Designer of the first Soviet fighter planes. Aviation: history and development

The series tells about outstanding aircraft designers who have made an invaluable contribution to the history of the development of domestic aviation. Previously, dedicated to military aircraft designers have already been posted, in this cycle the remaining 5 series.

An excellent selection of chronicles and facts, little-known details of the development of aviation technology, it will be interesting to see even those who are not fond of aviation.

Outstanding aircraft designers: Oleg Antonov

Outstanding aircraft designers: Nikolai Polikarpov

Outstanding aircraft designers: Georgy Beriev

Outstanding aircraft designers: Vladimir Myasishchev

Outstanding aircraft designers: Mikhail Mil

Outstanding aircraft designers: Nikolai Kamov

Outstanding aircraft designers: Semyon Lavochkin

Outstanding aircraft designers: Alexander Yakovlev

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

Aircraft Mozhaisky

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 a theory and ended with the construction of a working model, after which the project was approved by the War Department. Steam engines designed by Mozhaisky were ordered from the English firm Arbecker-Hamkens, which led to the disclosure of the secret - the drawings were published in the journal Engineering in May 1881. It is known that the airplane had propellers, a fabric-covered fuselage, a wing covered with balloon silk, a stabilizer, elevators, a keel and landing gear. The weight of the aircraft was 820 kilograms.
The tests of the aircraft took place on July 20, 1882 and were unsuccessful. The airplane was dispersed on 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 development. Mozhaisky tried to modify the airplane, 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 were stored for some time at the Baltic Shipyard, where they burned down in a fire.

Aircraft Kudashev

The first Russian aircraft to be successfully tested was a biplane designed by design engineer Prince Alexander Kudashev. He built the first gasoline-powered aircraft in 1910. On tests, the airplane flew 70 meters and landed safely.
The mass 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. On this plane, Kudashev managed to fly only 4 times. During the next landing, the airplane crashed into a fence and broke.
After Kudashev designed three more modifications of the aircraft, each time lightening the design and increasing the power of the engine.
"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 aircraft could reach speeds of 80 km / h and had a 50 hp engine. The fate of the airplane was sad - it was smashed at aviators' competitions.

"Russia-A"

The biplane "Russia-A" was released in 1910 by the "First All-Russian Association of Aeronautics".
It was built on the basis of Farman's airplane design. At the III International Automobile Exhibition in St. Petersburg, he received a silver medal of the Military Ministry and was bought by the All-Russian Imperial Aero Club for 9 thousand rubles. A curious detail: up to this point, he had not even risen into the air.
From the French aircraft "Russia-A" was distinguished by a high-quality finish. Wings and plumage were covered with 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 over two kilometers. A total of 5 copies of "Russia" were built.

"Russian Knight"

Biplane "Russian Knight" became the world's first four-engine aircraft designed for strategic reconnaissance. The history of heavy aviation began with him.
The designer of the Vityaz was Igor Sikorsky.
The aircraft was built at the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works in 1913. The first model was called "Grand" and had two motors. Later, Sikorsky placed four 100 hp motors on the wings. each. In front of the cockpit was a platform with a machine gun and a searchlight. The aircraft could lift 3 crew members and 4 passengers into the air.
On August 2, 1913, the Vityaz set a world flight duration record - 1 hour 54 minutes.
"Vityaz" crashed at the competition of military aircraft. The engine fell out of the flying Meller II and damaged the plane of the biplane. They did not restore it. On the basis of 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 C-16 to 135 km / h.
The operation revealed the positive qualities of the aircraft, mass production was started. 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 used for reconnaissance and escorting bombers.
The first air combat of the S-16 took place on April 20, 1916. On that day, ensign Yuri Gilsher shot down an Austrian aircraft from a machine gun.
C-16 quickly fell into disrepair. If at the beginning of 1917 there were 115 aircraft in the Airship Squadron, then by the autumn there were 6 of them. The remaining aircraft fell 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 C-16 was included in the aviation school in Sevastopol.

Work by Zhilin Stepan - 2nd place

Scientific adviser-consultant: Burtsev Sergey Alekseevich, Moscow State Technical University. N.E. Bauman

Introduction

The flight of the Wright Brothers marked the birth of air transport - new, mysterious and unknown. The emergence of the ability to move through the air has become a symbol of the XX century. Since then, more than a hundred years have passed... During this time, the plane has turned from a dangerous entertainment into a reliable and fast mode of transport, which has repeatedly reduced the distance between cities, countries and continents.
Since the 10s of the twentieth century, almost all world powers began to pay great attention to aircraft construction. Several schools of aircraft construction and aeronautics were formed, many machine-building plants began to produce airplanes. First World War became an "accelerator" for the development of aviation: over these four years, combat aircraft appeared that determined the rebirth of clumsy "chicks" into machines that had no longer "toy" performance characteristics. The aircraft became capable of not only carrying weapons, but also much faster than a train or a ship, transporting passengers and cargo over considerable distances.

This is how aviation was born.

And the greatest merit in this belongs to aircraft design engineers, who created aircraft from scratch and made them perfect. The way we see them now.

