Famous aircraft designers. Soviet aircraft manufacturing

Work by Zhilin Stepan - 2nd place

Scientific advisor-consultant: Burtsev Sergey Alekseevich, MSTU. 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 became a symbol of the 20th century. More than a hundred years have passed since then... During this time, the plane has turned from a dangerous entertainment into a reliable and quick view transport, which has greatly reduced the distances between cities, countries and continents.
Since the 10s of the 20th century, almost all world powers began to pay great attention to aircraft construction. Several schools of aircraft construction and aeronautics were formed, and many machine-building plants began producing airplanes. First World War became an “accelerator” for the development of aviation: during these four years, combat aircraft appeared, which determined the degeneration of clumsy “chicks” into machines that no longer had “toy” tactical and technical characteristics. The aircraft became capable of not only carrying weapons, but also transporting passengers and cargo over considerable distances much faster than a train or ship.

This is how aviation was born.

And the greatest credit for this belongs to the aircraft design engineers who created flying machines from scratch and made them perfect. The way we see them now.

England

Sir Geoffrey De Havilland
(1882-1965)

Born 27 July 1882 in Hazlemyre (Surrey). After graduating from Oxford University and the Higher 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 elevated to the Knighthood.
Bombers designed by Geoffrey De Havilland were widely used by the British Royal Air Force in the First World War. The most famous of these was the D.H.4, a two-seat, two-strut braced biplane with fabric skin. The power plant consisted of an in-line Rolls-Royce Eagle engine producing 220 hp. Bombers D.H.4 of the latest series with an Eagle III engine with a power of 375 hp. superior in performance to many fighters of that time. The armament, as a rule, consisted of three machine guns (synchronized and coaxial turret), bomb load - 209 kg. During hostilities, these aircraft often received the most important and responsible missions, such as attacking the Zeebrugge dam.
Significant success was achieved by the D.H.88 Comet (the first with this name), specially designed for racing from Mildenhall to Melbourne. The aircraft featured an all-wood structure, a large-capacity nose fuel tank, and a manual landing gear retraction system.
The D.H.98 Mosquito bomber, along with the Spitfire, is rightfully considered one of the most famous and renowned English combat aircraft. When creating the Mosquito design, De Havilland had only one goal in mind - 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. Incredible survivability for a wooden aircraft was achieved through the full use of the strength and flexibility of the main material - plywood. Main feature The design was that the aircraft wing was a single unit. Two Merlins XXI made it possible to reach a speed that was enormous at that time - 686 km/h. The aircraft's thrust-to-weight ratio was so high that it allowed it to spin upward “barrels” on one engine! "Mossy" as he was affectionately called English pilots, 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 air forces around the world.
After the war, under the leadership of De Havilland, a series of jet fighters with a twin-boom design, atypical for this class of aircraft, was built, the first of which was the D.H.100 Vampire.
But it was the D.H.106 Comet aircraft that brought De Havilland world fame in 1949. Even at the height of the war in England, the Barbazon Committee was formed, whose task was to determine the prospects and priorities in the development of civil aviation. It was on the instructions of Lord Barbazon of Tara that a new airliner was designed. Until then, there was no practice in the world in creating jet passenger aircraft. For the de Havilland company, the development of high-speed aircraft was common practice: the D.H.88 Comet sports aircraft and the D.H.98 Mosquito bomber helped the designers accumulate colossal experience in designing aircraft with high performance characteristics. 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, installed in the root part of the trapezoidal wings with a slight sweep angle. To ensure reliable takeoff from airfields of limited size, a Sprite liquid rocket booster with a thrust of 15.6 kN was used (never before used on aircraft of this type). The first series of "Comets" flew in many airlines until misfortunes began in 1954. As it turned out later, the cause of the disaster was fatigue failure of the metal. After this, the aircraft was carefully redesigned, and, at the same time, the wing area and the volume of fuel tanks were increased. Passenger capacity increased to 101 people. The modernized Comets IV served until 1965, when they were replaced by the American Boeing 707.

