Oleg Konstantinowitsch Antonov

Oleg Antonov on a Ukrainian postage stamp from 2006

Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov ( Russian Олег Константинович Антонов ., Scientific transliteration Oleg Antonov Konstantinović ; born January 25 ^{. Jul} / 7. February  1906 ^greg. In Troizi in Moscow ; † 4. April 1984 in Kiev ) was a Soviet aircraft designer .

Life

Oleg Antonow was born as the son of the civil engineer Konstantin Konstantinowitsch Antonow and his wife Anna Jefimowna. At the age of 17 he designed his first glider in 1923 as a schoolboy in Saratov following a call from the “Glider Flight” working group and the “Smena” magazine , but it remained a project. A year later he designed the OKA-1 "Golub" (pigeon), which took part in the first Soviet gliding competition in Koktebel in the Crimea. In the next few years, other designs followed, with which he regularly participated in competitions and which he also flew himself. This brought him into contact with other designers, including Sergei Ilyushin and Sergei Koroljow .

After finishing school, Antonov began studying at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute , which he graduated in 1930. He then worked from 1931 to 1938 as chief designer at the Tuschino glider factory . There he developed, among other things, the RF-7, which was built in small series in 1937 . With this aircraft, Olga Klepikowa achieved an absolute route record for gliders on July 6, 1939 with 749.203 kilometers. Also to be mentioned are the types "Standart" and "UPAR", which were also built in series and were used for the beginner training of pilots, as well as the first Soviet all-metal glider A-13 . In total, around 5000 gliders were built by Antonov's gliders in the 1930s. When the factory was closed in 1938, Antonov moved to Alexander Jakowlew's design office for two years , where he developed a copy of the German Fieseler Storch liaison aircraft , the OKA-38 , in Kaunas , although series production was prevented by the German attack on the Soviet Union . He then turned back to gliding for a short time as the head of a project group and developed, among other things, the cargo gliders A-7 and A-11 as well as the “flying tank” A-40 . From 1943 he switched back to OKB Jakowlew, where he worked as the first deputy at Plant 153 in Novosibirsk on fighter aircraft designs, including the Jak-3 . After the end of the war, the multi-purpose aircraft Jak-10 and Jak-12 were built under Antonov's direction . In 1945 he became a member of the WKP (B) .

On May 31, 1946, OKB Antonov was founded in Novosibirsk , which later moved to Kiev . The first developed model appeared in 1947 and was the multi-purpose aircraft An-2 , built in around 18,000 copies . The so-called “tractor of the air”, a large double-decker, is still in use today. This was followed by cargo and commercial aircraft such as the medium - haul aircraft An-10 Ukraina (1957) operated with propeller turbine engines and the largest aircraft in the world at the time, the An-22 Antäus (1969) and the An-124 Ruslan (1982). The current record holder An-225 Mrija (1988) was designed after his time. From 1967 Antonov was a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR .

Antonov was awarded the Order of Lenin three times for his work, the Stalin Prize and the Lenin Prize, and the title Hero of Socialist Labor (1966). Antonov was a doctor of technical sciences (1968) and a deputy to the Supreme Soviet . In 2004, an asteroid of the main inner belt was named after him: (14317) Antonov . His grave is in the Baikowe Cemetery in Kiev.

See also

• List of aircraft types

literature

• Rudolf Höflinger: Antonov. Aircraft since 1946 . Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-613-03518-8 .

Web links

Commons : Oleg Antonov  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heinz A. F. Schmidt (ed.): From the work of the Soviet aircraft designer O. K. Antonow. In: Flieger-Jahrbuch 1962. Transpress, Berlin 1961, p. 50.
2. ^ Mark Gallai : On the 75th birthday of O. K. Antonow. In: Flieger Revue . 1/1981, (335). Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1981, p. 20.
3. ↑ Wilfried Copenhagen : Encyclopedia Soviet aviation . Elbe-Dnjepr-Verlag, Klitzschen 2007, ISBN 978-3-933395-90-0 , p. 16.
4. ↑ Manfred Jurleit: Antonows Transporter. In: Fliegerrevue No. 8/1973, p. 358
5. ↑ Website of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine ( Memento of November 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) - Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich member's website , accessed on October 2, 2019