England

Sir Geoffrey De Havilland
(1882-1965)

Born July 27, 1882 in Hazelmire (Surrey). After graduating from Oxford University and the Graduate School of Engineering, he worked in the automotive industry. In 1914, he became the chief designer at Airplane Manufacturing, where he created several D.H. series aircraft used in the First World War. In 1920 he founded the De Havilland Aircraft Company. In 1944 Geoffrey de Havilland was raised to the Knighthood.
Bombers designed by Geoffrey de Havilland were widely used by the RAF in the First World War. The most famous of these was the D.H.4, a two-seat, two-post, fabric-covered, braced biplane. The power plant consisted of a 220 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle in-line engine. D.H.4 bombers of the latest series with the 375 hp Eagle III engine. superior in performance to many fighters of the time. Armament, as a rule, consisted of three machine guns (synchronous and twin turrets), bomb load - 209 kg. During the fighting, these aircraft often received the most important and responsible tasks, such as, for example, attacking the dam in Zeebrugge.
Significant success was achieved by the D.H.88 "Comet" (the first with this name), specially designed for racing from Mildenhall to Melbourne. The features of the aircraft were all-wood construction, large-capacity forward fuel tank and manual system chassis cleaning.
The D.H.98 Mosquito bomber, along with the Spitfire, is rightfully considered one of the most famous and famous British combat aircraft. Creating the Mosquito design, De Havilland pursued only one goal - speed. The all-wood aircraft (here, by the way, the experience of D.H.88 was very useful) had a three-layer “sandwich” skin: veneer-balsa-veneer. Survivability, incredible for a wooden aircraft, was achieved through the use of the full strength and pliability of the main material - plywood. Main Feature design was that the wing of the aircraft was a single unit. Two "Merlin"XXI made it possible to reach a speed that was huge at that time - 686 km / h. The thrust-to-weight ratio of the aircraft was so great that it allowed it to turn the ascending "barrels" on one engine! "Mossi", as English pilots affectionately called him, became a real thorn in Germany: only at the end of 1944 did the Luftwaffe have an aircraft capable of intercepting it. Soon, aircraft similar in class to the Mosquito appeared in the air forces of the whole world.
After the war, under the leadership of De Havilland, a series of jet fighters was built, atypical for this class of aircraft, of a two-beam scheme, the first of which was the D.H.100 "Vampire".
But world fame for De Havilland was brought in 1949 by the D.H.106 Comet aircraft. Even at the height of the war in England, the Barbazon Committee was formed, whose task was to determine the prospects and priorities for the development civil aviation. It was on the instructions of Lord Barbazon of Tara that the new airliner was designed. Until then, there was no practice in the world in creating jet passenger aircraft. For the de Havilland firm, the development of high-speed aircraft was a common thing: the D.H.88 "Kometa" sports aircraft and the D.H.98 "Mosquito" bomber helped the designers to accumulate vast experience in designing aircraft with high flight performance. The “comet”, designed for 44 passengers, was lifted into the air by 4 Rolls-Royce “Avon” RA.7 engines with a thrust of 33 kN each, installed in the root of the trapezoidal wings with a small sweep angle. For the reliability of take-off from airfields of limited size, a Sprite liquid-propellant rocket booster with a thrust of 15.6 kN was used (never used on aircraft of this type before). "Comets" of the first series flew in many airlines, until misfortune began in 1954. As it turned out later, the cause of the disasters was the fatigue failure of the metal. After that, the aircraft was carefully redesigned, and, at the same time, the wing area and the volume of fuel tanks were increased. Passenger capacity has increased to 101 people. The upgraded "Comets" IV served until 1965, until they were replaced by the American Boeing-707.

Reginald Joseph Mitchell
(1895-1937)

Reginald Mitchell was born in 1895 in the village of Teik near Stoke-on-Trent. In 1911, he began working for Kerr Stewart & Co., a steam locomotive company. Already in 1919, at the age of 24, he became the chief designer of the Supermarine company. In 1931, the Schneider Cup was won on the S.6 racing aircraft of its design. In 1937, he completed the design of his last aircraft, the Spitfire fighter.
From the memoirs of the Soviet designer A. S. Yakovlev: "... Visitors were not allowed close to the Spitfire aircraft: the fighter was the latest military secret of England. A rope was pulled around the car, blocking access. No explanations related to this machine were given. And only much later, during the war, I learned about the designer of the Spitfire aircraft, Reginald Mitchell. He died in 1937, when his car was put into mass production. Translated into Russian, "Spitfire" means "fireman". was the product of years of hard calculation and wind tunneling, it was, in fact, the most compact fighter aircraft that could be built around a pilot, armament and a 12-cylinder engine Its elliptical wing shape, although at first a nuisance to technologists, made it possible to achieve big gains in aerodynamics. During the war, the armament of the aircraft increased from 8 machine guns to 4 cannons. Engine power increased from 1000 hp (Rolls-Royce "PV XII", the prototype of the "Merlin") up to 2035 hp. (Rolls-Royce Griffin engine). Here is what the English pilot Bob Stanford said about the Spitfire: “... someone falls in love with yachts, someone with women ... or cars, but I think every pilot experiences a state of love when he sits in this cozy little cabin, where everything is at hand." In 1940, it was the only aircraft capable of opposing the German Messerschmitt Bf109E fighter, which embodied the "Spanish lessons". The famous Soviet ace Alexander Karpov fought on the Spitfire Mk.IXLF, delivered under Lend-Lease (30 victories). The quality of the design is also evidenced by the fact that the "firemen" flew until the mid-fifties ( last time were used during the Arab-Israeli conflicts). Spitfire is rightfully considered one of the most beautiful propeller-driven aircraft.

