After the end of the Great Patriotic War, in accordance with the decision of the Crimean Conference on the territory of Germany, it was forbidden to carry out work on military topics. In the Soviet zone of occupation, they were carried out in an atmosphere of complete secrecy, but the Allies knew about it. By a decree of the Council of Ministers of April 17, 1946, it was ordered to transport the most valuable German specialists in aircraft, engines and instruments to specially trained aviation enterprises to the USSR. In September 1946, 3558 specialists, together with their families, were delivered to the enterprises of the aviation industry in the Moscow and Kuibyshev areas. They were followed by trains with machine tools, equipment, transport and even drawing boards, tables and plumbing fixtures.
Creation of a base for the work of German specialists
84 aviation enterprises dismantled in Germany with a total of 123 thousand equipment units were transferred to the Ministry of the Aviation Industry. At the places where specialists were hired, intensive training was carried out - the workshops of factories were restored and expanded, dwelling houses were repaired, and Finnish houses were built. At the same time, the task was set to expand the airfield at LII so that jet aircraft built by the Germans could be tested there.
The aircraft developers were assembled at the pilot plant No. 1 on the basis of the former plant No. 458 in the Podberez'e village of the Kimrsky district, about 100 km north of Moscow (Dubna). There, OKB-1 was created, headed by the former head of the Junkers pilot production company, Dr. Baade.
Specialists in turbojet engines were sent to experimental plant No. 2 on the basis of plant No. 145 in the village of Upravlenchesky near Kuibyshev (OKB-2, headed by engineer Russing). Instrument specialists (OKB-3, headed by Lertes) were also housed at this plant due to the limited possibilities for their placement in Podberez'e. Small groups of engine engineers were sent to factories No. 456 in Khimki and No. 500 in Tushino. The factories were equipped mainly with German captured equipment.
The basis of OKB-1 was formed by the employees of the aircraft department of the Junkers firm in Dessau. The deputy chief designer was Freitag, a graduate of the University of Göttingen. The group of leading OKB-1 employees included the author of the Ju 287 bomber project Wokke, the chief engineer of the Junkers plant Hazelof, and the head of the aerodynamics department of the Junkers company, Dr. Bockhaus.
The OKB-2 consisted of employees of several firms. Ressing supervised the design work, his deputies were the former head of the Siebel structure department Heinsen and the Soviet engineer Bereznyak. Among the most qualified German specialists of OKB-2, one should also name the leading specialist in aerodynamics of the Heinkel company, Gunther.
At OKB-1, the main task was to continue the design and experimental work begun in Germany in 1945-1946 to develop new types of jet aircraft, including those with a forward swept wing, and an experimental supersonic flying laboratory.
OKB-2 had to continue work on the creation of forced samples of serial German turbojet engines Jumo-004 and BMW-003 and more powerful Jumo-012 and BMW-018, and the Jumo-022 turboprop engine, which was installed under the NK-2M brand in the middle 1950s on airplanes An-8, Tu-91. OKB-3 was instructed to continue the autopilot work begun in Germany.
At plant No. 500 in Tushino, a group from Dessau under the leadership of Gerlach was supposed to continue work on the Jumo 224 (M-224) aircraft diesel engine and organize the production of jet engines based on the English Derwent-5 jet engine. Experimental engines based on Dervent-5 under the RD-500 brand were successfully developed and manufactured.
At plant 456 in Khimki, rocket engine specialists were to master the manufacture of a V-2 rocket engine, designated RD-100. Soviet designers proceeded to further boost it in terms of thrust and developed the RD-101 with a thrust of 37 tons and the RD-103 with a thrust of 44 tons. However, German specialists were not allowed to these works. And the Glushko Design Bureau began to develop a new powerful oxygen-kerosene engine, the design of which was based on the backlog of domestic developments of the 30s and 40s.
In addition to aviation and engine-building design bureaus, in 1947 in Moscow was created "Special Bureau No. 1" (SB-1), whose chief engineer was appointed Sergei Beria, the son of the almighty Lavrenty Beria. In August 1950, it was transformed into KB-1, which was entrusted with the creation of the Moscow air defense system - the Berkut system, later renamed the S-25 system. Lavrenty Beria, using his capabilities, transported the entire German company "Askania", which was developing control systems for the German V-1 and V-2 missiles during the war. Subsequently, KB-1 became the Almaz-Antey concern, which developed the S-25, S-75, S-125, S-300, S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems.