Reginald Joseph Mitchell
(1895-1937)

Reginald Mitchell was born in 1895 in the village of Take near Stoke-on-Trent. In 1911, he began working for Kerr Stewart & Co., a manufacturer of steam locomotives. Already in 1919, at the age of 24, he became the chief designer of the Supermarine company. In 1931, the S.6B racing aircraft of his design won the Schneider Cup. 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 newest military secret of England. A rope was pulled around the machine, 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, Reginald Mitchell, who died in 1937, when his aircraft was accepted into service. mass production. Translated into Russian, “Spitfire” means “firemaker.” "Spitfire" was the fruit of many years of persistent calculations and blowing in wind tunnels. It was essentially the most compact fighter that could be built around a pilot, weapons and a 12-cylinder engine. The elliptical shape of its wing, although initially causing trouble for technologists, made it possible to achieve great gains in aerodynamics. During the war, the aircraft's armament increased from 8 machine guns to 4 cannons. Engine power increased from 1000 hp. (Rolls-Royce “PV XII” engine, “Merlin” prototype) up to 2035 hp. (Rolls-Royce Griffin engine). Here's what English pilot Bob Stanford said about the Spitfire: “...some people fall in love with yachts, some with women... or cars, but I think every pilot experiences a state of falling in love when he sits in this cozy little cockpit, 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 (30 victories) fought on the Spitfire Mk.IXLF, supplied under Lend-Lease. The quality of the design is also evidenced by the fact that the “firebreakers” flew until the mid-fifties (the last time they were used during the Arab-Israeli conflicts). The 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. He took part in the First World War, commanded a squadron of a cavalry regiment, and was nominated for awards for personal courage. In 1918 he was seriously wounded. He was educated at the Technical Institute of Berlin. In 1924 he began working as a design engineer at the Robach-Metalflugzeugbau company. In 1931 he headed the design bureau 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 undoubtedly the Focke-Wulf FW-190 fighter. This fighter, whose mass production began in 1941, constituted the main striking force of the Luftwaffe. It was based on a fundamentally new concept of 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 as a bomber, torpedo bomber, photo reconnaissance aircraft, attack aircraft, fighter and interceptor. The design of the FW-190 included colossal survivability: the safety factor of the airframe structure was very high - 1.2. The FW-190 had a high wing load, the internal layout of which was particularly rational. The powerful “double star” BMW-801C engine, thanks to which the aircraft had excellent thrust-to-weight ratio, was good protection for the pilot even from cannon fire from the front hemisphere. The FW-190 was distinguished by a very high quality of assembly and post-assembly finishing - Kurt Tank himself insisted on this. Wide track chassis and tires low blood pressure made the aircraft unpretentious to the quality of airfield surfaces and allowed landing at a high vertical speed. The plane's cabin was a bit cramped, but had good visibility, especially to the rear. For the emergency reset of the canopy, Tank used a squib for the first time (since, due to the aerodynamics of the canopy, it was simply impossible to reset it manually at speeds above 370 km/h). The armament of the FW-190 changed several times during combat operations, but the standard was two 13-mm MG-131 machine guns and two 20-mm MG-151 cannons; provision was made for the suspension of bombs, external fuel tanks, Panzerblitz missiles and additional containers with guns. There was a night modification: the FuG-216 Liechtenstein radar was installed on the aircraft. The One Hundred and Ninety became the only German aircraft capable of resisting American heavy bombers. The FW-190 fighter was modernized several times, remaining the most formidable enemy for Allied aircraft throughout the war. In 1944-1945, the magnificent Ta-152 high-altitude fighter was created on its basis, which set a speed record of 746 km/h. During the flight on this plane, one incident occurred with the Tank, which perfectly illustrates the combat characteristics of the vehicle. In the spring of 1945, Tank, who was not a military pilot, but knew how to pilot a plane well, ferried the pre-production Ta-152 to a military airfield in the city of Cottobus. At an altitude of about two kilometers behind the non-maneuvering aircraft, four Mustangs from the 356th squadron of the 8th Air Army USA. The Americans apparently realized that the strange aircraft was not being flown by a combat pilot, and decided to take the German into a “box” and land him. But the plan failed: the Tank simply turned on the afterburner and left the Mustangs with a climb, “like standing ones.”
No less famous was the reconnaissance spotter FW-189, which our soldiers nicknamed the “frame” because of its two-beam design. The cabin with a large glass area created excellent visibility and made the aircraft ideal for performing the assigned tasks.
One of the best airliners of that time was the FW-200 Condor, designed by Tank in 1936 on his own initiative. The plane was supposed to displace the American Dc-3 and replace the old veteran Ju-52. Aerodynamically, the FW-200 was very clean, and the Condor's flight characteristics were truly outstanding: during a non-stop flight from Berlin to New York, a distance of 6558 km was covered in 24 hours 55 minutes. Winston Churchill called this plane the “Scourge of the Atlantic.” Interesting fact is also the fact 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 battles, the main drawback of the Condors was revealed - the engines, and during their service accidents quite often occurred with them.
