V. A. Slesarev - the name of this man means little to our contemporaries.

He passed away early... and because of this, today his name is not in one

along with such aircraft designers as, for example, Sikorsky...Tupolev...

But it was he who was Sikorsky’s main competitor at the dawn of aviation...

Vasily Adrianovich Slesarev was born on August 5 (17), 1884 in the village of Slednevo, Markhotkinsky volost, Elninsky district, Smolensk province, in the family of a local merchant Adrian Petrovich Slesarev. Adrian Petrovich was not strong in literacy, but he knew its value and managed to develop deep respect for education. He spared no expense on books, subscribed to newspapers and magazines, loved to see his sons and daughters reading, and managed to give four of them a higher education.

Vasily Slesarev learned to read early. The magazines “Nature and People”, “Knowledge for Everyone”, “World of Adventures”, and the novels of Jules Verne awakened and nourished the boy’s imagination. He dreamed of penetrating the depths of the ocean, of flying on fast airships, of mastering the still unknown forces of nature. He saw the key to realizing these dreams only in technology. All day long he was making something, planing, sawing, adjusting, creating components and parts of fantastic machines, apparatus, instruments.

Adrian Petrovich was sympathetic to his son’s hobbies and, when Vasily was 14 years old, he took him to Moscow and enrolled him in the Komisarovsky Technical School. Vasily Slesarev studied with greed and perseverance. The certificate he received at the end of college showed only A's in all 18 subjects.

Slesarev studied at the Komisarovsky Technical School for six years. When he came to Slednevo for the holidays, Vasily settled in the light of the mezzanine, rising above the roof of his father’s house. With each of his visits, the light became more and more like a kind of laboratory. There was everything in it - a camera, a magic lantern, a spyglass, and even an old phonograph fixed by Vasily. The light was illuminated by an electric light bulb, powered by a homemade galvanic battery, which also powered the bell alarm. One of the first works carried out here by the young researcher was to determine the composition of the glaze for finishing pottery. Mixing various components with lead, Slesarev created his own special recipe for preparing the glaze and, applying it to “gorlacs” (that’s what Smolensk residents still call clay jars for milk), subjected them to firing over a fire.

Vasily also built a lathe, which was powered by a wind turbine installed on the roof. Slesarev made the turbine stator and its rotor from canvas stretched over frames, and the speed of its rotation was regulated by levers directly from the light fixture.

In 1904, Vasily Slesarev entered the first year of the St. Petersburg Electrotechnical Institute.

Due to the active role played by students in the revolutionary struggle of 1905, the authorities temporarily suspended classes in a number of higher educational institutions in the capital. A participant in student protests, Slesarev was forced to leave St. Petersburg for Slednevo. And soon he moved to Germany and entered the Darmstadt Higher Technical School.

During the holidays, he still came to Slednevo and settled in his small laboratory. However, now the scientific profile of this laboratory began to change noticeably, since the student Slesarev was strong impression successes of the nascent aviation. True, these successes were still very modest, and they were often achieved at the cost of human sacrifice. According to Slesarev, this happened because many aviation enthusiasts replaced the lack of theoretical knowledge with selfless daring and courage. Slesarev admired the pioneers of aviation, but at the same time understood that heroism alone was not enough. He believed that people could create reliable flying machines only when they deeply understood the laws of nature. Of course, this point of view was not original. The idea that the path to creating flying machines should lie through the study of the flight of flying creatures was expressed by Leonardo da Vinci in the middle of the 15th century.

In the 18th century, this idea was developed by the Peruvian de Cardonas, who proposed building wings for humans, similar to the wings of condors, whose flight he observed.

In the 70s of the last century, the Russian doctor N. A. Arendt developed the theory of glider flight. He created this theory thanks to numerous experiments with birds. Arendt presented the results of his research in a number of articles, and in 1888 he published a brochure “On aeronautics based on the principle of bird soaring.”

The works of the French physiologist E. Marey (1830-1904), who studied the flight of birds and insects for many years, are also widely known.

In the 90s of the 19th century, the French engineer K. Ader tried to build flying machines, basing them on the data of his observations of the flight of birds and bats.

The German engineer Otto Lilienthal, the “first martyr of aviation,” as H.G. Wells called him, followed the same path.

The great Russian scientist N. E. Zhukovsky, the founder of modern aerodynamic science, also did a lot of work on the study of bird flight. In October 1891, he spoke at a meeting of the Moscow Mathematical Society with a message “On the soaring of birds,” which contained a critical scientific review and generalization of everything that had been done by that time in the field of flight theory.

It is now difficult to say whether student Slesarev was familiar with the work of his predecessors in the field of studying the flight of representatives of the animal world or whether he independently came to the idea of ​​the need for such research. In any case, he was firmly convinced of the importance of this work.

When settling in Slednev during the holidays, Slesarev often left home with a gun. He returned with the carcasses of killed crows, hawks, swallows, and swifts. He carefully weighed and dissected birds, measured the size of their body, the length of their wings and tail, studied the structure and arrangement of feathers, etc.

