AEKKEA-RAAB

thumb|AEKKEA-RAAB Schwalbe II (temporary registration) thumb|Top part of a 1936 AEKKEA-RAAB company letter addressed to the Greek Civil Aviation Authority. Company headquarters and other details can be seen (Michalis Pararas archive). The history of AEKKEA (Anonymos Etaireia Kataskevis Kai Ekmetallefseos Aeroplanon - ''Societe Anonyme Pour la Fabrication et l'Exploitation des Avions Raab), an aircraft maker based in Greece, is connected with the history of a talented German aircraft designer, Antonius Raab (his first name alternatively known as Antonios, in Greek, and Antonio, in Spanish after his involvement in Spain).

== Establishment == In Germany, Raab was the co-founder of Raab-Katzenstein, an aircraft manufacturing company. A devoted anti-Nazi, Raab was forced out of his homeland, and after attempts to establish his company in Estonia and Latvia, ended up in 1935 in Greece, where he had the support of a high-ranking Air Force officer (Gen. P. Gazis). With this support, he and his Greek partners founded a company called AEKKEA'' (which stood for "Anonymos Etaireia Kataskevis Kai Ekmetallefseos Aeroplanon", or, in French, the "international" language employed in Greece at the time "Societe Anonyme Pour la Fabrication et l'Exploitation des Avions Raab"). The company was legally established on October 20, 1935, by Antonius Raab, Apostolos Agnidis, Konstantinos Bitzios and Georgios Sarigiannis, with headquarters in Piraeus (to be moved it in 1937 to nearby Phaleron). Construction was undertaken by Pyrkal defence industry until AEKKEA's own factory in Moschato started operation in 1937.