with his own savings, and he designed the aircraft in his spare time,” says historian Justina Nenortaitė from the Vytautas the Great War Museum.
Contemporary newspapers noted that on July 14, 1925, “the construction of Gustaitis’s apparatus was carried out using the simplest tools, under the constant supervision of the designer himself.” A year later, the aircraft was purchased by the Lithuanian Air Force.
“ANBO aircraft were used by the Air Force until 1930, and finally, in 1935, the plane was transferred to the museum – that’s how it survived. Perhaps Gustaitis himself ensured this – by then, he was head of the Air Force,” Nenortaitė explains.
Before the Soviet occupation, Colonel Gustaitis – appointed head of the Lithuanian Air Force – created nine ANBO models, with more than 60 aircraft built. Following the Soviet annexation, the planes were destroyed, and Gustaitis was executed in a Moscow prison in 1941.
To mark the aircraft’s centenary, the Vytautas the Great War Museum has opened an exhibition highlighting Gustaitis’ life and the beginnings of Lithuanian aviation.
“Although he might seem like a daring aviator, he had gentle personal traits – for example, he enjoyed playing the mandolin. But the sharp mind of an engineer never left him, and this combined perfectly with his hobby of playing chess,” says museum staff member Kęstas Vasilevskis.
Organisers say that, during the interwar period, military aviation was one of the most modern branches of Lithuania’s armed forces, boasting reconnaissance, training and bomber aircraft, and piloted by aviators with a profound love of the skies.
“There were both aircraft designers and pilots, including Steponas Darius and Girėnas with ‘Lituanica’, Feliksas Vaitkus with ‘Lituanica 2’, and later the ANBO aircraft squadrons flying across Europe,” Vasilevskis notes.
The exhibition at the Vytautas the Great War Museum will run for a year. The Lithuanian Parliament has declared 2025 the Year of the ANBO aircraft and the pioneers of Lithuanian aviation.
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