Germany

Kurt Tank
(1898-1970)

Kurt Tank was born in Bromberg-Schwedenhöhe in 1898. Participated in the First World War, commanded a squadron of a cavalry regiment, was presented for awards for personal courage. In 1918 he was seriously wounded. He was educated at the Technical Institute of Berlin. Since 1924, he began working as a design engineer at the Robach-metallflugtsoygbau company. In 1931 he headed the design office of the Focke-Wulf enterprise in Bremen. In 1945, after the end of the war, he emigrated to Argentina, then to India. Returned to Germany in 1970.
The most famous and widely known aircraft built by Kurt Tank is, of course, the Focke-Wulf FW-190 fighter. This fighter, whose mass production began in 1941, was the main strike force of the Luftwaffe. It was fundamentally based new concept air combat, first put forward by Kurt Tank: the main thing was powerful weapons, rate of climb and speed (later, the Soviet La-5, the English Typhoon and Tempest, and the American P-47D were designed on the same principle). The aircraft was built in modifications of a bomber, torpedo bomber, photo reconnaissance aircraft, attack aircraft, fighter and interceptor. Colossal survivability was incorporated into the design of the FW-190: the safety factor of the airframe structure was very high - 1.2. The FW-190 had a high wing loading, the internal layout of which was particularly rational. The powerful "double star", the BMW-801C engine, thanks to which the aircraft had excellent thrust-to-weight ratio, was a good protection for the pilot even from cannon fire from the front hemisphere. The FW-190 was distinguished by a very high build quality and post-assembly refinement - Kurt Tank himself insisted on this. The wide track of the landing gear and low-pressure pneumatics made the aircraft unpretentious in terms of the quality of airfield coverage, and made it possible to land at a high vertical speed. The cockpit was cramped, but with good overview, especially back. For the emergency reset of the lantern, Tank was the first to use a squib (since due to the aerodynamic features of the lantern at speeds above 370 km / h, resetting it manually was simply impossible). The armament of the FW-190 changed several times during the fighting, but the standard was two 13 mm MG-131 machine guns and two 20 mm MG-151 cannons; provided for the suspension of bombs, external fuel tanks, missiles "Panzerblitz" and additional containers with guns. There was a night modification: the FuG-216 Liechtenstein radar was installed on the plane. The 190th became the only German aircraft capable of withstanding the American heavy bombers. The FW-190 fighter was repeatedly upgraded, remaining the most formidable enemy for Allied aviation throughout the war. In 1944-1945, on its basis, a magnificent high-altitude fighter Ta-152 was created, which set a speed record - 746 km / h. During the flight on this plane, one incident occurred with the Tank, which perfectly illustrates the combat characteristics of the tank. In the spring of 1945, Tank, who was not a military pilot, but who knew how to fly a plane well, overtook a pre-production Ta-152 to a military airfield in the city of Cottobus. At an altitude of about two kilometers, four Mustangs from the 356th Squadron of the 8th US Air Force “attached” behind the non-maneuvering aircraft. The Americans, apparently, realized that it was not a combat pilot who was flying the outlandish aircraft, and decided to take the German into a “box” and land him. But the plan failed: the Tank simply turned on the afterburner and walked away from the Mustangs with a climb, "like from standing ones."
No less famous was the reconnaissance spotter FW-189, which our soldiers called the "frame" because of its two-beam scheme. The cockpit with a large glass area created an excellent view and made the aircraft ideal for the mission.
One of the best airliners of that time was the FW-200 Condor, designed by Tank in 1936 on his own initiative. The aircraft was supposed to supplant the American Dc-3 and replace the old veteran Ju-52. Aerodynamically, the FW-200 was very clean, and the flight characteristics of the Condor were just as outstanding: during a non-stop flight from Berlin to New York, a distance of 6558 km was covered in 24 hours and 55 minutes. Winston Churchill called this plane the "Scourge of the Atlantic". An interesting fact is that Hitler and Goering chose the FW-200 as their personal transport. During the war, the aircraft was produced as a long-range naval bomber, minelayer and patrol aircraft. The anti-submarine version of the FW-200 was very effective. However, in the battles, the main drawback of the Condors was revealed - the engines, and during the service they had accidents quite often.
But the most outstanding aircraft of Kurt Tank, in my opinion, is the Ta-183 fighter, which unfortunately (but rather fortunately) remained under construction. Absolutely everything in the design of the Ta-183 was innovative: swept wing and located in the fuselage turbojet engine with front air intake. The scheme chosen by the designer found application in a huge number of post-war combat aircraft, passed the test with honor in Korea and on long years determined the shape of fighter aviation. After all, the direct descendants of the Ta-183 were the legendary MiG-15 and F-86 Saber fighters. It was on the basis of the Ta-183 that Kurt Tank built his first post-war aircraft in Argentina, the IAe Pulka II.

Italy, USSR

Bartini Robert Ludovigovich
(1897-1974)

Robert Ludovigovich (Roberto Oros di Bartini) was born in Fiume (Rijeka, Yugoslavia). In 1916 he graduated from the officer, and in 1921 flying school, Milan Polytechnic Institute (1922).
In 1923 he immigrated to the USSR. In 1937, Bartini was unjustifiably accused of having links with the executed "enemy of the people" - Marshal Tukhachevsky, and repressed. In 1956 he was rehabilitated.
In the autumn of 1935, under his leadership, a 12-seat passenger aircraft "Stal-7" with a "reverse gull" wing was created. In 1936, it was exhibited at the International Exhibition in Paris, and in August 1939 it set an international speed record at a distance of 5000 km - 405 km / h. Subsequently, this aircraft turned into the Yer-2 long-range bomber, beloved by pilots, which repeatedly opened bomb bays over Berlin during the war.
Bartini's designs were innovative, free and bold. One of these projects was the "P" aircraft - a supersonic single-seat experimental fighter built according to the "flying wing" scheme with a small elongation wing with a large sweep of the leading edge, two-keel vertical tail at the ends of the wing and a combined liquid-ramjet power plant. R-114 is an anti-aircraft fighter-interceptor with four liquid-propellant rocket engines designed by V.P. Glushko with a thrust of 300 kg each, with a swept wing with boundary layer control to increase the aerodynamic quality of the wing. The R-114 was supposed to develop an incredible speed of Mach 2 for 1942! But in the fall of 1943, for unknown reasons, the design bureau was closed.
In the early 70s, Bartini proposed the creation of a suborbital fighter-interceptor, whose task was to destroy enemy reconnaissance and communications satellites. The system for entering orbit was unusual: one launch vehicle was supposed to launch 3 interceptors at once.