With the same tenacity, Slesarev studied insects. A neophyte entomologist, he could spend hours watching the flight of butterflies, beetles, bees, flies, and dragonflies. A whole collection of flying insects appeared in his little room. He made up comparison tables their weights, wing measurements, etc.

And then something completely unusual began: the experimenter, armed with scissors, either shortened the wings of large blue-green flies, then made them narrower, then glued prosthetics to his victims from the wings of dead flies and carefully observed how this or that operation affected the character flight of insects.

By gluing dandelion hairs to the body of flies, Slesarev fixed the position of their abdomen, forcing the insects to fly at his discretion in a completely unusual way - sometimes vertically upward, sometimes up and back, sometimes up and forward, etc.

However, Slesarev soon became convinced that direct visual perception limits the possibility of a comprehensive knowledge of the flight of insects, which requires special, sophisticated measuring and recording equipment. He designed and manufactured original instruments that automatically record the amount of energy expended by experimental insects, harnessed by him to a rotary machine (microdynamometer) built from lightweight straws and loaded with the thinnest strips of tissue paper. From glass threads, which he obtained by melting glass tubes over a candle flame, Slesarev made the finest aerodynamic scales. These instruments gave the experimenter the opportunity to determine the power of flying insects and measure the energy expended by them on flight. For example, Slesarev found that a large blue-green fly is capable of developing an energy of about 1 erg in flight, and the highest speed of this fly reaches 20 meters per second.

It turned out to be more difficult to identify the mechanism of insect flight. Slesareva’s sister, Tashkent doctor P.A. Slesareva, recalls how she, as a girl, was more than once present at her brother’s experiments. On his instructions, she glued the thinnest straws to the wings of flies and dragonflies, after which the body of the experimental insect was fixed in a tripod, and the experimenter slowly stretched a sooty paper tape near the flapping wings. The straws glued to the wings scratched marks on the tape, from which Slesarev studied the pattern of movement of the insect's wings. However, such experiments provided only an approximate and insufficiently accurate picture of the phenomenon under study.

Slesarev set out to set up his experiment in such a way that he could see with his own eyes the mechanics of the flight of insects, see what the sequence of movement of their wings and bodies is in various stages of flight, in what plane and at what speed their wings move, etc. For this it was necessary cinematographic equipment. And so Slesarev invented and independently manufactured an ingenious pulse filming installation, which made it possible to capture the movement of insect wings on a continuously moving film strip at a speed of 10 thousand or more pictures per second. The filming was carried out under light produced by a series of spark discharges from a battery of static capacitors (Leyden jars) made from wine bottles.

With the enrichment of the equipment of the Slednevsky laboratory with homemade rapid-recording equipment, the study of insect flight immediately moved forward, and Slesarev was able to come to a number of interesting conclusions that had great scientific, theoretical and applied significance. For example, I drew attention to the fact that the principle of insect flight “can serve as a model for constructing a machine that would immediately rise into the air, without any take-off run.”

Using his equipment, Slesarev showed that all insects flap their wings in a strictly defined plane, oriented relative to the central part of the body; that the flight of an insect is controlled by moving the center of gravity of the insect under the influence of compression or extension of the abdomen; that the leading edge of an insect’s wings is leading, and with each flap the wing rotates 180 degrees around it; that the speed at the ends of the wings of all insects is almost constant (about 8 meters per second), and the number of wing beats is inversely proportional to their length 2.

Slesarev demonstrated the equipment he created for studying the flight of insects in 1909 at the aeronautical exhibition in Frankfurt. This equipment and the results obtained with its help aroused great interest among German engineers and scientists, and Slesarev received a patent in Germany for his film installation a year after the exhibition3.

At the beginning of 1909, Vasily Slesarev graduated from the Darmstadt Higher Technical School, receiving a 1st degree diploma, and upon returning to Russia, wanting to have a Russian engineering diploma, he entered the last year of the Moscow Higher Technical School. Choosing this educational institution was not accidental. In those years, the Moscow Higher Technical School was the center of young aviation science, which was created under the leadership of the “father of Russian aviation” - Professor Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky.

Advanced student youth grouped around Zhukovsky. From this student aeronautical circle came such subsequently famous pilots, aircraft designers and figures in aviation science as B. I. Rossiysky, A. N. Tupolev, D. P. Grigorovich, G. M. Musinyants, A. A. Arkhangelsky, V. P. Vetchinkin, B. S. Stechkin, B. N. Yuryev and others. Student Slesarev also became an active member of this circle. He did a lot to equip the circle’s aerodynamic laboratory with equipment and carried out a number of interesting studies in it related to the operation of propellers. Slesarev's report on these studies, as well as on studies of insect flight at the Moscow Society of Natural History Amateurs, was a very notable event.

N. E. Zhukovsky saw in Slesarev “one of the most talented Russian young people, completely devoted to the study of aeronautics”4. What was especially attractive about Slesarev was the ability to not only intuitively propose this or that original solution to a problem, but also to study it theoretically and experimentally, independently find the appropriate constructive form for this solution, equip it with accurate calculations and drawings and, if required, to embody the idea in material with one’s own hands .

