Even before the revolution, when the aircraft industry was just beginning to develop, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich spoke about domestic aircraft builders-enthusiasts: “Most of all, one should not get carried away with the idea of creating an air fleet according to the plans of our inventors. The [air fleet] committee is not in the least obligated to spend big money on all sorts of fantasies just because these fantasies were born in Russia. By the efforts of the Wright brothers, Santas Dumont, Blériot, Farman, Voisin and others, airplanes have been brought to the level of perfection possible with the present state of technology. And it remains to use these ready-made results."
It seems that this approach to aircraft construction has been adopted in modern Russia. It remains only to add to the topical sounding words of the Grand Duke a few newfangled terms like the competitiveness of Western counterparts and replace the names of foreign aircraft manufacturers with the names of modern foreign aviation companies "Boeing", "Airbus", "Bombardier", etc.
As you know, the Soviet government adhered to the opposite opinion on this score. Not so much time has passed since Alexander Mikhailovich's statement, but when in the summer of 1937 Chkalov's crew, having made a flight over the North Pole, landed on the North American continent, to the journalists' questions about who built the plane and whose engine was installed on it, our pilots rightfully could proudly answer: "Everything on the plane is Soviet." The plane on which the flight that amazed the world was made was called ANT-25, and it was a wonderful Soviet designer who was later named after the best Russian military aircraft, Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi, who was engaged in its creation in the Tupolev design bureau.
In the 1930s, records of the Chkalov and Gromov crews were set on airplanes prepared by the team under the leadership of Sukhoi. On a modified version of the DB-2 long-range bomber, the Rodina aircraft, Grizodubova, Osipenko and Raskova made their non-stop flight from Moscow to the Far East. The name "Rodina" given to the aircraft by the crew "expresses the thoughts and feelings of the creators of the machine: workers, engineers, designers", designer Sukhoi confessed in the only interview in his entire life.
An independent design bureau under the leadership of Sukhoi was created in 1939, and the Su-2 became the first production aircraft of the "Su" brand. “On these planes we fought near Moscow, Leningrad, Stalingrad, on the Kursk Bulge,” the pilots later recalled the military exploits of the Su-2 in the Great Patriotic War. “A light aircraft, obedient to a skillful hand, flying, maneuverable, quite fast. And most importantly, multipurpose: a reconnaissance aircraft, a bomber, an attack aircraft, a "free hunt" aircraft, an aircraft for group flights and single combat, with a spacious navigational cabin, incredibly tenacious and trouble-free, "Hero of the Soviet Union M. Lashin characterized Sukhoi's brainchild. Pilots generally use the word "vitality" when speaking about the Su-2, especially often, recalling with gratitude how he "again saved our lives."
Even before the war, Sukhoi was given the task of creating an attack aircraft. A little earlier, the same task was given to Ilyushin, who eventually developed the famous Il-2. “While testing the Sukhoi attack aircraft, I found that its speed and maneuverability was higher than that of the Il-2,” asserted the pilot AK Dolgov. Despite the official recognition of the superiority of the Su-6 over the Il, the Sukhoi attack aircraft did not go into production: the Il-2 was already in service and successfully coped with its tasks, and in the most difficult military conditions the country could not afford to send funds to organize the production of a new aircraft. Nevertheless, Sukhoi's merits did not go unnoticed by the country's leadership: the designer was awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree, the money of which Sukhoi sent to the Defense Fund.
It so happened that this fate - never to enter the series - befell other excellent Sukhoi aircraft during that period. In 1949, he was going through a difficult moment: his design bureau was disbanded, and Sukhoi again returned under the wing of Tupolev. “I am an airplane and will remain one in any situation. I cannot imagine my life without aviation,”he said then.
A separate design bureau was re-created in 1953. A few days later, Sukhoi already introduced his associates to the main parameters of the two new aircraft. The Sukhoi Design Bureau begins to create a front-line fighter with a swept wing and a fighter-interceptor with a delta wing. What Sukhoi did was so new that many of the declared technical characteristics of the conceived aircraft seemed incredible. Perplexed comments were repeatedly sounded to the address of Sukhoi's team: "Sukhoi and you are all great dreamers." Nevertheless, he managed to prove that he can create the best, most modern aircraft. Soon everything fell into place: “If anyone can learn something new and interesting, it’s from Sukhoi,” designer Lavochkin once admitted.
