The "Sea Cruiser" MK-1 became the largest boat seaplane in tsarist Russia. It featured a large glazed cockpit for four crew members (including one gunner, who was supposed to serve the onboard 76-millimeter cannon). The plane was to be equipped with two 300hp engines. each. However, the Allies did not deliver these engines by the appointed time, which was common at the time. This forced Grigorovich to make changes to the project. Now the "Sea Cruiser" became three-engine. Two Renault engines (220 hp) were placed between the wings of the biplane box, and the third, Hispano-Suiza (140 hp), was installed along the axis of the aircraft on the upper wing. Unfortunately, the airplane was damaged during the tests in high seas. The revolution that took place in the country did not make it possible to restore the aircraft and continue testing.
In the same years, Grigorovich also developed land aircraft: S-1 and S-2 (the letter "C" stood for "land"). Moreover, the C-2 was one of the first airplanes in the world made according to the "frame" scheme. Not all aircraft designed by Grigorovich were successful. But the designer always tried to improve and improve them, while the owner of the plant, Shchetinin, demanded to build aircraft that would make a profit. Sometimes the production of aircraft of the old design continued, and information about the new seaplane, with higher flight data, was carefully hidden. For this reason, Grigorovich left Shchetinin and organized a small plant of his own, investing all his funds in it. But soon the plant had to be closed, and in the activities of Grigorovich as a designer comes a five-year break.
Airplane C-2.
Only in 1923 did Dmitry Pavlovich return to design work, get up at the drawing board, and come to the factory workshops. In the spring of 1923, according to his project, the M-23bis flying boat was built and, at the same time, the M-24 boat. In the fall of 1923, D. P. Grigorovich became the technical director of the State Aviation Plant No. 21 (GAZ No. 21). Here he organized his small design group and an experimental workshop. D. P. Grigorovich is included in the competition for the creation of a Soviet fighter. In the spring of 1924, tests of the I-1 fighter designed by N. N. Polikarpov. However, the I-1 aircraft has a number of significant shortcomings, which does not allow it to be put into serial production. D. P. Grigorovich creates his own version of the fighter a little later. In the fall, a new aircraft, named I-2, was completed and its flight tests began. During the tests, it was revealed that the I-2 has a low rate of climb and is unstable in flight. Dmitry Pavlovich is working on improving the fighter. After eliminating the shortcomings, the I-2bis fighter with the M-5 engine is launched into serial production. More than 200 aircraft of this type were produced in total. Thus, the I-2bis fighter became the first Soviet fighter of the original design. The serial production of the I-2bis allowed the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, by order of April 1, 1925, to remove foreign-type fighters from the Air Force's armament.
Back in 1924, simultaneously with the creation of the I-2 fighter, D. P. Grigorovich begins to design a flying boat. In the summer of 1925, the MR L-1 submarine ("Marine reconnaissance" with the "Liberty" engine) was built. At the same time, D. P. Grigorovich became the head of the Department of Marine Experimental Aircraft Building (OMOS). From 1925 to 1928, the OMOS developed ten types of seaplanes. But all these machines were unsuccessful, and D. P. Grigorovich was removed from the leadership of the OMOS. The designer was very upset by his failures and, for some time, stopped working on the design of aircraft.
On August 31, 1928, Grigorovich was arrested and worked for three years in the so-called "sharashka" - TsKB-39 of the OGPU. In April 1931, under his joint work with N. N. The famous I-5 fighter was created by the Polikarpov leadership. For its time, it was an outstanding combat aircraft. Here is what the aircraft designer A. S. wrote about the I-5. Yakovlev: “The fastest aircraft at that time, developing a speed of 280 kilometers per hour. The car was then considered a miracle of technology. " And the well-known aviation specialist A. N. Ponomarev recalled: “We have heard a lot of flattering reviews about this aircraft. The maneuverable I-5 performed a turn at an altitude of a thousand meters in just 9 and a half seconds."