One day, Nikolai Egorovich showed Slesarev a letter from the dean of the shipbuilding department of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, Professor Konstantin Petrovich Voklevsky, who informed Zhukovsky that after much trouble he had managed to obtain a state subsidy of 45 thousand rubles for the construction of an aerodynamic laboratory, which would serve both educational base, and the basis for research work on aerodynamics. At the end of the letter, Boklevsky asked if Nikolai Yegorovich could recommend to him one of his students who could take up the construction of the laboratory.

How would you, Vasily Adrianovich, think if I recommended you to my colleague Boklevsky? It seems that you will cooperate fruitfully with Konstantin Petrovich. The only loser will be me. But... what can you do: the interests of our common cause are more important than personal sympathies. Is not it?..

And already in the summer of 1910, Slesarev moved from Moscow to the capital.

In the same year, the building allocated for the aerodynamic laboratory was rebuilt under the leadership of Slesarev. Then he energetically began equipping the laboratory with the latest measuring equipment, high-precision aerodynamic balances, etc. Slesarev designed and built for the laboratory a large wind tunnel with a diameter of 2 meters, in which the air flow speed reached 20 meters per second. To straighten the vortices, a grid of thin strips of iron was installed in the pipe and a chamber was built in to slow down the air flow. It was the largest, fastest, and most advanced wind tunnel in its design.

Slesarev also made a small wind tunnel with a diameter of 30 centimeters for the laboratory. In this pipe, with the help of a suction fan installed at the end of the working channel, the air flow moved at a speed of up to 50 meters per second.

The laboratory created by Slesarev in its size, wealth and perfection of equipment was much superior to the best aerodynamic laboratory of the famous French engineer Eiffel on the Champ de Mars in Paris at that time.

In addition to teaching students, Slesarev supervised studies of the drag of airplane parts during flight carried out in the laboratory. He proposed the so-called spark observation method, in which wind tunnel An aluminum candle was placed in the path of the air flow, producing a sheaf of sparks that moved along with the flow. It turned out that external wires and braces, which were widely used in aircraft construction at that time, caused very high air resistance in flight and that, in connection with this, airplane struts should have a “fish-shaped” cross-section. Slesarev also devotes a lot of effort to improving the body of an airplane and airship, researching various designs of propellers, creating his own method for determining the absolute speed of a flying airplane, and solving a number of issues in aeroballistics.

Slesarev works fruitfully in related fields of aviation science. As you know, lightness and strength are two warring principles, the reconciliation of which is one of the main tasks of designers. Pioneer aircraft designers, in search of the optimal balance between these warring principles, were often forced to grope, which often led to fatal consequences. This prompted Slesarev to take up the development of the fundamentals of aviation materials science. In 1912, he published the first scientific course in aviation materials science in Russian. A number of provisions put forward by Slesar have not lost their significance today.

In an effort to make the results of his work available to wide circles of the scientific and technical community, Slesarev publishes articles in special periodicals, makes public reports and messages at meetings of St. Petersburg and Moscow aeronautical organizations. Of particular interest are the reports Slesarev made at the All-Russian Aeronautical Congresses held in 1911, 1912 and 1914 under the leadership of N. E. Zhukovsky. For example, in April 1914, at the III All-Russian Aeronautical Congress, Slesarev reported on how the world's first four-engine airship, the Ilya Muromets, and its predecessor, the Russian Knight aircraft, were designed and built. All aerodynamic experiments and verification calculations for the creation of these aircraft were carried out under the leadership of Slesarev in the aerodynamic laboratory of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute.

In the summer of 1913, Slesarev was sent abroad. The results of the trip are presented by Slesarev in his report “ Current state aeronautics in Germany and France from scientific, technical and military points of view,” read on October 23, 1913 at a meeting of the VII department of the Russian Technical Society.

Getting acquainted with various designs of German, French and Russian airplanes, Slesarev clearly saw their weak points. In some designs, the inventors’ good knowledge of issues of aerodynamics was clearly visible, but the situation was unimportant in solving issues of a purely design nature; in other airplanes the handwriting of an experienced designer was noticeable, but the solution to problems associated with aerodynamics looked very doubtful. All this led Slesarev to the idea of ​​​​creating such an airplane, the design of which would harmoniously combine the sum of all the latest achievements of the then aviation science and technology. Such a bold plan could only be realized by a person who stood at the forefront of scientific and technical ideas of his time. Slesarev was precisely such an advanced engineer, scientist and designer.

What followed after Vasily Adrianovich declared his desire to create an ultra-modern airplane cannot but cause amazement: in just a year, Slesarev, without leaving his official duties at the Polytechnic Institute, independently, without anyone’s help, developed project of a giant airship, having completed a colossal amount of experimental, theoretical and graphical work, which would have been more than enough for an entire design and development organization.

On the advice of his mother, Slesarev named the giant aircraft he conceived “Svyatogor”.