Life of German specialists
The largest German colonies were near Kuibyshev and Moscow. In Administrative, together with 755 German specialists, 1,355 people from their families arrived from Germany, and in Podberez'e - about five hundred specialists and about a thousand members of their families.
All specialists had to be provided with comfortable housing, with which there were serious problems, there was not enough housing for their employees. This issue was resolved with the help of the government. The necessary funds were allocated, a batch of Finnish houses was purchased, military construction teams were sent to the places to restore and repair housing, the Ministry of Defense relocated two military units to other areas, one of the sanatoriums was allocated for housing. It was necessary to evict the employees of the factories from a number of houses and move them to other tenants in the order of compaction. As a result, all German specialists were provided with housing, they were provided with apartments in brick, wooden houses and purchased Finnish houses.
Over time, the life of German specialists improved, they were paid one and a half to two times more than Soviet specialists of the same level, closed grocery stores were created for them, where access for the common population was closed. Under the existing rationing system, German families received food ration cards with a large food content, and special halls were assigned to them in canteens. Specialists working in Moscow in SB-1, accompanied by security officers, could visit one of the best Moscow grocery stores - Eliseevsky. For schoolchildren in secondary school, classes with teaching in German were allocated, for preschool children, kindergartens were organized, where the wives of German specialists worked.
In places of compact residence of specialists, German communities were created that were engaged in social work on organizing leisure - trips to nature, studying the Russian language in circles, collective visits to theaters in Moscow and Kuibyshev, participation in a German symphony orchestra, amateur performances and sports sections. They were allowed to purchase radios and listen to foreign radio stations without restrictions. They remained citizens of Germany, they were forbidden to leave the territory of the villages without special permission or without an escort.
At the initial stage, there was suspicion in the relationship between Soviet and German workers, and private communication with Germans outside the work environment was prohibited. But gradually the relationship became normal. Soviet engineers initially believed that the Germans would not share their experience with us and would engage in sabotage. However, they willingly shared their experience, worked very conscientiously, even when they did not agree with the order of the work being done.
Jet aircraft development
Of particular interest is the organization of the development by the Germans of new jet aircraft, in which they have advanced quite far. Prototypes of aircraft and engines were delivered from Germany - aircraft EF-131, EF-126, Siebel 346, engines Jumo 004C, Jumo 012 (5 units), BMW 003C (7 units), BMW 018, Walter 109– 509 (4 copies). "Siebel 346" and EF-126 were transferred to TsAGI for blowing in a wind tunnel, three BMW 003C engines were sent to the Mikoyan Design Bureau, the rest of the equipment was delivered to pilot plants No. 1 and No. 2.
In the spring of 1947, Plant No. 1 was instructed to conduct flight tests of the EF-131 bomber, the EF-346 experimental supersonic aircraft and the EF-126 jet attack aircraft with a turboprop engine, and also to manufacture and submit for testing two prototypes of the EF-132 bomber by September 1948.
In 1947, LII conducted flight tests of the EF-126 attack aircraft and the first jet bomber in the USSR, the EF-131, with six triple-wing engines and a forward swept wing. In October 1947, due to the ban on the stay of foreign specialists at the facilities operating secret equipment, the tests of German aircraft at the LII were ordered to be stopped, and the aircraft and the specialists themselves were returned to plant No. 1. EF-126 and EF-131 stood for several months. at the airfield under the snow. When the aircraft were ready for testing in June 1948, work on these aircraft was discontinued, and the development of the most promising of the German aircraft, the EF-132 long-range bomber, was canceled.
This decision was caused by the appearance in the USSR of a new generation of turbojet engines with better characteristics compared to German engines - AM-TRDK-01 designed by Mikulin and TR-1 designed by Cradle. The EF-131 with "clusters" of low-power "Jumo" under the wings and the EF-126 with an unreliable and uneconomical turboprop were already obsolete machines. Work on the supersonic EF-346 was continued.