But Kurt Tank’s most outstanding aircraft, in my opinion, is the Ta-183 fighter, which unfortunately (or rather fortunately) remained under construction. Absolutely everything in the design of the Ta-183 was innovative: a swept wing and a turbojet engine located in the fuselage with a frontal air intake. The design chosen by the designer was used in a huge number of post-war combat aircraft, passed testing in Korea with honor and determined the shape of fighter aircraft for many years. 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 officer school, and in 1921 from flight school, Milan Polytechnic Institute (1922).
In 1923 he immigrated to the USSR. In 1937, Bartini was unjustifiably accused of having connections with the executed “enemy of the people” - Marshal Tukhachevsky and was repressed. In 1956 he was rehabilitated.
In the fall of 1935, under his leadership, the 12-seat passenger aircraft “Steel-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 for a distance of 5000 km - 405 km/h. Subsequently, this aircraft turned into the Er-2 long-range bomber, beloved by pilots, which repeatedly opened bomb bays over Berlin during the war.
Bartini's designs were innovative, free and daring. One of these projects was the “R” aircraft - a supersonic single-seat experimental fighter, built according to the “flying wing” design with a low aspect ratio wing with a large sweep of the leading edge, a two-fin vertical tail at the ends of the wing and a combined liquid-direct flow power plant. R-114 is an anti-aircraft fighter-interceptor with four liquid-propellant rocket engines designed by V.P. Glushko with 300 kgf of thrust each, with a swept wing with boundary layer control to increase the aerodynamic quality of the wing. The R-114 was supposed to reach an incredible speed of Mach 2 for 1942! But in the fall of 1943, for unknown reasons, the OKB was closed.
In the early 70s, Bartini proposed creating a suborbital interceptor fighter 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 of aircraft; from 1956 - general designer. In 1943 and 1956 he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. In 1950, its design bureau was reoriented to the production of missiles.
The most famous aircraft designed by Semyon Alekseevich Lavochkin is the La-5. The famous fighter was created as a result of “docking” the airframe of the not very successful LaGG-3 aircraft with a powerful star-shaped air-cooled engine M-82 (ASh-82) designed by Shvetsov. Finally, our Air Force received an aircraft capable of fighting German fighters “on an equal footing.” New engine made it possible to achieve excellent performance at low altitudes - the Lavochkin exceeded the Fw-190A in speed by 60 km/h. An important advantage was that most of the aircraft's structure was made of delta wood, which was 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 cannons with 170 rounds of ammunition per barrel. The pilots greatly respected the La-5 for its excellent combat capabilities, ease of operation, and excellent survivability. It was on the La-5 that the best Soviet aces, such as Ivan Kozhedub, Alexey Alelyukhin, Sultan Amet-Khan and Yevgeny Savitsky, won most of their victories. And near Kursk, Alexander Horovets destroyed nine Ju-87 bombers in one battle (this record has not yet been broken). One day, 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 the La-5, not the Yak-1. The Germans called the La-5 “Neue Rata”, “New Rat” (“Rat” is the nickname assigned by the Nazis to the I-16 fighter back in Spain). After the development of the uprated ASh-82FN engine with direct fuel injection into the cylinders, a new modification of the fighter was released, the La-5FN, which was distinguished by a lower garrot and a cockpit with all-round visibility, as well as some modifications to the fuselage design. The best Soviet fighter of the Great Patriotic War, the La-7, was obtained as a result of blowing the La-5FN model in a wind tunnel, identifying and subsequently correcting deficiencies. The aircraft's airframe has become lighter and aerodynamically cleaner. The armament was increased to three B-20 cannons (although early La-7s were still equipped with ShVAKs).
The most secret work of the Lavochkin Design Bureau was the Burya MCR, a carrier of a thermonuclear charge, which was far ahead of its time. The huge projectile aircraft was equipped with ramjet and rocket engines. Navigation was carried out automatically by the stars. 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, the La-250 Anaconda interceptor, created in 1956, made a huge contribution to the development of modern aviation. By design, the La-250 is a mid-wing with a 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 one of the first to be widely used and studied (for all controls). To fine-tune the aircraft, an electronic modeling stand was built for the first time in the USSR. The La-250 was ahead of its time by about 8-10 years. Despite some troubles, which were later easily resolved, the aircraft was very successful, but never went into mass production. The main reason for this is problems with the development of AL-7F engines. But this aircraft served as a model for the next generations of our interceptors - Tu-128, MiG-25 and MiG-31.
Of course, 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 positioned vertically. The guidance radar was twenty-channel - it could simultaneously “guide” and fire at up to twenty targets flying at speeds up to M = 4.5. There was active interaction between the missile units, which made it possible to conduct “dagger” fire. The system was unique. There were no others like them in the world.