"Svyatogor" is a biplane combat airship with a deck for rapid-fire cannon, was supposed to rise to a height of 2500 meters and have a speed of over 100 kilometers per hour. According to calculations, the duration of a continuous flight new car reached 30 hours (it is appropriate to recall that the best foreign aircraft of that time, the Farman, could take only 4 hours of fuel, and the Ilya Muromets aircraft could take 6 hours of flight). According to the project, the flight weight of the Svyatogor reached 6,500 kilograms, including 3,200 kilograms of payload (the flight weight of Ilya Muromets was 5,000 kilograms, payload- 1500 kilograms). To get an idea of ​​the size of the Svyatogor, it is enough to say that its design parameters were as follows: length - 21 meters, upper wingspan - 36 meters. “Svyatogor” stood out from other aircraft with the graceful shape of its wings, which in cross-section resembled the wings of such a beautiful flyer as a swift. Special attention Slesarev drew attention to the streamlining of the outer struts and the careful “licking” of all protrusions, which later became one of the indispensable requirements for aircraft designs. In this regard, as noted by Academician S. A. Chaplygin and Professor V. P. Vetchinkin, Slesarev was “far ahead of his time.”

Vasily Adrianovich skillfully designed hollow tubular structures bent from plywood for Svyatogor, which still remain unsurpassed in the optimal ratio of their strength and lightness. For the wooden parts of the airplane, Slesarev preferred to use spruce as a material that gives lightest weight at a given strength.

The project envisaged installing two Mercedes engines of 300 horsepower each on the Svyatogor, with them located for ease of simultaneous maintenance in the common engine room of the fuselage, close to the center of gravity of the aircraft (the idea of ​​“such an arrangement of engines was subsequently used by German aircraft designers during construction in 1915 twin-engine Siemens-Schuckert aircraft).

Slesarev, while still working in his Slednevsky laboratory, noticed that the number of beats of an insect’s wings during flight is inversely proportional to their length. When designing Svyatogor, Slesarev took advantage of these conclusions. He designed huge propellers with a diameter of 5.5 meters, giving their blades a shape similar to the shape of dragonfly wings, and the rotation speed of the propellers should not exceed 300 revolutions per minute.

Slesarev’s project was carefully studied by a technical commission of a special committee of the Aeronautical Department of the Main Engineering Directorate. All the designer’s calculations were considered convincing, and the committee unanimously recommended proceeding with the construction of Svyatogor.

Started first World War, it would seem, should have accelerated the implementation of Slesarev’s project. After all, the possession of such airplanes as “Svyatogor” promised the Russian military air fleet enormous advantages over military aviation Germany. The St. Petersburg Aviation Plant of V. A. Lebedev undertook to build the first airship “Svyatogor” in three months. This meant that for short term Russia could have a whole squadron of formidable air heroes in its arsenal.

However, time passed, and Slesarev’s project lay motionless, since the Ministry of War (headed by General V. A. Sukhomlinov - one of the shareholders of the Russian-Baltic plant, where at that time the Ilya Muromets aircraft were being built, bringing huge profits to shareholders ) evaded the allocation of 100 thousand rubles for the construction of Svyatogor.

Only after the aviator M.E. Malynsky (a wealthy Polish landowner), “wanting to serve the motherland in the difficult times of its struggle against the Austro-Germans,” offered to pay all the costs of building the Svyatogor, the military department was forced to transfer the order Lebedev plant. Construction of Svyatogor proceeded extremely slowly, since the plant was overloaded with other military orders.

“Svyatogor” was assembled only by June 22, 1915. Its weight turned out to be one and a half tons more than the design, since representatives of the military department demanded that the plant provide a 10-fold (!) safety margin for all critical components of the Svyatogor.

But the main trouble lay ahead for Slesarev. Since the outbreak of the war excluded the possibility of receiving from hostile Germany the two Mercedes engines envisaged by the project, the officials of the military department did not come up with anything better than to offer Slesar the Maybach engines from the downed German airship Graf Zeppelin. Nothing came of this venture, and it could not have happened, since the engines were too badly damaged.

Only after “fruitless fuss with Maybach engines” did the military authorities decide to order engines for Svyatogor from the French company Renault. The order was completed only by the beginning of 19G6, and the company, deviating from the terms of the order, supplied two engines with a capacity of only 220 horsepower strength and much heavier than expected.

Testing of Svyatogor began in March 1916. During the plane's first 200-meter run across the airfield, the right engine failed. In addition, it turned out that since the aircraft was assembled, some of its parts have become dilapidated and require replacement. To put the engine and plane in order, it was necessary to find an additional 10 thousand rubles. But a specially created commission admitted that “the cost of completing the construction of this apparatus, even the most insignificant government sum, is unacceptable.”

Slesarev energetically protested against such a conclusion and, with the support of Professor Boklevsky, insisted on the appointment of a new commission chaired by N.E. Zhukovsky himself, which, having familiarized itself with Slesarev’s plane, wrote in its minutes dated May 11, 1916: “The commission unanimously came to the conclusion that the flight of Slesarev’s airplane with a full load of 6.5 tons at a speed of 114 km/h is possible, and therefore the completion of the construction of Slesarev’s apparatus is desirable” 6.

