You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Russian. (October 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at [[:ru:Григорашвили, Михаил Леонтьевич]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|ru|Григорашвили, Михаил Леонтьевич}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Michael Gregor, born Mikheil Grigorashvili (Georgian: მიხეილ გრიგორაშვილი) or Mikhail Leontyevich Grigorashvili (Russian: Михаил Леонтьевич Григорашвили) (1888–1953) was an aircraft engineer of Georgian origin, one of the pioneering aviators in the Russian Empire, the United States, and Canada.^[1]

Born in Derbent, Russia, Grigorashvili graduated from the Imperial Institute of Communications in St. Petersburg and was trained as a pilot in France in 1911.

Upon his return to Russia, Grigorashvili worked as an instructor for pilots and joined the army as an officer in World War I.

The Bolshevik coup in 1917 forced him to retire to a newly independent Georgia where he worked as a road engineer in the Georgian ministry for communications.

After the Soviet takeover of Georgia in 1921, he went in exile to the United States where he would naturalize in 1926. Having briefly worked for a minor aviation factory in Rhode Island, Grigorashvili, by then known as Gregor, was recruited as an aircraft designer by the Dayton-Wright Company in 1921, Curtiss-Wright in 1923, Seversky Aircraft Company in 1932 and Chase Aircraft in the 1940s where he worked until 1953. In 1934, Gregor founded his own firm Gregor Aircraft which constructed an original light plane GR-1.

Two years later, Gregor was employed by the Canadian Car and Foundry and designed FDB-1 biplane fighter.^[2] Despite being an advanced and innovative design, incorporating all-metal construction with flush riveting, retractable undercarriage and a sleek shape, the FDB-I was overtaken by events and, after being unable to find a buyer, was lost in a fire in 1945. Despite that, Gregor became one of the founders of the Canadian aviation industry.^[3][4]

In the 1940s, Gregor worked as one of the leading designers for the Chase Aircraft company. He died in Trenton, New Jersey.^{[5][6] [7]}