In 1956, for the first time in our country, a Sukhoi plane reached a speed exceeding two speeds of sound. The absolute world record for flight speed on a 100-kilometer closed route (2092 km / h) was set by pilot Adrianov on a T-405 of the same design bureau. This is far from the only world-class achievement on Sukhoi aircraft: for example, V. S. Ilyushin set a flight altitude record of 28852 m on a T-431 plane, he also became the author of an absolute record for horizontal flight altitude (21 270 m). Pavel Sukhoi is considered one of the founders of Soviet jet and supersonic aviation. Su-7 fighter, Su-9 fighter-interceptor, Su-7B fighter-bomber - these are some examples of aircraft designed by Sukhoi in the post-war period. The first aircraft with a forward-swept wing in the USSR was also the brainchild of Sukhoi -
Su-17. In total, the designer developed fifty original aircraft designs, more than three dozen of them were built and tested.
Biographers of Pavel Osipovich speak of him as an extremely restrained person, closed, not giving vent to emotions, which sometimes seemed to some even exactly corresponding to his surname - "dry", and at the same time extremely modest. And at the same time, behind the external appearance, there was also a sensitive concern for the people who worked next to him, and a surprisingly rich inner world. The creator of magnificent combat aircraft was well versed in literature and painting, carefully followed the latest technical innovations, reading foreign technical magazines (by the way, fiction) in the original - he was fluent in three modern European languages, and also knew Latin.
A small touch: once Sukhoi was informed that he had received a preferential voucher to a sanatorium. The designer said that he would use the voucher, but only after paying for it in full. According to him, preferential vouchers should have been given primarily to workers. When you read this about a Soviet leader, it does not seem surprising or rare at all, on the contrary, it is very natural. But what a terrible contradiction this behavior enters into with the attitude towards workers of modern "effective top managers".
… When you see Su airplanes in the sky during performances, each time you experience a whole range of feelings. It is always a delight from the beauty of a fighting bird, the perfection of its lines, admiration for the power of the aircraft and the skill of the pilot, seemingly easily making figures on a heavy machine that will take your breath away. We are proud that this perfection of the lines is the result of the hard work of our aircraft manufacturers; and also - gratitude to the "dryers" for the fact that all their lives they honestly protected the peace of our country, and the feeling that when such aircraft began to enter service, we really were not afraid of any enemy. For our eyes, they are not at all predatory, but on the contrary, even relatives, but let others be afraid of them! Have you ever noticed how frightening, unlike ours, Western combat aircraft look - maybe also because you know that they have both Yugoslavia and Iraq on their account?.. And yet it is difficult to get rid of both pride and admiration from a nagging feeling of annoyance - that again, for the umpteenth time, Soviet achievements are being turned to their advantage by the authorities, who curse and destroy everything Soviet and therefore have no moral right to them. They are used to stifle all doubts about our current defense capability with the roar of the still working Soviet engines of the "Russian Knights". Meanwhile, as it is a well-known fact in relation to the military aircraft industry today it is said that “we keep the industry only at the expense of export deliveries” and as evidence of great progress, the promise is made that in 2015 40% of the production of combat aircraft will be directed to the domestic market …
The engine-builder Lyulka, with whom Sukhoi worked, especially emphasized the risk the designer was taking when he set about creating an incredible aircraft for those times in the newly created design bureau: Motherland . The words about patriotism here are by no means accidental: Sukhoi worked in conditions when the Cold War was waged against the USSR, and the presence of the most modern combat aircraft in the USSR was an extremely weighty argument in the confrontation with NATO. An argument that we miss so much now.
T-4 ("weaving") - shock-reconnaissance bomber-missile carrier OKB im. Sukhoi.
- On August 22, 1972, the chief pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union V. S. Ilyushin, together with the honored navigator of the USSR A. Alferov, lifted the T-4 into the air. The flight lasted 40 minutes. In the ninth test flight on August 6, 1973, the machine crossed the sound barrier at an altitude of 12100 m.
Pictured: preparation for flight.
- The third copy of the aircraft (ANT-37bis), released in February 1936, was named "Rodina". All work was carried out by the team of P. O. Sukhoi - the actual author of this aircraft. The design and equipment of the Rodina aircraft were more perfect than in previous military and record aircraft.
A woman's flight range record was set on the Rodina plane. On September 24–25, 1938, pilots V. S. Grizodubova, PD Osipenko and M. M. Raskova flew along the route Moscow - Kerby village with a length of 5908 km in 26 hours 29 minutes. flight time.
In the photo: P. O. Sukhoi among the crew members of the Rodina aircraft (M. Raskova, V. Grizodubova, P. Osipenko).