Following this, at a meeting held on June 19, 1916, the Zhukovsky commission not only fully confirmed its conclusion of May 11, but also came to the conclusion that when installing on the Svyatogor two engines provided by the designer with a total power of 600 horsepower, the aircraft would be able to with a load of 6.5 tons, show significantly higher flight qualities than provided for by the project, namely: fly at speeds of up to 139 kilometers per hour, gain a height of 500 meters within 4.5 minutes and rise to a “ceiling” of 3200 meters 7 .

Zhukovsky's support allowed Slesarev to resume preparing Svyatogor for testing. However, the work was carried out in a poorly equipped handicraft workshop, since all factories were overloaded with military orders. This had a strong impact on the quality of the manufactured parts, which caused minor breakdowns when the Svyatogor trial was resumed at the airfield. In addition, it should be remembered that airfields in the modern sense of the word did not yet exist in those days, and the running of the Svyatogor was carried out on a poorly leveled field. As a result, during one of the runs across the field, the Svyatogor wheel, due to an unsuccessful sharp turn, fell into a deep drainage ditch, which led to damage to the aircraft. Slesarev’s opponents again took active action. Vasily Adrianovich still managed to insist this time on the need to complete the tests of his brainchild. However, in the context of the increasing devastation of wartime, the matter was again greatly delayed. In addition, the military department did not give money, and Slesarev’s personal funds were already completely exhausted by him8. The revolutionary events that broke out in February 1917 took the question of the fate of “Svyatogor” off the agenda for a long time.

Young Soviet Russia, bleeding, fought an unequal heroic battle against hunger, devastation, counter-revolutionaries and interventionists. In the circumstances of those days, all attempts by Slesarev to attract interest in “Svyatogor” from government and public organizations were obviously doomed to failure. And when he managed to get a reception from influential people, they listened to him carefully and sympathized with him:

Wait a minute, Comrade Slesarev. The time will come... And now, agree with us, there is no time for “Svyatogor”.

And Slesarev waited patiently.

In January 1921, the Council of Labor and Defense, on the instructions of V.I. Lenin, created a commission to develop a development program Soviet aviation and aeronautics. Despite the difficulties the country was experiencing associated with the restoration of the destroyed national economy, the Soviet government allocated 3 million rubles in gold for the development of aviation enterprises.

In May 1921, Slesarev was instructed to prepare materials for resuming the construction of Svyatogor. . Slesarev left for Petrograd. His imagination was already picturing the outlines of a new air battleship, even more powerful, grandiose and more advanced than the Svyatogor. However, these dreams were not destined to come true: on July 10, 1921, an assassin’s bullet ended the life of this wonderful person on the threshold of new glorious deeds in the name of a wonderful future.

Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin was born in 1894.

Soviet aircraft designer, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1968), colonel general of the engineering and technical service (1967), three times Hero of Socialist Labor (1941, 1957, 1974). In the Soviet Army since 1919, first as an aircraft mechanic, then as a military commissar, and since 1921 as head of an aircraft repair train. Graduated from the Air Force Academy. Professor N.E. Zhukovsky (1926).

Since 1935 Ilyushin - chief designer, in 1956-1970. — general designer. Under his leadership, mass-produced attack aircraft Il-2, Il-10, bombers Il-4, Il-28, passenger aircraft Il-12, Il-14, Il-18, Il-62, as well as a number of experimental and experimental aircraft were created.
Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin was awarded the FAI Gold Aviation Medal.

Bronze busts of the pilot were installed in Moscow and Vologda. The Moscow Machine-Building Plant bears the name of Ilyushin.
Great Soviet designer died in 1977.

Semyon Alekseevich Lavochkin - the most famous Soviet aircraft designer, corresponding member. USSR Academy of Sciences (1958), Major General of the Aviation Engineering Service (1944), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1943, 1956).

Graduated from Moscow Higher Technical School in 1927.

In 1940, together with M.I. Gudkov and V.P. Gorbunov presented the LaGG-1 (I-22) fighter for testing, which, after modifications, was put into production under the name LaGG-3 (I-301). When developing it, Lavochkin was the first in the USSR to use a new, especially durable material - delta wood. Converting the LaGG to a more powerful Shavrov ASh-82 engine saved the aircraft from being withdrawn from mass production. In September 1942, the first production La-5s were transferred to the Stalingrad area. Further development of this aircraft were the La-5F, La-5FN, La-7 fighters, which were widely used during the Great Patriotic War.
In the post-war years, under the leadership of aircraft designer Lavochkin, a number of serial and experimental jet fighters were created, incl. The La-160 is the first domestic aircraft with a swept wing and the La-176, on which for the first time in the USSR on December 26, 1948, a flight speed equal to the speed of sound was achieved. The La-15 fighter, produced in a small series (500 aircraft), became the last production aircraft designed by Lavochkin.

On June 9, 1960, Semyon Alekseevich Lavochkin suddenly died of a heart attack at the training ground in Sary-Shagan.

− Mikoyan - famous designer of MiGs

Artyom Ivanovich Mikoyan was born in 1905.
Soviet aircraft designer, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1968; corresponding member 1953), colonel general of the engineering and technical service (1967), twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1956, 1957). After serving in the Red Army, he entered (1931) the Red Army Air Force Academy named after. Professor N.E. Zhukovsky (now VVIA). Since 1940, chief designer of plant No. 1. A.I. Mikoyan is one of the pioneers of jet aviation in the USSR.