In the future, Grigorovich led the development of a heavy four-engined bomber TB-5. This machine was created to secure the TB-3 all-metal bomber designed by Tupolev. According to the assignment, Grigorovich's bomber was to be made from non-scarce materials. This, of course, could not but affect the performance characteristics of the aircraft. It was clear to everyone that due to restrictions on the use of promising aluminum alloys, TB-5 would not be able to achieve the characteristics of TB-3. But despite this, the car corresponded to the level of the best world examples of that time. Grigorovich paid great attention to the convenience of the crew. For the first time on board a combat aircraft there were amenities: a toilet and four hanging hammocks for relaxation. The TB-5 had four engines placed under the wings in a tandem scheme, which reduced drag. The bomb load was 2500 kg. The defensive armament consisted of three turrets with twin machine guns. Compared to the TB-3, the machine gun mounts were placed more successfully. Also, unlike the Tupolev bomber, the TB-5 had an internal suspension for the entire assortment of bombs. The main advantages of the Grigorovich bomber were smaller dimensions, cost and labor costs during production. According to these indicators, TB-5 was practically equal to TB-1. In addition, Grigorovich hoped to improve the characteristics of his bomber by installing more powerful engines. But the launch of the TB-3 into a large series put an end to further work on the TB-5.
In the summer of 1930, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR S. Ordzhonikidze, who soon became the People's Commissar of Heavy Industry, talked with Dmitry Pavlovich. Sergo proposed to the designer to develop a high-speed fighter armed with two dynamo-jet guns of 76 mm caliber. Recoil when firing a dynamo-jet cannon was compensated by the reaction force of the gases thrown back. The gas-dynamic theory of a shot with an open volume was developed by an outstanding Soviet scientist, a specialist in the field of jet engines, professor, and later academician Boris Sergeevich Stechkin. Since 1923, the inventor Leonid Vasilyevich Kurchevsky has been working on the creation of a dynamo-reactive cannon. By 1930, small series of such guns were produced by the agro-industrial complex (Kurchevsky automatic cannon).
It should be noted that Kurchevsky chose an unsuccessful scheme for his guns, as a result of which his guns turned out to be unreliable, heavy, with a low rate of fire. The decision to create aircraft for Kurchevsky's guns, as is now known, was erroneous and unpromising. But in those days, they could not know about it.
The new I-Z fighter was created at an unusually fast pace, and was completed in the summer of 1931. The aircraft was equipped with an M-22 engine with a capacity of 480 hp. The aircraft's armament consisted of two 76 mm APCs and a synchronous machine gun. Pilots B. L. Bukhgolts and Yu. I. Piontkovsky. In 1933, the serial production of the aircraft began, and more than 70 fighters were produced.
Continuing to develop and improve the design of the I-Z, D. P. Grigorovich completed work in 1934 on the creation of an improved IP-1 cannon fighter with two agro-industrial complex cannons. On serial IP-1 aircraft, two ShVAK aviation cannons and six ShKAS machine guns were installed. A total of 200 IP-1 aircraft were produced, which were also intended for use as attack aircraft. The development of the IP-1 design was the IP-2 and IP-4 aircraft projects. In parallel with the work on fighters, D. P. Grigorovich worked on projects for a high-speed reconnaissance aircraft R-9, a dive bomber PB-1 and a light air cruiser LK-3.
In 1935, under the leadership of D. P. Grigorovich, a sports two-seater, twin-engine aircraft E-2 was designed and manufactured. The design work was carried out by a team, which consisted of eight girls-designers. Therefore, the E-2 was named the "Girl's Machine". Despite a serious illness (leucorrhoea), Dmitry Pavlovich continues his intense creative work. He is involved in the design of a heavy bomber. At the newly created Moscow Aviation Institute, Grigorovich is head of the department of aircraft design and of student enthusiasts, organizes a group to design an all-steel aircraft; supervises the graduation project of students of the Faculty of Engineering of the Air Force Academy named after Professor N. E. Zhukovsky. D. P. Grigorovich works as the head of the maritime department in the Main Directorate of the Aviation Industry of the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry, and at the end of 1936 he was appointed chief designer of the new plant. But the disease continues to develop, and in 1938, at the age of 56, he was gone.
Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich was one of the first Russian and Soviet aircraft designers. According to the 1954 encyclopedic dictionary, Grigorovich created about 80 types of aircraft, of which 38 types of aircraft were serially built. Under his leadership, in different years, who later became famous designers worked: G. M. Beriev, V. B. Shavrov, I. V. Chetverikov, M. I. Gurevich, S. P. Korolev, N. I. Kamov, S. A. Lavochkin and others. We cannot estimate his contribution to the history of the development of domestic aircraft construction.
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