KANET(H), Ot(h)mar
* 12. 6. 1892, Ormož, Slovenia
† after 1945, as a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union
Civil Engineer, designer (aircraft)
K., called also the Slovenian Lilienthal, spent his youth in Zagreb, where his father worked as an electrical engineer. There he attended grammar school, while later studying Civil Engineering in Graz and specializing in the field of statics. In 1914/15 he served in the artillery as a volunteer, finished School for reserve officers and in 1917 enrolled in Officer Candidate School.
By the end of the war he became Artillery lieutenant and then returned to Zagreb. Due to family property K. did not need a permanent job. In 1933 he married Anna Mezero. Before the start of World War II he moved to Germany where he as a lieutenant taught at the Aviation Officers School in Berlin. In 1943 he married for the second time. He married Eva Maria Freund. From then on there is no reliable data of his whereabouts. According to testimonies, K. survived the war, but he ended up in the Soviet captivity and never returned. He was reported missing.
Already as a schoolboy, during the holidays in 1909 in Ormož K. would construct (at least three different) models of gliders. As Lilienthal he was the first Slovene who managed to glide for some ten metres for several times. In 1895 Luka Jerše from the town of Črna na Koroškem succeeded in such an attempt. Shortly after the K’s glider flight Edvard →Rusjan flew with a power plane on 25th November 1909 for the first time. In Croatia K. is considered a founder of kayaking.