After the war, he developed high-speed and supersonic front-line jet aircraft, including the MiG-9, MiG-15, MiG-17 (which reached the speed of sound), MiG-19 (the first mass-produced domestic supersonic fighter), the famous MiG-21 with a delta wing of a thin profile and a flight speed twice the speed of sound. Since December 20, 1956, Mikoyan has been the general designer.

The latest aircraft created under his leadership are the MiG-23 fighter (the first in the USSR with an in-flight variable sweep of the entire wing) and the MiG-25 interceptor fighter with a flight speed 3 times the speed of sound.

The famous Soviet aircraft designer of supersonic MiGs, Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan, died in 1970.

− Mikhail Gurevich - creator of the MiG

Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich - a prominent Soviet aircraft designer, Doctor of Technical Sciences (1964), Hero of Socialist Labor (1957).

Graduated from the Kharkov Technological Institute (1925). He was engaged in the design and construction of gliders. Since 1929, he worked as a design engineer and group leader in various design bureaus of the aviation industry.

In 1940 A.I. Mikoyan and M.I. Gurevich created the MiG-1 fighter, and then its modification MiG-3.

In 1940-1957 Gurevich - Deputy Chief Designer, 1957-1964. chief designer at OKB A.I. Mikoyan.

During the war he participated in the creation of experimental aircraft, after the war - in the development of high-speed and supersonic front-line fighters, many of which were produced in large series for a long time and were in service with the Air Force.

Since 1947, he led the development and creation of cruise missiles at the Design Bureau.

The creator of the legendary MiGs, Mikoyan's comrade-in-arms, the legendary Soviet aircraft designer Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich died in 1976.

− Chetverikov - designer of flying boats

The famous Soviet aircraft designer Igor Vyacheslavovich Chetverikov was born in 1909.

After graduating from the air department of the Leningrad Institute of Railways (1928), he worked at the A.P. Design Bureau. Grigorovich, head of the naval department of the Design Bureau (1931), where the MAR-3 flying boat was created.

In 1934-1935 designed and built a light flying boat in two versions: a carrier-based aircraft (OSGA-101) and a folding aircraft for a submarine (SPL). Several world records were set at SPL in 1937.

In 1936, he built the Arctic reconnaissance aircraft ARK-3, which set a cargo flight altitude record in 1937. Under the leadership of I.V. Chetverikov in 1937-1946. Several modifications of the MAR-6 flying boat were produced: Che-2, B-1 - B-5. In 1947 he built the TA amphibious transport vehicle.

Since 1948 he worked as a teacher. Soviet aircraft designer Igor Chetverikov died in 1987.

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Chetverikov Igor Vyacheslavovich (1904-1987)
Soviet aircraft designer. He designed and built several flying boats, including the OSGA-101 amphibious aircraft.
Construction of OSGA-101 was completed by the spring of 1934. Unfortunately, to make the plane by the deadline for the Chelyuskin to enter the Severny highway sea ​​route failed, and on its first and last voyage the icebreaking steamer left with the Sha-2 amphibian designed by V.B. Shavrov on board.

Shavrov Vadim Borisovich (1898 - 1976)
Soviet aircraft designer, aviation historian. He is best known for the creation of several types of flying boats and the two-volume monograph “History of Aircraft Designs in the USSR”, the creator of the Sh-2 amphibious aircraft, widespread in the pre-war years.

Alexandrov Vladimir Leontievich (1894-1962)
Aircraft designer, scientist in the field of aircraft engineering, student of N. E. Zhukovsky. Co-author of the project of the first Soviet passenger
AK-1 aircraft (1924). In 1938-41 he was imprisoned and worked in TsKB-29 of the NKVD. Rehabilitated.

The AK-1 aircraft is the first domestic four-seater passenger aircraft of V.L. Aleksandrov and V.V. Kalinin. Kalinin completed the calculation part.
Built in November 1923. The AK-1 aircraft was not mass-produced. This aircraft, in terms of its passenger capacity, was significantly inferior to the German Junkers Ju-13 and Dornier III aircraft, as well as the Fokker F-111 aircraft, which were operated on Soviet airlines in the mid-20s.

Porokhovshchikov Alexander Alexandrovich (1892-1943)
Russian designer, entrepreneur, pilot. Grandfather of actor Alexander Porokhovshchikov.
After October revolution pilot in the Red Army.

The P-IV BIS aircraft is a training aircraft for initial training.
Produced from February 1917 until the spring of 1923.

Putilov Alexander Ivanovich (1893-1979)
Soviet aircraft designer. Worked at the A. N. Tupolev Design Bureau. Participant in the creation of the first ANT aircraft. Developed the Stal-2 aircraft,
"Steel-3", "Steel-11".
In 1938-1940 was imprisoned in TsKB-29 of the NKVD, worked in the brigade of V. M. Petlyakov.

The "Steel-2" aircraft is a 4-seater passenger aircraft, the first airliner with a stainless steel frame.
First flight - October 11, 1931. Production 1932-1935.

