April 4, 1984
A 78-year-old man died in Kyiv. Oleg Antonov — Soviet aircraft designer, one of the "fathers" of military transport aviation. Creator of the Antey, Ruslan, and other legendary aircraft.
It's not enough to build airplanes that are world-class. You have to be ahead of the curve.
Born in 1906 Moscow region, into a family of hereditary nobles. His father was a well-known civil engineer in Russia. His mother was a graduate of the Bestuzhev Courses. He spent his childhood and youth in Saratov.
At 9, he lost his mother - she became infected in the hospital where she worked as a nurse during the First World War.
Even as a schoolboy, I became fascinated with aviation, which was booming at the time. I'd buy old aviation books at book markets and run with friends to the local airfield.
We met pilots and mechanics, and collected many airplane parts and components at a nearby dump.
At 18, as a first-year student in the Faculty of Communications at Saratov University, he built his first glider, the "Dove." He organized a glider club and participated in the All-Union Trials. Koktebel. His glider model made it onto the cover of a magazine.
A glider is a step leading to the sky
(from Antonov's interview with Smena magazine, 1924)
At 19, due to the closure of the university's Faculty of Aviation, he enrolled in the Faculty of Machine Building at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. After graduating at 26, he found work at the Higher Flight and Glider School in Koktebel. A year later, he became chief designer of the Osoaviakhim glider plant (the predecessor of DOSAAF). He then became first deputy of the design bureau. Alexandra Yakovleva.
Beauty in engineering is a real category. An experienced designer can judge an aircraft almost infallibly by whether it "looks" or "doesn't."
A designer needs to have a sure eye and a steady hand; he can draw a wing profile with a single movement of his hand.
During the Great Patriotic War, he worked at a glider factory under the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry. He designed a glider for the T-60 light tank ("tank wings"), but its testing failed. However, his A-7 multi-seat troop-transport glider contributed to the Soviet victory.
After the end of the war he headed the design bureau in Novosibirsk. Created dozens of aircraft.
The first and most famous "corncob" aircraft, the An-2, flew back in 1947. Antonov designed it as an agricultural aircraft capable of taking off from unimproved, unpaved airfields. The model proved so successful that it was used for decades in air ambulances and intraregional passenger transport. It remained in production for half a century, during which time more than 16 aircraft were produced.
In 1952, Antonov's bureau was transferred to Kiev. Under his leadership, the military An-8 and An-12, the passenger An-10 and An-24, and the heavy transport An-124 (Ruslan) were developed.
In 1962 he became the general designer of the design bureau.
In 1965, his An-22 (Antey) caused a sensation at the Paris Air Show: it was the world's first wide-body aircraft capable of carrying up to 60 tons of cargo (the following year, it would lift 88 tons). Thanks to Antonov's aircraft, the Soviet Union was ahead of all other countries in aircraft manufacturing at the time.
He lectured at the Kiev Civil Aviation Institute. He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR representing the Kyiv region for 26 years and seven terms.
Wings are essential for everyone, not just those whose lives are connected with aviation.
Since 1984, after his death, the design bureau has been named after him. Today, it is Antonov JSC, which not only builds aircraft but also transports cargo on Antonov Airlines.
Even during the aircraft designer's lifetime, the bureau began designing the An-225 (Mriya), the largest aircraft in the world at the time. Its first flight took place in 1988, and in 1989, flights with the Buran were completed. Baikonur. It later operated commercial flights for Antonov Airlines. The aircraft was destroyed on February 25, 2022, during the fighting for Antonov Airport near the village of Gostomel near Kyiv.