Ilyushin Sergey Vladimirovich
(1894-1976)

Sergei Vladimirovich was born near Vologda into 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, "Moscow", received first prize for flight duration at competitions in Germany. In 1933, Ilyushin headed the Central Design Bureau at the Moscow plant named after V.R. Menzhinsky, whose activities were related to the development of attack, bomber, passenger and transport aviation. Since 1935 Sergei Vladimirovich has been the chief designer, and from 1956-70 he was the general designer.
The aircraft that made its designer famous throughout the world was the Il-2 attack aircraft. The fundamental novelty of the aircraft was that the layered 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 it had one engine (Am-38, 1720 hp). Thus, Ilyushin saved the country a huge amount of resources and time. Initially, it was planned to produce a two-seat version of the attack aircraft, but Stalin, who always understood everything better than any specialist, intervened in this matter, and a single-seat aircraft was put on the production line. The absence of a gunner led to huge losses: even bombers hunted defenseless from the rear hemisphere of the Ilya, and attack pilots received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for 10 sorties (usually 100). Only by 1942 the pilot’s back was covered by a gunner with a UBT machine gun. After installing the 23-mm VYA Il-2 cannon, they were able to fight German light tanks, and the new NS-37 cannon even penetrated the top of Pz.Kpfw.VI tanks, the famous “Tigers”. There was also a torpedo-carrying modification of the attack aircraft, the Il-2T. Throughout the war, Germany was never able to create an aircraft capable of comparable combat and operational characteristics to the Ilami. The Germans called Soviet “flying tanks” black death“, and Goering stated that the Il-2 is “the main enemy of the German army.” IL-2 became the most popular aircraft in the world. About 40,000 of them were built. The Il-2 became the founder of a new class of combat aircraft, the modern representatives of which are the Su-25, Su-39, A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft.
After the War, the Ilyushin Design Bureau designed the Il-12 passenger aircraft, intended to replace the Li-2. During the construction of the next aircraft, the Il-14, and the development of the Il-12, the design bureau began to solve a complex and completely new problem in the 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 take-off run, or immediately after take-off. land. The IL-14 turned out to be an extremely successful airliner, unpretentious and reliable; it operated flights on short-haul routes for a long time.
The first Soviet wide-body aircraft, the Il-86, is considered one of the safest in the world. A special feature of the design is its amazing quality for aircraft of this class - unpretentiousness to the airfield surface, as well as a relatively short pre-flight preparation time.
Currently, the 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 Kiev Polytechnic Institute, but did not finish his studies, as he began researching and designing 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 a multi-engine aircraft. The Russian Vityaz (Grand) biplane he built first took off from the ground in 1912. At that time it was the largest aircraft in the world. It was powered by two (later four) in-line Argus engines of 100 hp each. Unfortunately, the plane did not survive long. On September 11, 1913, a military airplane competition was held at the Korpus Airfield. The engine of the Meller-2 apparatus flying over the Russian Knight fell off and fell on its left wing box. The damage was so severe that they decided not to restore the plane. But in the meantime, Sikorsky was building the next aircraft, even larger. 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 weapons 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 equal to a field detachment and was assigned to the headquarters of armies and fronts. During one of the raids behind enemy lines, “IM” destroyed a train with 30,000 shells with a well-aimed hit from a 16-kg bomb.
After emigrating to the USA, Igor Ivanovich had to work hard to create his own new design bureau. This company consisted almost entirely of emigrants, so it was nicknamed the “Russian company.” Sikorsky's first success was the Clipper flying boat, and the S-42 aircraft set 10 world records.
Since the mid-30s, Sikorsky began developing helicopters. Initially, the emphasis was placed on a single-rotor design with a tail rotor. This 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 two-seat S-47 was ready in December 1941 and became the first helicopter to go into large-scale production. He was the only one in the anti-Hitler coalition to take part in World War II. After the end of the war, Sikorsky built the S-51 universal helicopter, which was widely used for both military and civilian purposes. Subsequently, 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 sitting at the controls! Safety first!”
Donald Douglas
Donald Wills Douglas was born in Brooklyn, New York. After spending two years at the Naval Academy, he studied aeronautical engineering 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 remained under his leadership even after Douglas reached retirement age, until financial difficulties forced him to sell it to McDonnell.
In 1934, TWA signed an initial contract with Douglas for 25 light transport aircraft. The Dc-2, or more precisely, the Douglas DST, became the prototype for the next aircraft of a new, improved design - the legendary Dc-3. The new passenger aircraft revolutionized air travel - passenger traffic in America 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 is built according to the classical design, low-wing; two Pratt-Whitney Twin Wasp R-1830 engines with 1,200 hp power. provided a cruising speed of 260 km/h and a maximum speed of 370 km/h. There was also a military transport modification of the Dc-3, S-47, which was distinguished by a more durable cargo compartment floor and minor modifications. One of the most unusual variants of the aircraft was the landing glider, the engineless 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 set up its mass production. During the War, the Li-2 was used as a night bomber, headquarters, ambulance, landing and transport aircraft. Each air regiment was assigned at least one Li-2 transport aircraft. Although the plane did not have outstanding piloting abilities, it was simple and pleasant. The pilots said about the Douglas: “... the main thing is not to interfere with its flight.” The great advance of the Dc-3 is that its concept underpins most modern airliners. The aircraft turned out to be so successful that about five hundred Dc-3s (some of them were modernized by installing new fuel-efficient turboprop engines) are still flying today.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that the creation of an aircraft lies almost entirely on the shoulders of aircraft designers, who get all the laurels if they are successful, I would like to pay tribute to the engineers, the result of whose work plays an equally, and perhaps more important, role. After all, as is known, “with good engine and the wardrobe will fly.”
Famous aircraft engines
Rolls-Royce Merlin, due to its high power density, is considered one of the best in-line piston engines. "Merlins" were distinguished by excellent workmanship. These engines powered not only almost all British aviation during World War II, for example, Lancasters, Spitfires, Hurricanes, but also many American aircraft, such as the Mustang (starting with the P-51B modification). During use, the motor was repeatedly upgraded. An interesting fact is that the engine was developed by the company on its own initiative, without a government order. "Merlins" worked reliably even in the Arctic.
ASh-82 (M-82) designed by A.D. Shvetsov is one of the most advanced radial engines. This is due to its low weight, high power (1700 hp for the first series) and relatively small radius. There were three modifications of the engine. The last of them, ASh-82 FN, was distinguished by a system of direct fuel injection into the cylinders and the ability to use the afterburner mode. The engine had amazing survivability: there are known cases when, after a battle, planes returned to the airfield with engines missing 4 cylinders! The most famous aircraft on which the Ash-82 was installed are the Tupolev Tu-2 bombers and the Lavochkin La-7 fighters. Mi-4 helicopters also flew on these engines.
BMW-003 is the world's first production turbojet engine that fully meets the requirements for an engine for installation on an aircraft. Work on it began back in 1938, and in 1944 active combat use of the Messerschmitt Me-262 fighter, on which these engines were installed, began.
The best (in the post-war years) turbojet engine VK-1 in the world was obtained as a result of the deep modernization and (!) simplification of the design of the licensed English Rolls-Royce Nin engine carried out at the V.Ya. Klimov Design Bureau. The surprising thing is that after these measures were taken, the thrust of the VK-1 almost doubled compared to the Nin! MiG-15 fighters, as well as Il-28 front-line bombers, flew and fought on these engines.

