By the time of the birth of the person Sergei Ilyushin, we will now move on. But the moment of birth of the designer, probably, not everyone knows. But even this with Ilyushin came out within the framework of history.
I believe that the designer Ilyushin was born on September 8, 1910. And I even know the place of birth: the former Kolomyazhsky hippodrome, which became the Commandant airfield. By the way, by the works of Ilyushin.
In 1910, Sergei Ilyushin was hired as a digger in the working team for the preparation of the First All-Russian Festival of Aeronautics, which took place in September of the same year at the former St. Petersburg hippodrome.
Ilyushin took his first steps into the sky with a shovel in his hands. Falling asleep holes, leveling stripes, dismantling boxes of airplanes.
And then, watching what was happening in the sky, Ilyushin did not immediately notice that the sky had now settled in him. Forever and ever. How will forever remain in the history of Russian, Soviet and Russian aviation Sergei Ilyushin.
It is quite possible that somewhere in this crowd was Sergey Ilyushin …
Until then …
On March 18, 1894 according to the old style, on March 30 according to the new style, the eleventh child was born in the family of peasants Vladimir Ivanovich and Anna Vasilievna Ilyushin in the village of Dilyalevo, Vologda province. Sergey.
Childhood in a family of peasants is not the most joyful. But Sergei was able to learn to read and write at the school of the neighboring village of Bereznyaki, for which he always fondly remembered his rural teachers.
In 1909, at the age of 15, like many peers and brothers, he left home to work. The beginning of the working career of the future three times Hero of Socialist Labor was simply amazing.
He worked as a laborer in a factory, was a digger at a road construction site, cleaned gutters at a dyeing factory in St. Petersburg, and was hired to mow hay. So he got to the alteration of the hippodrome into an airfield, precisely because he did not shy away from any work.
Then he worked as a milk cart driver at a dairy plant, the construction of the Amur railway, where he became a timekeeper, since he was literate. And from the Far East - a rush to the west, where in Reval (this is Tallinn now) he was hired to build a shipyard of the Russian-Baltic Society. He was a handyman, lubricator, assistant excavator driver.
In the fall of 1914, Ilyushin was mobilized. Competent and having seen life, he quickly makes a career and becomes a clerk in the administration of the military commander of the city of Vologda. A very warm place, but as soon as the clerk gets a request for seven people to serve in aviation, Ilyushin drops everything and asks for a translation.
So Sergei Vladimirovich again finds himself in St. Petersburg, at the Commandant airfield, where he serves first as a hangar, then as an assistant to the aircraft engine operator, as a junior and, finally, as a senior mechanic.
Ilyushin was a member of the airfield team, which received, checked, prepared for flights aircraft from the aircraft factories of S. S. Schetinin and V. A. Lebedev.
Moreover, without interruption from service, he was allowed to undergo training as a pilot! And in the summer of 1917, Ilyushin passed the pilot's exam, graduating from the soldier's pilot school of the All-Russian Imperial Aero Club. There was such an interesting society, led by Count I. V. Stenbock-Fermor.
But then the revolution broke out, and somehow there was no time for airplanes …
In March 1918, due to the reduction in the production of aircraft by factories, the airfield team was disbanded. Ilyushin worked as the head of the industry department of the Vologda Council of the National Economy: he was involved in organizing the work of nationalized sawmills, steam mills, oil mills.
In May 1919, Ilyushin was drafted into the Red Army. But not as a pilot. At that time, there was a particularly shortage of aviation specialists capable of providing maintenance, repair and preparation for flights of aviation equipment of various types, worn out to the limit, as a rule, of foreign origin.
This work was carried out by mobile technical units - aircraft trains that traveled along the fronts of the Civil War. Mobile workshops, roughly speaking. Here, obviously, a deep and thoughtful (otherwise it will not fly) study by Ilyushin of airplanes, let's say, in assortment, began.
It turned out so peculiar, however, but the school of the future designer. Where Ilyushin received a thorough knowledge of the design of aircraft of that time, and the features of their operation, and combat use.
In September 1921, the head of the aviation train of the Kuban Army, Ilyushin, received a referral to the Institute of Engineers of the Red Air Fleet, in which he began his studies. In 1922 the institute was transformed into the Air Force Academy named after Professor N. Ye. Zhukovsky.
Among the audience, Ilyushin stands out for his organizational and design skills. His authority and knowledge was enough to head one of the sections of the Military Scientific Society of the Academy.
Working in a scientific community has been very rewarding. It is here that Ilyushin begins to design and build. Gliders first, of course. But these simple devices played a huge role in the formation of the designer Ilyushin, and not only him. Gliders were built by Yakovlev, Beriev, Petlyakov.
In 1926, after graduating from the Air Force Academy, Ilyushin became chairman of the aircraft building section of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Red Army Air Force Directorate - NTK UVVS.
In those years, the NTK UVVS directly supervised the program for the creation and equipping of the Soviet air force. He was responsible for planning experimental and serial construction, developing tactical and technical requirements for prototype aircraft, engines, aviation weapons and equipment, monitoring the progress of work on the creation and testing of aviation technology.
From June 1926 to November 1931, Sergei Vladimirovich worked as the chairman of the aircraft section of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Air Force, where he studied the world experience in aircraft construction, and developed tactical and technical requirements for new aircraft. Under the leadership of Ilyushin, technical requirements were drawn up for some aircraft of Nikolai Polikarpov (including U-2), Andrey Tupolev, Dmitry Grigorovich. Also in 1930-1931, Sergei Vladimirovich worked as an assistant to the head of the Air Force Scientific Testing Institute for scientific and technical matters.