Russia, USSR

Lavochkin Semyon Alekseevich
(1900-1960)

Semyon Alekseevich was born in 1900 in Smolensk. In 1927 he graduated from the Moscow Higher Technical School, and in 1939 he became the chief designer for aircraft construction; from 1956 - general designer. In 1943 and 1956 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. In 1950, his design bureau was reoriented to the manufacture of missiles.
The most famous aircraft designed by Semyon Alekseevich Lavochkin is La-5. The famous fighter was created as a result of the “docking” of the airframe of the not very successful LaGG-3 aircraft with the powerful radial air-cooled engine M-82 (ASH-82) designed by Shvetsov. Finally, our Air Force received an aircraft capable of fighting on equal terms with German fighters. The new engine made it possible to achieve excellent performance at low altitudes - the Lavochkin outperformed the Fw-190A by 60 km / h in speed. An important advantage was the fact that most of the aircraft's structure was made of delta wood, durable and cheap. The armament of the Laiba, as the pilots called it, was improved compared to the LaGGs and consisted of two ShVAK-20 guns with an ammunition load of 170 rounds per barrel. Pilots highly respected the La-5 for its excellent combat capabilities, ease of operation, and excellent survivability. It was on La-5 that the best Soviet aces, such as Ivan Kozhedub, Alexei Alelyuhin, Sultan Amet-Khan and Evgeny Savitsky, won most of their victories. And near Kursk, Alexander Gorovets destroyed nine Ju-87 bombers in one battle (this record has not been broken so far). Once the commander of the famous "Normandy" Louis Delfino made a test flight on the "Lavochkin", after which he was indescribably delighted and asked to give the French La-5, and not the Yak-1. The Germans called La-5 "Neue Rata", "New Rat" ("Rat" - the nickname given by the Nazis to the I-16 fighter back in Spain). After the development of the forced motor ASh-82FN with direct fuel injection into the cylinders, a new modification of the fighter, La-5FN, was released, which was distinguished by a reduced fairing and a cockpit with all-round visibility, as well as some modifications to the fuselage design. Best soviet fighter period of the Great Patriotic War, La-7, was obtained as a result of blowing the La-5FN model in a wind tunnel, identifying and then correcting shortcomings. The airframe of the aircraft has become lighter and aerodynamically cleaner. The armament was increased to three B-20 guns (although ShVAKs were still installed on the early La-7s).
The most classified work of the Lavochkin Design Bureau was the Tempest, a thermonuclear charge carrier, which was much ahead of its time. The huge projectile aircraft was equipped with ramjet and rocket engines. Navigation was carried out by the stars, automatically. Several successful launches were made. But the program was closed due to the fact that the state could not simultaneously finance the "Storm" and the R-7 rocket designed by S.P. Korolev.
In my opinion, a huge contribution to the development modern aviation introduced the La-250 Anaconda interceptor, created in 1956. By design, the La-250 is a mid-wing delta wing; the air intakes and engines were located along the very long fuselage. It was planned to install a special radar with a detection range of 40 km and a K-15U sight. On this aircraft, powerful hydraulic boosters were among the first to be widely used and studied (for all controls). An electronic simulation stand was built for the first time in the USSR to fine-tune the aircraft. La-250 was ahead of its time by about 8-10 years. Despite some troubles, which were subsequently easily eliminated, the aircraft was very successful, but did not go into mass production. The main reason for this is the problems with fine-tuning the AL-7F engines. But this aircraft served as a model for the next generations of our interceptors - Tu-128, MiG-25 and MiG-31.
Undoubtedly, Lavochkin's noteworthy work is anti-aircraft missile system S-25, Moscow air defense system. It consisted of two rings with radii of 50 and 100 kilometers, respectively. Single-stage rockets were located vertically. The guidance radar was twenty-channel - it could simultaneously “lead” and fire at up to twenty targets flying at speeds up to M = 4.5. Active interaction was carried out between the missile units, which made it possible to conduct "dagger" fire. The system was unique. There were no others like it in the world.

Ilyushin Sergey Vladimirovich
(1894-1976)