When I started working on my essay, I thought a lot about who I should single out from the galaxy of talented aircraft designers in the world. By talking about famous aircraft engineers, I wanted to show how engineering thought developed, and behind it the history of aeronautics. In addition to special, historical, and 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. Kalinin, N. I. Kamov, A. Lippisha, M. L. Mil, K. Johnson, V. Messerschmitt, A. Kartvelishvili, V. M. Myasishchev, B. Rutan, F. Rogallo, and many others .
All the people I listed were (or are) not only talented aircraft designers and generators of ideas, but also outstanding leaders and organizers of large design bureaus, which employ competent and, perhaps, no less talented specialists, whose task is to develop individual components, mechanisms, and structural elements . Therefore, in my opinion, it is wrong to completely link 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, were never able to fully develop.
Now the time for single designers is passing... 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 World Aircraft” - Mechanical Engineering, 1991.
2. Encyclopedia “Avanta +” “Technology” - 2003.
3. “Warplanes of the Luftwaffe” – Aerospace Publishing London, 1994.
4. “Unique and paradoxical military equipment" - AST, 2003.
5. Y. Nenakhov “Miracle Weapon of the Third Reich” - Minsk, 1999.
6. Directory “Aviation WWII” - Rusich, 2000.
7. P. Bowers “Aircraft of non-traditional designs” - World, 1991.
8. R.J. Grant “Aviation 100 Years” - Rosman, 2004
9. V.B. Shavrov “History of aircraft designs in the USSR. 1938-1950" - Mechanical Engineering, 1988.
10. I. Kudishin “Focke-Wulf Fw-190 Fighter” - AST, 2001.
11. A. Firsov “Fighter Messerschmitt Bf-109” - AST, 2001
12. S. Sidorenko “Supermarine Spitfire Fighter” - AST, 2002.
13. A.N. Ponomarev “Designer S.V. Ilyushin” - Military Publishing House, 1988.
14. Walter Schick, Ingolf Meyer “Secret projects of Luftwaffe fighters” - Rusich, 2001.
15. Walter Schick, Ingolf Meyer “Secret Projects of Luftwaffe Bombers” 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 Directory “Famous Aircraft” - AST, 2002.
19. Jane`s Directory “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” - Science, 1989.
22. “History of civil aviation of the USSR” - Air Transport, 1983.
23. Yu. Zuenko, S. Korostelev “Russian combat aircraft” - Moscow, 1994.
24. BEKM Multimedia Encyclopedia
25. Multimedia encyclopedia of aviation version 1.0 2001 KorAx
26. I. Shelest “Flying for a dream” - Young Guard, 1973.
27. Daniel J. March “British WWII military aircraft” - 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, p.21.
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. "B"