Here it is worth focusing on the fact that Ilyushin has become one of the most influential people in the aviation industry. No exaggeration. And in this position it would be possible to work without any problems and benefit the state.
But the virus on September 10 was doing its job. And in the summer of 1931, Ilyushin wrote a report with a request to transfer to the aviation industry. Ilyushin wants to work on the planes themselves, not the documentation for them.
Ilyushin's report was considered, and from November 1931 to January 1933, Sergei Vladimirovich headed the design bureau of TsAGI.
By the way, about the possibilities of Ilyushin.
In November 1932, Ilyushin proposed to divide the design bureau of TsAGI into two independent structures: the Central Design Bureau of the aircraft plant No. 39 named after V. I. V. R. Menzhinsky for the construction of light aircraft and the design department of TsAGI, engaged in the development of heavy aircraft.
Sergei Vladimirovich's proposal was considered by the head of the Glavaviaprom Petr Baranov and the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry Grigory Ordzhonikidze.
On January 13, 1933, the Central Design Bureau (CDB) of the Aviation Plant named after V. I. V. R. Menzhinsky, whose head was Ilyushin.
At the same time, Sergei Vladimirovich led the design brigade No. 3. In September 1935, the Ilyushin team was transformed into the Experimental Design Bureau of the Aviation Plant. V. R. Menzhinsky, and Sergei Vladimirovich became the chief designer of the OKB.
Do not get bogged down in intrigue, knowing that any of your proposals will be accepted and considered as soon as possible - you have to be human. Ilyushin was.
As contemporaries testify, the main thing for him was knowledge and creative dedication, and not the official position of individuals. This approach to the growth and position of employees in the team led to the constancy of the composition of the main part of the team. The people of Ilyushin did not leave the organization even when they received rather attractive offers from other organizations, this was noted by many in their memoirs.
Ilyushin's remarkable quality (and most useful at that time) was his ability to infect with his enthusiasm, to captivate people with his idea without any agitation. Although, as his former subordinates note, Sergei Vladimirovich has always been very laconic. But, nevertheless, he knew how to generously share his knowledge with people in some way known to him. And, as time has shown, he brought up excellent specialists precisely in the spirit of his ability to solve engineering problems and tasks.
For young specialists, Ilyushin developed a "Brief Memo to the Designer", where he described the main issues of designing aircraft parts, assemblies and parts. "Memo" is not only a complete list of all the requirements affecting the design, but also instructions for the analysis of all the factors that must be taken into account in the design.
What Ilyushin created, in principle, is known to everyone.
The firstborn of the OKB under the leadership of Ilyushin was the TsKB-26 bomber. On July 17, 1936, Vladimir Kokkinaki set the first Soviet world aviation record for the height of cargo lifting, officially registered by the International Aviation Federation.
Further, the DB-3 and DB-3F (IL-4) bombers were created, the same ones that carried out a number of raids on Berlin in August-September 1941. And of course, the "flying tank" - the Il-2 attack aircraft, the most massive aircraft of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War.
Since 1943, the Ilyushin Design Bureau began developing passenger aircraft. Yes, the war was still in full swing, but at Ilyushin they were already looking ahead, starting work on peaceful aircraft.
A series of civilian "Ilov" began with the Il-12. This was followed by the Il-14 and Il-18.
The last aircraft developed under the leadership of Sergei Vladimirovich was the Il-62.
Passenger transcontinental handsome Il-62, which entered the air lines in 1967, and its modification Il-62M deservedly became the flagships of Aeroflot.
The pilots of Ilyushin's liners noted that even such a very large aircraft retained the simplicity and ease of control inherent in all Ilam. It was since then that the leaders of the state began to fly on Ilyushin's planes, and they do it today.
But the military theme was not set aside either.
Yes, during the war years, the main forces of the Design Bureau were thrown into the improvement of attack aircraft, but Ilyushin continued to work on the creation of new bombers.
The first Soviet jet front-line bomber that entered service with the Air Force was the Il-28.
In the summer of 1970, S. V. Ilyushin, due to illness, resigned from his duties as the head of the OKB, but remained a member of the Scientific and Technical Council and a consultant.
Only seven years of well-deserved rest, and Sergei Vladimirovich completed his journey.
What else can you add here? Only gratitude for what was done for the good of the country and memory. The memory of a creative person who gave all of himself for the sake of only silver handsome passenger flying in the sky of his country.
And this dream, if any, came true for sure. But it was for her sake that thousands of "flying tanks" brought death to the enemies from that very sky.
Having passed the way from a glider weighing less than 100 kg to an intercontinental liner with a flight weight of 160 tons in less than 40 years, Ilyushin became a real Chief Designer. This is not a title, this is a state of mind and a flight of fantasy, embodied in metal.
But, perhaps, the main achievement of the designer Ilyushin is not airplanes in the literal sense. Like any master (and we do not question the fact that Sergei Vladimirovich was just a master), the main achievement is his students and followers. Who will continue the work of the teacher and even develop it.
Ilyushin did not just have many students and followers. These students and closest assistants, who have worked with Ilyushin for more than a dozen years, are often called the "Ilyushin guard". Indeed, these are the specialists on whom he relied in solving all sorts of issues and with whom he worked, and who did not just continue his work.
Il-62M, Il-76, Il-86, Il-96-300, Il-114, Il-96M, which appeared after Sergei Vladimirovich left his job, is the best confirmation.
February 9, 1977 Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin died in Moscow. Buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.
But the planes that were created by him and his students continue to fly. Even if not in the quantities we would like, but they fly. But these are the realities.