Sergei Vladimirovich was born near Vologda in a peasant family. Since 1919 he was an aircraft mechanic, and in 1921 he became the head of an aircraft repair train. In 1926 he graduated from the Air Force Academy. N.E. Zhukovsky (now LVVIA). During his studies at the academy, he built three gliders. The last of them, "Moskva", received the first prize for the duration of the flight at competitions in Germany. In 1933, Ilyushin headed the Central Design Bureau at the Moscow plant named after V.R. Menzhinsky, whose activities were associated with the development of assault, bomber, passenger and transport aviation. Since 1935 Sergey Vladimirovich - chief designer, in 1956-70 - general designer.
The Il-2 attack aircraft became the aircraft that glorified its designer throughout the world. The fundamental novelty of the aircraft was that the puff armor not only protected the crew and vital organs of the aircraft, but was also part of the power structure of the airframe. A very significant advantage of the aircraft was that one engine was installed on it (Am-38, 1720 hp). Thus, Ilyushin saved for the country great amount resources and time. Initially, it was supposed to produce a two-seat version of the attack aircraft, but Stalin intervened in this matter, always understanding everything better than any specialist, and a single-seat aircraft was put on the conveyor. The absence of the shooter led to huge losses: even bombers hunted defenseless Ila from the rear hemisphere, and attack pilots received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for 10 sorties (usually for 100). Only by 1942 did a shooter with a UBT machine gun cover the pilot's back. After installing the 23-mm VYa Il-2 cannon, they were able to fight German light tanks, and the new NS-37 cannon even "flashed" the top of the Pz.Kpfw.VI tanks, the famous "Tigers". There was also a torpedo modification of the attack aircraft, the Il-2T. Throughout the war, Germany was never able to create an aircraft that could match the combat and operational characteristics of the Ilam. The Germans called the Soviet "flying tanks" "black death", and Goering said that the Il-2 is "the main enemy of the German army." IL-2 became the most massive aircraft in the world. About 40,000 of them were built. The IL-2 became the ancestor of a new class of combat aviation, the modern representatives of which are the Su-25, Su-39, A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft.
After the war, Ilyushin Design Bureau designed the Il-12 passenger aircraft, designed to replace the Li-2. During the design of the next aircraft, the Il-14, the development of the Il-12, the design bureau began to solve the complex and completely new problem in the practice of world aircraft construction of that time, the problem of ensuring the take-off of a twin-engine aircraft after the failure of one engine on takeoff, during the takeoff run, or immediately after taking off from earth. The IL-14 turned out to be an extremely successful airliner, unpretentious and reliable; for a long time it made flights on short lines.
The first Soviet wide-body aircraft Il-86 is considered one of the safest in the world. The design feature is a striking quality for aircraft of this class - unpretentiousness to the airfield coverage, as well as a relatively short pre-flight preparation time.
Currently, Ilyushin Design Bureau is working on promising civil aircraft Il-96, Il-114, Il-103.

Russia, USA

Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky
(1889-1972)

Igor Ivanovich was born in Kyiv in 1889 in the family of a famous psychiatrist. He entered the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, but did not finish his studies, as he took up research and design of aircraft. In 1920 he emigrated to France and then to the USA.
Sikorsky became famous for being the first in the world to prove the possibility of flying on a multi-engine aircraft. The biplane "Russian Knight" ("Grand") built by him first took off from the ground in 1912. At the time, it was the largest aircraft in the world. It was driven by two (later four) in-line Argus engines of 100 hp each. Unfortunately, the plane didn't last long. On September 11, 1913, a military airplane competition was held at the Corps Airfield. From the Meller-2 apparatus flying over the Russian Knight, the motor broke off and fell on its left wing box. The damage was so severe that the aircraft was not repaired. But in the meantime, Sikorsky was building the next plane, more large sizes. The new airplane No. 107, named "Ilya Muromets", was equipped with new 220-horsepower Salmson engines. When the First World War began, the aircraft was first used as a reconnaissance aircraft, but then the IM became the world's first strategic bomber. Defensive armament consisted of a 37-mm Hotchkiss cannon (later abandoned), 4 machine guns and 2 Mauser pistols. The bomb load was within 400 kg. One ship was equated with a field detachment and attached to the headquarters of armies and fronts. During one of the raids behind enemy lines, "IM" with a well-aimed hit of a 16-kg bomb destroyed a train with 30,000 shells.
After emigrating to the USA, Igor Ivanovich had to work hard to create his new design bureau. This company was almost entirely composed of emigrants, so it was nicknamed the "Russian firm". The first success of Sikorsky was the Clipper flying boat, and 10 world records were set on the S-42 aircraft.
Since the mid-30s, Sikorsky has been developing helicopters. Initially, the emphasis was on a single-rotor scheme with a tail rotor. It was quite risky, since there was practically no experience in creating such machines capable of performing any tasks. The experimental helicopter VS-300 was created first, and was a development of the unfinished helicopter of the 1909 project. An order for an army communications and surveillance helicopter soon followed. The double S-47 was ready in December 1941 and became the first helicopter launched into large-scale production. He was the only one in the anti-Hitler coalition who took part in World War II. After the end of the war, Sikorsky built the universal S-51 helicopter, which was widely used for both military and civilian purposes. Later, Sikorsky's company became the largest and most famous manufacturer of rotorcraft in the United States, and Igor Ivanovich himself received the nickname "Mr. Helicopter".

USA

Donald Wills Douglas
(1892-1981)