71 years ago, on June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began, in which aviation was used on an unprecedented scale. Due to this website remembers the famous creators of World War II aircraft. The illustrations are taken from a multiplayer air combat game in which you will be able to fly many of their creations. Since the game will only have Soviet, American and German cars at the start, we selected a couple of designers from each of these countries.

OKB Ilyushin

The son of a poor peasant from the Vologda province, SergeyVladimirovichIlyushin He started working at the age of 15, and during the First World War he became a mechanic at an airfield and trained to be a pilot. Since then, his life was forever connected with aviation, and by the end of the 30s he was already heading his own design bureau. Sergei Vladimirovich did a lot for the development of domestic aircraft manufacturing, and his main creation is the most massive combat aircraft in history, the famous attack aircraft IL-2.

After the war, the Design Bureau continued to develop bombers and attack aircraft, but for various reasons they did not go into production. But the transport Il-76 and passenger Il-86 have become one of the most common vehicles in Soviet times. But after the collapse of the USSR, the demand for the products of domestic aircraft manufacturers sharply decreased, and, for example, a little more than two dozen modern Il-96 airliners have been built today.

Single and double Il-2, Il-8, Il-10, Il-20, Il-40

OKB-51 (Polikarpov/Sukhoi)

Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov was born in the Oryol province and, following the example of his father-priest, graduated from theological school and entered the seminary. However, he never became a priest, but graduated from the St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute and, under the leadership of the famous designer Igor Sikorsky, participated in the creation of the Ilya Muromets bomber. In 1929, Polikarpov was almost shot because of a denunciation, and then they wanted to send him to the camps for ten years, but the intervention of the legendary pilot Valery Chkalov helped.

Under the guidance of the designer, such famous aircraft as the “heavenly slug” were created U-2 And I-153“Chaika”, and after his death the territory of OKB-51 passed to Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi, another famous engineer who created more than 50 machine designs during his career. Today Sukhoi Design Bureau is one of the leading Russian airlines, whose combat aircraft (for example, Su-27 and Su-30 multirole fighters) are in service in dozens of countries.

What models will be available at the launch of World of Warplanes: I-5, I-15, I-16

Bell Aircraft

Aircraft mechanic Lawrence Bell In 1912, he almost ended the airplane forever when his older brother, stunt pilot Groover Bell, died in a crash. But friends persuaded her not to bury her talent, and in 1928 she appeared. Bell Aircraft, which created the most famous American fighter of World War II P-39 Airacobra. Fun fact: thanks to deliveries to the USSR and Great Britain and the exploits of the aces of these countries at the Airacobra high rate individual victories of any American aircraft ever built.

Bell also produced the first American jet fighter, the P-59 Airacomet, but after that it completely switched to developing combat and transport helicopters and even changed its name to Bell Helicopter. The company experienced its greatest glory during the Vietnam War: after all, it was the company that created the famous UH-1 The Huey, still in service with the US Army and many other countries, as well as the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter. Today the company continues to develop transport vehicles, for example, the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, produced jointly with Boeing.

What models will be available at the launch of World of Warplanes: Airacobra is shown in the video about American aircraft (above), but is not on the list of release vehicles.

Grumman

And here's the most a large number of downed enemies among all allied aircraft (in total, not individually) on the account of the carrier-based fighter Grumman F6F Hellcat, created by a former test pilot Leroy Grumman. The company he founded in 1929 did a lot for the development of American carrier-based aviation, later developing such famous machines as A-6 Intruder And F-14 Tomcat(Tom Cruise flew on this fighter in the film Top Gun).

Over time, the company switched to aerospace development and it was she who created the landing module "Apollo", on which American astronauts first landed on the Moon in 1969. Today it is part of the Northrop Grumman corporation, which is engaged in the creation ballistic missiles, satellites, radars and, of course, aviation equipment for the US Army and NASA.