Kalinin Konstantin Alekseevich (1887-1938)
Soviet aircraft designer and pilot.
During the First World War, he was the head of an air squadron. Participated in Civil War as a Red Army pilot.
In 1923, he began building aircraft at a plant in Kyiv. In 1926 he headed the design bureau in Kharkov.
In 1938, on false charges, Kalinin was arrested and executed seven months after his arrest, in the dungeons of the Voronezh NKVD.
The charge was standard for 1937-38. - “anti-Soviet activities and espionage.” Closed court session of the Military Collegium Supreme Court lasted only 10 minutes, there was no defense lawyer or witnesses. The sentence was carried out immediately after the end of the meeting. This fact in the biography of such an outstanding person is so incomprehensible that it requires a separate
research. Suffice it to say that, unlike other aircraft designers arrested in those years, who after their arrest still continued to work in the Special Design Bureau of the NKVD, Kalinin was not given such an opportunity.

Airplane K-5
The most popular passenger aircraft of the pre-war period. First flight October 18, 1929 Years of production 1930-1934.
It was simpler and cheaper to manufacture and operate than its competitor, the Tupolev ANT-9.

Soviet aircraft engine designer, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1943), major general engineer (1944), Hero of Socialist Labor (1940). Studied at Moscow Higher Technical School, student of N.E. Zhukovsky. From 1923 he worked at the Scientific Automotive Engine Institute (from 1925 chief designer), from 1930 at CIAM, from 1936 at the aircraft engine plant named after. M.V. Frunze. In 1935-55 taught at MVTU and VVIA. In the early 30s under the leadership of Mikulin, the first Soviet liquid-cooled aviation engine M-34 was created, on the basis of which a number of engines of various powers and purposes were subsequently built. Engines of the M-34 (AM-34) type were equipped with the record-breaking ANT-25 aircraft, TB-3 bombers and many other aircraft. The AM-35A engine was installed on MiG-1, MiG-3 fighters, and TB-7 (Pe-8) bombers. During the war, Mikulin led the creation of boosted AM-38F and AM-42 engines for the Il-2 and Il-10 attack aircraft. In 1943-55 Mikulin is the chief designer of the experimental aircraft engine plant No. 30 in Moscow.

Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor, USSR State Prize laureate, engineer major general.

V.Ya. Klimov studied at the laboratory of automobile engines, headed by academician E.A. Chukadov.

From 1918 to 1924, he was the head of the laboratory of light engines at NAMI NTO USSR, taught at the Moscow Higher Technical School, the Lomonosov Institute and the Academy of the Air Force.

In 1924, he was sent to Germany for the purchase and acceptance of the BMW-4 engine (in licensed production of the M-17).

From 1928 to 1930 he is on a business trip to France, where he is also purchasing a Jupiter-7 engine from the Gnome-Ron company (in licensed production of the M-22).

From 1931 to 1935, Vladimir Yakovlevich headed the gasoline engines department of the newly created IAM (later VIAM) and headed the engine design department of the MAI. In 1935, as the Chief Designer of Plant No. 26 in Rybinsk, he went to France to negotiate the acquisition of a license for the production of the 12-cylinder, V-shaped engine Hispano-Suiza 12 Ybrs, which in the USSR received the designation M-100. The development of this engine - the VK-103, VK-105PF and VK-107A engines were installed on all Yakovlev fighters and on the Petlyakov Pe-2 bomber during the war. At the end of the war, Klimov developed the VK-108 engine, but it never entered mass production.

Soviet designer of aircraft engines, Doctor of Technical Sciences (1940), Lieutenant General of the Engineering and Technical Service (1948).

Born 12(24).01.1892, in the village. Nizhnie Sergi, now Sverdlovsk region. In 1921 he graduated from Moscow Higher Technical School.

In 1925–1926, in collaboration with metallurgist N.V. Okromeshko, he created the five-cylinder radial aircraft engine M-11, which, based on test results, won the competition for an engine for training aircraft and became the first domestic serial air-cooled aircraft engine.

In 1934 he was appointed Chief Designer of the Perm Engine Plant (1934).

In the period from 1934 to 1953, under the leadership of A.D. Shvetsov created a family of air-cooled piston engines, covering the entire era of development of this type of engine, from the five-cylinder M-25 with a power of 625 hp. up to 28-cylinder ASh-2TK with a power of 4500 hp. Engines of this family were installed on aircraft of Tupolev, Ilyushin, Lavochkin, Polikarpov, Yakovlev, which made a decisive contribution to the achievement of air supremacy in the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. Engines with the ASH brand (Arkady Shvetsov) have served and are still serving with great benefit in peacetime.

In the 30s under the leadership of Shvetsov, the M-22, M-25, M-62, M-63 engines were created for the I-15, I-16 fighters, etc.; in the 40s - a number of piston star-shaped air-cooled engines of successively increasing power of the ASh family: ASh-62IR (for Li-2, An-2 transport aircraft), ASh-82, ASh-82FN (for La-5, La-7 fighters, Tu-bomber 2, passenger aircraft Il-12, Il-14), engines for the M.L. Mil Mi-4 helicopter, etc. Shvetsov created a school of air-cooled engine designers.

Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd–3rd convocations. Hero of Socialist Labor (1942). Laureate of the Stalin Prizes (1942, 1943, 1946, 1948). Awarded 5 orders of Lenin, 3 other orders, as well as medals. Golden medal“Hammer and Sickle”, five Orders of Lenin, Order of Suvorov 2nd degree, Order of Kutuzov 1st degree, Order of the Red Banner of Labor, medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.”

Russia approached the First World War with the largest air fleet. But big things started small. And today we want to talk about the very first Russian aircraft.

Mozhaisky's plane

The monoplane of Rear Admiral Alexander Mozhaisky became the first aircraft built in Russia and one of the first in the world. The construction of the aircraft began with theory and ended with the construction of a working model, after which the project was approved by the War Ministry. Steam engines Mozhaisky’s designs were ordered from the English company Arbecker-Hamkens, which led to the disclosure of the secret - the drawings were published in the Engineering magazine in May 1881. It is known that the airplane had propellers, a fuselage covered with fabric, a wing covered with balloon silk, a stabilizer, elevators, a keel and landing gear. The weight of the aircraft was 820 kilograms.
The aircraft was tested on July 20, 1882 and was unsuccessful. The airplane was accelerated along inclined rails, after which it rose into the air, flew several meters, fell on its side and fell, breaking its wing.
After the accident, the military lost interest in the development. Mozhaisky tried to modify the airplane and ordered more powerful engines. However, in 1890 the designer died. The military ordered the plane to be removed from the field, and its further fate is unknown. Steam engines for some time they were stored at the Baltic Shipyard, where they burned down in a fire.

Kudashev's plane

The first Russian aircraft to be tested successfully was a biplane designed by design engineer Prince Alexander Kudashev. He built the first gasoline-powered airplane in 1910. During testing, the airplane flew 70 meters and landed safely.
The weight of the aircraft was 420 kilograms. The wingspan, covered with rubberized fabric, is 9 meters. The Anzani engine installed on the aircraft had a power of 25.7 kW. Kudashev managed to fly this plane only 4 times. During the next landing, the airplane crashed into a fence and broke down.
Afterwards, Kudashev designed three more modifications of the aircraft, each time making the design lighter and increasing engine power.
"Kudashev-4" was demonstrated at the first Russian International Aeronautical Exhibition in St. Petersburg, where it received a silver medal from the Imperial Russian Technical Society. The plane could reach a speed of 80 km/h and had a 50 hp engine. The fate of the airplane was sad - it was crashed at an aviator competition.

"Russia-A"

The Rossiya-A biplane was produced in 1910 by the First All-Russian Aeronautics Partnership.
It was built based on the Farman airplane design. At the III International Automobile Exhibition in St. Petersburg, it received a silver medal from the Military Ministry and was purchased by the All-Russian Imperial Aero Club for 9 thousand rubles. A curious detail: until that moment he had not even taken off into the air.
The Rossiya-A was distinguished from the French aircraft by its high-quality finishing. The covering of the wings and empennage was double-sided, the Gnome engine had 50 hp. and accelerated the plane to 70 km/h.
Flight tests were carried out on August 15, 1910 at the Gatchina airfield. And the plane flew more than two kilometers. A total of 5 copies of the Rossiya were built.

"Russian Knight"

The Russian Knight biplane became the world's first four-engine aircraft created for strategic intelligence. The history of heavy aviation began with him.
The designer of the Vityaz was Igor Sikorsky.
The plane was built at the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works in 1913. The first model was called “Grand” and had two engines. Later, Sikorsky placed four 100 hp engines on the wings. every. In front of the cabin there was a platform with a machine gun and a searchlight. The plane could lift 3 crew members and 4 passengers into the air.
On August 2, 1913, the Vityaz set a world record for flight duration - 1 hour 54 minutes.
"Vityaz" crashed at a military aircraft competition. An engine fell out of a flying Meller-II and damaged the planes of the biplane. They did not restore it. Based on the Vityaz, Sikorsky designed a new aircraft, the Ilya Muromets, which became national pride Russia.

"Sikorsky S-16"

The aircraft was developed in 1914 by order of the Military Department and was a biplane with an 80 hp Ron engine, which accelerated the S-16 to 135 km/h.
Operation revealed the positive qualities of the aircraft, and mass production began. At first, the S-16 served to train pilots for the Ilya Muromets, in World War I it was equipped with a Vickers machine gun with a Lavrov synchronizer and was used for reconnaissance and escort of bombers.
First air battle C-16 took place on April 20, 1916. On that day, warrant officer Yuri Gilscher shot down an Austrian plane with a machine gun.
The S-16 quickly became unusable. If at the beginning of 1917 there were 115 aircraft in the “Squadron of Airships,” then by the fall there were 6 of them left. The remaining aircraft went to the Germans, who handed them over to Hetman Skoropadsky, and then went to the Red Army, but some of the pilots flew to the Whites. One S-16 was included in the aviation school in Sevastopol.