"When you design it, think how you would feel if you had to fly it!" Safety First!"
Donald W. Douglas
“When you design an airplane, think about how you would feel yourself sitting at the helm! Safety first!”
Donald Douglas
Donald Wills Douglas was born in Brooklyn, New York. After spending two years at the Naval Academy, he studied aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Already at the age of 23, Douglas became the chief engineer of the Martin company, and in 1920 Douglas founded his own aircraft manufacturing company. The company was under his leadership even after Douglas reached retirement age until financial difficulties forced it to be sold to McDonnell.
In 1934, TWA signed an initial contract with Douglas for 25 light transport aircraft. The Dc-2, or rather the Douglas DST, became the prototype for the next aircraft of a new, improved design, the legendary Dc-3. The new passenger plane has revolutionized air travel - passenger traffic in America has increased by almost 600%! The reason for this popularity was the low ticket price and incredible flight safety. The plane was considered "non-falling". Profitability was also excellent because the Dc-3 was incredibly convenient and inexpensive to operate (it took only 10 man-hours to replace the engine). The aircraft was built according to the classical scheme, low-wing; two Pratt-Whitney "Twin Wasp" R-1830 engines with a capacity of 1200 hp provided a cruising speed of 260 km / h and a maximum of 370 km / h. There was also a military transport modification Dc-3, C-47, which was distinguished by a more durable cargo compartment floor and minor modifications. One of the more unusual variants of the aircraft was the landing glider, the unpowered Douglas. The release of Dc-3 under license was established in the USSR. The aircraft was named Li-2 (PS-84), after the name of the chief engineer Lisunov, who established its mass production. During the War, Li-2 was used as a night bomber, staff, ambulance, landing and transport aircraft. Each air regiment was given at least one "transporter" Li-2. Although in piloting the aircraft was not distinguished by outstanding data, it was simple and pleasant. The pilots said about the "Douglas": "... the main thing is not to interfere with his flight." The great advancement of the DC-3 is that its concept is at the heart of most modern airliners. The aircraft turned out to be so successful that about five hundred Dc-3s (some of them have been modernized by installing new economical theaters) are still flying.

Conclusion

Starting work on the abstract, I thought a lot about who I should single out from the galaxy of talented aircraft designers in the world. I wanted to, talking about the famous engineers of the aircraft industry, to show how engineering thought developed, and behind it the history of aeronautics. In addition to specialized, historical, biographical literature, I was interested in the opinions of people closely associated with aviation, its recent past and present. Probably, my choice is not only undisputed, but also to some extent biased, because it is impossible not to mention the outstanding scientists and engineers N.E. Zhukovsky, A.N. Tupolev, A.I. Mikoyan, P.O. Sukhoi, K .A.Kalinina, N.I.Kamova, A.Lippish, M.L.Mil, K.Johnson, V.Messerschmitt, A.Kartvelishvili, V.M.Myasishchev, B.Rutan, F.Rogallo, and many others .
All the people I have listed were (or are) not only talented aircraft designers and generators of ideas, but also outstanding leaders and organizers of large design bureaus, in which competent and, perhaps, no less talented specialists work, whose task is to develop individual components, mechanisms, structural elements . Therefore, in my opinion, it is wrong to completely connect the main designer and the main creator (who often remains in the shadows). Unfortunately, the talents of many engineers, due to political, economic, or other circumstances, could not be fully revealed.
Now the time for lone designers is running out... All modern production aircraft are created by huge design bureaus, which include specialists of various profiles. Soon it will be impossible to determine the main thing - the team will merge into a single whole.

List of used literature

1. R. Vinogradov, A. Ponomarev. "Development of Aircraft of the World" - Mechanical Engineering, 1991.
2. Encyclopedia "Avanta +" "Technique" - 2003.
3. "Warplanes of the Luftwaffe" - Aerospace Publishing London, 1994.
4. "Unique and paradoxical military equipment"- AST, 2003.
5. Yu. Nenakhov "The 'Wonder Weapon' of the Third Reich" - Minsk, 1999.
6. Directory "WWII Aviation" - Rusich, 2000.
7. P. Bowers Aircrafts non-traditional schemes "- Mir, 1991.
8. R.J. Grant "Aviation 100 years" - Rosman, 2004
9. V.B. Shavrov “History of aircraft designs in the USSR. 1938-1950 "- Engineering, 1988.
10. I. Kudishin "Focke-Wulf Fw-190 Fighter" - AST, 2001.
11. A. Firsov "Fighter Messerschmitt Bf-109" - AST, 2001
12. S. Sidorenko "Fighter Supermarine Spitfire" - AST, 2002.
13. A.N. Ponomarev "Designer S.V. Ilyushin" - Military Publishing House, 1988.
14. Walter Schick, Ingolf Meyer "Secret Luftwaffe Fighter Projects" - Rusich, 2001.
15. Walter Schick, Ingolf Meyer "Secret Luftwaffe Bomber Projects" Rusich, 2001.
16. A.S. Yakovlev "The purpose of life" - Publishing house of political literature, 1967.
17. A.A. Zapolskis “Luftwaffe Jets” - Harvest, 1999.
18. Jane`s Handbook "Famous Aircraft" - AST, 2002.
19. Jane`s Handbook "Modern Aircraft" - AST, 2002.
20. Encyclopedia "Aviation" - Scientific publishing house "Big Russian encyclopedia", TsAGI, 1994.
21. G.I.Katyshev, V.R.Mikheev "Aircraft designer Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky" - Nauka, 1989.
22. "History of civil aviation of the USSR" - Air transport, 1983.
23. Yu. Zuenko, S. Korostelev "Combat aircraft of Russia" - Moscow, 1994.
24. BECM multimedia encyclopedia
25. Multimedia encyclopedia of aviation version 1.0 2001 KorAx
26. I. Shelest "I'm flying for a dream" - Young Guard, 1973.
27. Daniel J. March "English military aircraft WWII" - AST, 2002.

Internet using
1. http://www.airwar.ru
2. http://www.airpages.ru
3. http://www.airforce.ru
4. http://www.rol.ru

Magazines
1. "Aviation and Cosmonautics", issue "Military Aviation of Russia" 8.2003.
2. "Aviation and Cosmonautics" 1.2003, p21.
3. "Bulletin of the Air Fleet" ("VVF") 07-08.2003, p.98.
4. "VVF" 07-08.2000, p.45.
5. "VVF" 05-06.2002, p.14.
6. "VVF" No. 6.1996, p. 42, p. 48.
7. "In

Chetverikov Igor Vyacheslavovich (1904-1987)
Soviet aircraft designer. He designed and built several flying boats, including the OSGA-101 amphibious aircraft.
The construction of OSGA-101 was completed by the spring of 1934. Unfortunately, it was not possible to make the plane by the time the Chelyuskin entered the Northern Sea Route, 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 "The History of Aircraft Design in the USSR", the creator of the Sh-2 amphibious aircraft common in the pre-war years.