What models will be available at the launch of World of Warplanes: F2F, F3F, F4F

Messerschmitt

The most famous and popular German fighter Bf.109, a steel machine with a predatory profile that terrified all of Europe, was created in 1934 by the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (Bavarian Aircraft Factory), hence the name. In 1938 the company was renamed Messerschmitt by the name of the chief designer Wilhem Messerschmitt(his company merged with BF in 1927) and from then on it became the main supplier of combat vehicles to the Luftwaffe, including the first production Me jet fighters. 160 and Me. 262.

After the war, the company produced microcars, since Germany was prohibited from creating airplanes, then made fighter planes for NATO under someone else’s licenses, and since the late 60s it has gone through a series of mergers and acquisitions. As a result, in 1989, the Messerschmitt name finally disappeared from circulation: the company became part of the DaimlerChrysler Aerospace holding, which later, after another merger, became the European Aerospace Defense Concern (EADS). It sounds like the name of an evil corporation from Metal Gear Solid, but its most famous product is Airbus passenger airliners.

What models will be available at the launch of World of Warplanes:
Bf.110B, Bf.110E, Bf.109Z, Bf.109C, Bf.109E, Bf.109G, Me. 209, Me. 262, Me. 262 HG III, Me. 109TL, Me. 410, Me. 609, ​Me. P.1099B, Me. P.1102,

Junkers

Biography Hugo Junkers is similar to the story of a Bond villain: a talented professor of thermodynamics founded his business back in 1895 and initially produced heating devices, and in 1911 became the world leader in the number of registered patents. It was at that time that he became interested in the growing aviation industry and by the end of the First World War he had already established the production of fighter aircraft and even managed to work with the famous designer Anton Fokker. They didn’t get along: as you know, for a good plot, one mad scientist is enough.

By the end of the 30s, Junkers himself was gone, but the company under his name had become one of the largest manufacturers of transport and combat aircraft in the world. Including the famous dive bomber Ju 87, aka Stuka, aka “laptezhnik”, which emitted a characteristic frightening howl when approaching a target. After the war, the company continued to produce aircraft and was engaged in aerospace research with the involvement of brilliant scientists, but in the late 60s it was absorbed by Messerschmitt and ceased to exist independently.

What models will be available at the launch of World of Warplanes: Unfortunately, the Stukas will not be in the game at the start - a branch of German attack aircraft will appear later.

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 designed by Mozhaisky 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. The steam engines were stored for some time 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 plane 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 reconnaissance. 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 the national pride of 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.
The first air combat of the 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 the “Airship Squadron” had 115 aircraft, then by the fall there were only 6 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.

Zhukovsky is a city of aviators. Many aircraft were created, tested and refined here. And it was in Zhukovsky that the architectural complex “Creators of Russian Aviation” was opened.

The memorial alley “Creators of Russian Aviation” includes 16 busts of legendary Soviet aircraft designers. The presented busts were made of bronze by the young sculptor Vladimir Ivanov.

2. Tupolev Andrey Nikolaevich. Soviet scientist and aircraft designer, Colonel General-Engineer, Doctor of Technical Sciences. Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Hero of Labor. Three times Hero of Socialist Labor.
Now in Zhukovsky they are trying to save the memory of the plane, which became the peak of the development of domestic aviation - .

3. Ilyushin Sergey Vladimirovich. An outstanding Soviet aircraft designer, developer of the most mass-produced combat aircraft in history - the Il-2 attack aircraft. Three times Hero of Socialist Labor. The only winner of seven Stalin Prizes, Colonel General of the Engineering and Technical Service, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

4. The “Creator of Russian Aviation” complex was created on the initiative of the “Legends of Aviation” foundation. The alley was opened on September 22, 2017. They opened it solemnly, even with an air parade.

5. The Zhukovsky administration, the scientific and engineering company NIK, Russian Helicopters, Roscosmos, and the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) took part in the creation of the complex.

6. Mikoyan Artem Ivanovich. Soviet aircraft designer. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor. Under his leadership (together with M.I. Gurevich and V.A. Romodin), those who participated in the Great Patriotic War MiG-1 and MiG-3 fighter aircraft. After the war, the Mikoyan Design Bureau created the MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-19, MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-25, MiG-27, MiG-29, MiG-31, MiG-33, MiG- 35.

7. Gurevich Mikhail Iosifovich. Soviet aircraft design engineer, co-director of OKB-155. Hero of Socialist Labor. Winner of the Lenin Prize and six Stalin Prizes. He worked together with Mikoyan, creating MiG fighters. Letter G - Gurevich.