The main theme of OKB-1 in 1948 was the construction and testing of the EF-140 bomber, which was a modification of the EF-131 aircraft with the installation of two Mikulin AM-TRDK-01 engines and the use of more powerful weapons. The plane was converted from a six-engine into a twin-engine one. The nacelles were attached to the underside of the wing. The work was carried out as an initiative project of OKB-1.
In September 1948, the EF-140 was fully prepared for flight, tests took place at the airfield in Teply Stan. In May 1949, factory tests of the aircraft were completed, it reached a maximum speed of 904 km / h and a flight range of 2000 km. In connection with the successful tests of the Tu-14 front-line bomber, state tests of the EF-140 were not carried out, OKB-1 was instructed to convert the aircraft into a long-range reconnaissance aircraft "140-R".
In 1949, factory tests of the "140-R" were carried out, which revealed large wing vibrations. After the modifications, the tests continued, but the vibration of the wing did not stop. In July 1950, it was decided to stop all work on the "140-R". This was the last aircraft with a forward-swept wing created in the USSR, TsAGI specialists came to the conclusion that it was undesirable to use such a wing in aircraft construction.
The last work of OKB-1 was the creation of a front-line bomber "150" with a conventional swept wing. The fundamental difference between this aircraft was that it was a completely new design, developed with the involvement of the achievements of aviation science and technology of the second half of the 1940s.
The prototype "150" was the RB-2 bomber project, developed at the initiative of Baade in 1948. According to calculations, the maximum speed of this 38-ton aircraft should have been about 1000 km / h.
The bomber was a high-wing aircraft with a swept wing, T-shaped tail and two turbojet engines on pylons under the wing. It was the first aircraft built in the USSR with engines on pylons. Due to the high level of novelty of the design, the process of building the aircraft was greatly delayed, almost everything had to be made anew, often turning to the help of other factories. Only at the end of 1951 was the plane ready for testing.
The dimensions of the factory airfield did not allow testing such a heavy aircraft. And it should be transported to the new airfield, equipped in Lukhovitsy. The aircraft "150" first took to the air in September 1952 and was successfully tested. However, on May 9, 1953, while landing, test pilot Vernikov made a mistake, the plane lost speed and fell onto the runway from a height of 5-10 m.
Despite the fact that the aircraft exceeded the specified characteristics during the tests, it was not restored. According to its characteristics, "150" occupied an intermediate position between the Il-28 and Tu-16. Under the pretext of excessive range for a front-line bomber and insufficient for a strategic one in December 1953, this project was closed.
The return of German specialists to the GDR began in 1950. And by the end of 1953, most of them left the USSR. The teams of German specialists in the field of aircraft and engine building in the Soviet Union created not only prerequisites for the construction of large Tupolev and Myasishchev bombers. Their contribution was more significant in teaching their own way of thinking and the ability to bring their ideas to life for young Soviet engineers. They introduced many ideas into the development of the Soviet aircraft industry, which turned out to be very significant. Perhaps these developments became the main trophy of the Soviet Union, which allowed the dilapidated country in a matter of years to turn into a world superpower with the world's best aviation.
The further fate of the 150 bomber project is also interesting. Baade managed to convince the leadership of the GDR and Moscow of the advisability of starting the development and production of passenger aircraft in the GDR.
At the end of 1954, OKB-1 began designing a turbojet passenger aircraft. The project "150" was taken as a basis. In May 1956, OKB-1 was transferred to the GDR and incorporated into the Flugzeugwerke production association. The aircraft project was named "Baade 152". The aircraft was equipped with four Pirna 014 turbojet engines under the wings, twin-engineered in two arrow-shaped narrow pylons.
The presentation of the new aircraft took place in 1958, flight tests began, and in March 1959, the prototype suffered a plane crash, during which the crew died. The work, however, was continued. Another prototype of the aircraft was built and took off in August 1960. And an experimental batch of aircraft was laid on the stocks of the plant. But in the GDR the leadership changed, which decided not to manufacture its own aircraft, but to repair and build aircraft under a Soviet license. In addition, the Baade 152 aircraft created unhealthy competition for the Soviet Tu-104.
In the summer of 1961, work on the aircraft was discontinued. Samples of aircraft destroyed. Except for one, which is now kept in the Dresden airport museum.