Aleksandrov Vladimir Leontyevich (1894-1962)
Aircraft designer, scientist in the field of aircraft construction, student of N. E. Zhukovsky. Co-author of the project of the first Soviet passenger
aircraft AK-1 (1924). In 1938-41 he was imprisoned, worked in the Central Design Bureau-29 of the NKVD. Rehabilitated.

Aircraft AK-1 - the first domestic four-seater passenger aircraft of V.L. Aleksandrov and V.V. Kalinin. Kalinin completed the settlement 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 in the mid-20s on Soviet airlines.

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

Aircraft P-IV BIS - training, for initial training.
Produced from February 1917 to spring 1923.

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

Aircraft "Steel-2" - 4-seat 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 1st World War, the head of the squadron. Participated in the Civil War as a pilot of the Red Army.
In 1923 he began building aircraft at a factory in Kyiv. In 1926 he headed the design bureau in Kharkov.
In 1938, on false charges, Kalinin was arrested and shot seven months after his arrest, in the dungeons of the Voronezh NKVD.
The accusation was standard for 1937-38. - "anti-Soviet activities and espionage". The closed court session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court lasted only 10 minutes, there were no defense counsel or witnesses. The sentence was carried out immediately after the end of the meeting. This fact in the biography is so outstanding person 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, nevertheless continued to work in the Special Design Bureau of the NKVD, Kalinin was not given such an opportunity.

Aircraft K-5
The most massive passenger aircraft of the pre-war period. First flight October 18, 1929 Years of production 1930-1934.
In production and operation, it was simpler and cheaper than its competitor, the Tupolev ANT-9.

In September 1939, the Second World War began, in which aviation was used on an unprecedented scale. Today we will remember several famous creators of World War II aircraft and talk about their creations.

"It can be seen"

Soviet aircraft designer, Doctor of Technical Sciences (1940), Hero of Socialist Labor (1940) Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov was born in the Oryol province and, following the example of his father, who was a priest, graduated from a religious school and entered the seminary. However, he never became a father, but graduated from the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University and, under the guidance of the famous designer Igor Sikorsky, participated in the creation of the Ilya Muromets bomber. It was at that time the most powerful aircraft in the world. Later, his I-1 became the world's first monoplane fighter - an aircraft with one rather than two rows of wings.

In 1929, the designer was arrested on a denunciation and sentenced to death on the standard charge of "participation in a counter-revolutionary wrecking organization." For more than two months, Polikarpov was awaiting execution. In December of the same year (without the abolition or change of the sentence), he was sent to the "Special Design Bureau", organized in the Butyrka prison, and then transferred to the Moscow Aviation Plant No. 39 named after V.R. Menzhinsky. Here, together with D.P. Grigorovich in 1930, he developed the I-5 fighter.

In the same place, in conclusion, he designed the VT-11 aircraft. "VT" stands for "inner prison". Then the creation of the aircraft took two years, it was a worldwide practice. When the prisoners were gathered, they were told: “You can do two years, but you will be released when you do it.” They thought, said: "Six months is enough." They were surprised at the top: “Oh, so you have internal reserves? Three months for you to do everything about everything. A month later the plane was ready.

In 1931, the collegium of the OGPU canceled the execution and sentenced Polikarpov to ten years in the camps. But after a successful show to Stalin, Voroshilov, Ordzhonikidze of the I-5 aircraft, piloted by Chkalov and Anisimov, it was decided to consider the sentence against Polikarpov suspended ...

May 1935. Chkalov brilliantly demonstrated the I-16 to Stalin. He decided to give Polikarpov a lift home. The car had seven seats. Stalin is on the back sofa, the driver and security are in front, the aircraft designers are seated on folding seats. The leader says complacently, puffing on his pipe: “Here, Nikolai Nikolayevich, do you know what we have in common?” “I don’t know,” Polikarpov replies. “It's very simple: you studied at the seminary, and I studied at the seminary - that's what we have in common. Do you know what makes us different?" “No,” Polikarpov responds. "You graduated from seminary, but I didn't." Another puff of smoke. Polikarpov imperturbably blurts: "It is visible, Iosif Vissarionovich." Stalin frowned, shook his pipe and managed only to squeeze out: "You know your place there."

And once the NKVD received a denunciation of Yangel, then still a boy who worked for Polikarpov. Recall that Yangel, along with Korolev, Chelomey and Glushko, is the father of Soviet cosmonautics and rocket science. So, he was accused of being the son of a kulak, and his father was hiding in the taiga ... What would almost anyone at that time do in Polikarpov's place? And what did Polikarpov do? He gave the young employee a vacation and sent him to Siberia to collect documents about his father's innocence.