8. Myasishchev Vladimir Mikhailovich. Soviet aircraft designer, Major General Engineer, General Designer of OKB-23, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR. Hero of Socialist Labor. Lenin Prize laureate.
His aircraft: M-50, M-4, 3M/M-6, VM-T Atlant, M-17 Stratosphere, M-18, M-20, M-55 Geophysics.
One of the most famous is the one that transported parts of the Buran and Energia complexes.

9. Mil Mikhail Leontievich. Soviet helicopter designer and scientist, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin Prize and the USSR State Prize.

10. Tishchenko Marat Nikolaevich. Soviet and Russian helicopter designer. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Hero of Socialist Labor. From 1970 to 2007 - responsible manager and chief designer of the Mil Experimental Design Bureau. It was under his leadership that it was created.

11. Bartini Robert Ludvigovich. An Italian aristocrat, a communist, who left fascist Italy for the USSR, where he became a famous aircraft designer. Physicist, creator of device designs based on new principles. Author of more than 60 completed aircraft projects. Brigade commander In the questionnaires in the column “nationality” he wrote: “Russian”.

12. Kamov Nikolai Ilyich. Soviet aircraft designer, creator of the Ka helicopters, Doctor of Technical Sciences. Hero of Socialist Labor. Laureate of the USSR State Prize.

13. Yakovlev Alexander Sergeevich. Soviet aircraft designer, corresponding member. and academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Colonel General of Aviation. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor. General designer of the Yakovlev Design Bureau. Laureate of Lenin, State and six Stalin Prizes.

14. Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich. Soviet aircraft designer, Doctor of Technical Sciences, professor, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Hero of Socialist Labor. Laureate of the Lenin Prize and Stalin Prize of the second degree. The An-225 Mriya aircraft, built on the basis of the An-124 Ruslan, still remains the largest and most capable.
It’s a pity that the delegation from Ukraine did not come to the opening...

15. Beriev Georgy Mikhailovich. Soviet aircraft designer. Major General of the Engineering and Technical Service. Winner of the Stalin Prize.
Under his leadership, the following aircraft were created: Steel-6, Steel-7; seaplanes: MBR-2, MP-1, MP-1T, ship-based ejection aircraft KOR-1 and KOR-2, Be-6, jet boat Be-10, amphibians Be-12 (with modifications) and Be-12PS - serial; MDR-5, MBR-7, LL-143, Be-8, R-1, Be-14 - experienced, passenger Be-30 (Be-32), experimental projectile P-10.

16. Semyon Alekseevich Lavochkin. Soviet aircraft designer. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor. Winner of four Stalin Prizes. He made a huge contribution to aviation during the Great Patriotic War.

17. Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi. Outstanding Belarusian Soviet aircraft designer, Doctor of Technical Sciences, one of the founders of Soviet jet and supersonic aviation. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of Lenin, Stalin and State Prizes, laureate of Prize No. 1 named after. A. N. Tupolev.

18. Yakovlev Alexander Sergeevich. Soviet aircraft designer, corresponding member and academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Colonel General of Aviation. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor. General designer of the Yakovlev Design Bureau. Laureate of Lenin, State and six Stalin Prizes.

19. Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov. Russian and Soviet aircraft designer, head of OKB-51. Twice winner of the Stalin Prize, Hero of Socialist Labor, Polikarpov is one of the founders of the Soviet school of aircraft construction. The U-2 and R-5 multipurpose aircraft created under his leadership became one of the best in their class.

20. Vladimir Mikhailovich Petlyakov. Soviet aircraft designer. Winner of the Stalin Prize, first degree.

21. Nikolai Egorovich Zhukovsky is considered the founder of aviation in Russia.

22. It is his words that express the idea of ​​aviation:

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 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 the students in revolutionary struggle In 1905, the authorities temporarily stopped 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 strongly impressed by the 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 compiled comparative tables of 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 - now vertically up, now up and back, now up and forward, etc.

However, Slesarev soon became convinced that direct visual perception limited the possibility of comprehensive knowledge of the flight of insects, and that he needed 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 as both a training base and 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 an aluminum candle was placed in a wind tunnel 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 them weak spots. 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" - a biplane combat airship with a deck for a 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, the payload was 1,500 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. Slesarev paid special 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 the least weight for a given strength.

The project provided for the installation of two Mercedes engines, 300 each, on the Svyatogor Horse power, with their location for the convenience of simultaneous maintenance in the general 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 the construction of the twin-engine Siemens-Schuckert aircraft in 1915”).

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.

The outbreak of the 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 huge advantages over German military aviation. V. A. Lebedev’s St. Petersburg Aviation Plant 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), “wishing 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 government and government interest in “Svyatogor” public organizations were obviously doomed to failure. And when he managed to get an appointment with influential people- they listened to him carefully and sympathized:

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 program for the development of 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.