Kálmán Tihanyi

Kálmán Tihanyi
Kálmán Tihanyi
Born28 April 1897
Died26 February 1947 (1947-02-27) (aged 49)
NationalityHungarian
Alma materUniversity of Pozsony, BME University Budapest
Known forElectronic Television, Plasma Display, Infrared camera, Optically controlled automatic pilotless aircraft
Scientific career
Fieldsinventor, engineer, physicist

Kálmán Tihanyi (Hungarian: [ˈkaːlmaːn ˈtihɒɲi]), or in English language technical literature often mentioned as Coloman Tihanyi or Koloman Tihanyi (28 April 1897 26 February 1947) was a Hungarian physicist, electrical engineer and inventor. One of the early pioneers of electronic television, he made significant contributions to the development of cathode ray tubes (CRTs), which were bought and further developed by the Radio Corporation of America (later RCA), and German companies Loewe and Fernseh AG. He invented and designed the world's first automatic pilotless aircraft in Great Britain. He is also known for the invention of the first infrared video camera in 1929, and coined the first flat panel plasma display in 1936. His Radioskop patent was recognized as a Document of Universal Significance by the UNESCO, and thus became part of the Memory of the World Programme on September 4, 2001.