No less famous is another Polikarpov aircraft - the U-2 initial training aircraft (renamed Po-2 after the death of the designer). Po-2 was built until 1959. The car broke all records of longevity in aviation. During this time, more than 40 thousand cars were produced, more than 100 thousand pilots were trained on them. Before the war, all our pilots managed to fly the U-2, without exception. During the Great Patriotic War, U-2s were successfully used as reconnaissance and night bombers. The car was so reliable, economical and easy to drive that it was used both as a passenger and as an ambulance. It was also discovered during the war that the aircraft could be converted into a night bomber. The Germans called it "coffee grinder" or " sewing machine”, because several thousand U-2s bombed their positions almost continuously and with great accuracy. During the night, the plane made five or six sorties, sometimes more. Silently, with the engine turned off, he sneaked up to the enemy trenches, railway stations, columns on the march and dropped a quarter ton of explosives and steel on the heads of the Nazis. Very often, the pilots were girls who fought in the women's air regiments. Twenty-three of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Polikarpov's work was interrupted by his death on July 30, 1944, at the age of 52. At that moment, Polikarpov was working on the creation of the first Soviet jet aircraft. Only in 1956, 12 years after the death of the designer, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR closed the case against Polikarpov ...

After the death of the designer, the territory of OKB-51 passed to Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi, another famous engineer who created more than 50 machine designs during his career. Today, the Sukhoi Design Bureau is one of the leading Russian airlines, whose combat aircraft (for example, the Su-27 and Su-30 multirole fighters) are in service in dozens of countries.

The legendary Messerschmitt

Without a doubt, Wilhelm Emil Messerschmitt was one of the most talented designers in the history of world aviation. Many original projects came out from under his hand, which were embodied in metal, but only two brought him worldwide fame - Bf-109 and Me-262.

In 1909, during the summer holidays, he visited the International Aviation Exhibition with his father. There, the boy saw airplanes for the first time and fell ill with aviation for the rest of his life.

One of the most significant developments of the designer was the Messerschmitt Bf-109 all-metal escort fighter. In 1934, the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (Bavarian Aircraft Factory) began to produce a steel car with a predatory profile that terrified the whole of Europe, hence the name. In 1939, the Me-109 set a world speed record. This fighter became the mainstay of German aviation during World War II. During the hostilities, both the French and the British managed to get samples of the latest German fighter. But if the first was already useless, then the British delivered the Bf-109E-3 to their Boscombe Down test center. The tests carried out showed that the leading English Hurricane fighter at that time was inferior to the German in all respects.

The Messerschmitts accounted for most of the 322 Soviet aircraft shot down on the first day of the war.

Creator of the Black Death

The son of a poor peasant from the Vologda province, Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin, began working at the age of 15, and during the First World War he became an airfield minder. Then he graduated from the soldier's pilot school of the All-Russian Imperial Aero Club and in the summer of 1917 received a pilot's license. Since then, his life has been forever connected with aviation.

When it struck October Revolution, Ilyushin did not think for long, whose side to take. In 1918 he joined the Bolshevik Party, and in 1919 he became a soldier in the Red Army.

In 1921, Ilyushin turned to the command with a request to allow him to enter the Institute of Engineers of the Red air fleet. Many doubted - what kind of higher education is there? Ilyushin by that time was already 27 years old, and behind him were only three classes of the school. But Ilyushin was distinguished by incredible perseverance and hard work. Where there was a lack of knowledge, the experience of a mechanic helped. By the end of the 30s, he was already heading the TsAGI design bureau. The main creation of Sergei Vladimirovich is the most massive combat aircraft in history, the famous Il-2 attack aircraft.

"Flying Cobra"

In 1912, aircraft mechanic Lawrence Bell nearly did away with airplanes for good when his older brother, stunt pilot Gruver Bell, died in a crash. But friends persuaded Lawrence not to bury his talent in the ground, and in 1928, Bell Aircraft appeared, creating the most famous American fighter of World War II, the P-39 Airacobra.

An interesting fact: thanks to deliveries to the USSR and Great Britain and the exploits of the aces of these countries, the Airacobra has the highest individual victory rate of all American aircraft ever created.

Airacobra - Airacobra (but usually just Airacobra). This aircraft cannot be confused with any other. A motor in the middle of the fuselage, an automotive-like cockpit door, a futuristic-looking three-wheeled landing gear with a disproportionately long A-pillar - in fact, all these unusual design solutions had their reasons, they were aimed at increasing the combat and operational efficiency of the vehicle. As already mentioned, the engine was located behind the cockpit. Due to the rear shift of the center of gravity, the fighter was very maneuverable. The P-39 Airacobra fighter became the most massive and most famous of those supplied to the USSR under Lend-Lease - the same symbol of Western Allied help as the Studebaker truck, Dodge Three-quarters and a can of American stew. "Cobra" was very popular with Soviet pilots, she was appreciated and loved. Many "Stalin's falcons" won the lion's share of victories on the Aerocobra.

Breakthrough "Prototype"

Jiro Horikoshi is a Japanese aircraft designer. He is best known as the designer of the A6M Zero, a very successful World War II fighter.

Jiro Horikoshi was born in 1903 in the village of Fujioka. Studied at Fujioka High School. AT school years became interested in aircraft engineering by reading newspaper reports of World War I aerial combat in Europe. Subsequently, Horikoshi entered the Technology Department of the University of Tokyo in the direction of aeronautical engineering. His fellow university students were such well-known Japanese aircraft designers as Hidemasa Kimura and Takeo Doi. After completing his university education, in 1926 Horikoshi got a job as an engineer in the internal combustion engine division of Mitsubishi. The company owned an aircraft factory in Nagoya, where Horikoshi ended up.

In 1937, Horikoshi began work on the Prototype 12, which went into production in 1940 as the A6M Zero. The Zero was a carrier-based single-wing fighter. Until 1942, the Zero surpassed the aircraft of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition in terms of maneuverability, speed and flight range, and until the end of World War II remained the basis of Japanese naval aviation.

MUSEUM OF HEROES AS LUCKY TEACHERS