Wassili Wassiljewitsch Nikitin (aircraft designer)

Wassili Wassiljewitsch Nikitin ( Russian Василий Васильевич Никитин , scientific transliteration Vasilij Vasil'evič Nikitin ; * 1901 ; † 1955 ) was a Soviet aircraft designer.

Life

Nikitin actually studied architecture, but taught himself the basics of flying when he joined Dmitri Grigorowitsch's team in 1922 and was responsible for various basic concepts of aircraft and their assessment.

In 1925 he moved to Nikolai Polikarpow and worked for him until 1929 when he moved to the ZKB , the central development office, where he stayed until 1936.

From 1933 he developed his own aircraft designs, so together with Vladimir Shevchenko the Nikitin-Shevchenko IS-1 , Nikitin-Shevchenko IS-2 also known as I-220 and the Nikitin-Shevchenko IS-4 , all fighters with a retractable lower wing. The designs were airworthy, but could not prevail against conventional designs with buoyancy aids .

From 1939 to 1940 Nikitin worked in OKB -30 near Moscow before he became director of seminars on aircraft repair in 1941. At ZAGI he deals with wind tunnel examinations and the processing of the corresponding results.

After the Second World War he went to Nikolai Kamov's design office and became a deputy general engineer.

Aircraft constructions / projects

• NW-1  : A small, single-seat, low-wing sport aircraft with wing struts and a slight gull wing.
• NW-2  : A further development of the NW-1 as a training aircraft with modified wings without struts to the fuselage. Equipped with an M-11 but with a retractable landing gear, the machine was tested in 1935.
• NW-2bis  : A further development with the MG-11 engine.
• UTI-5 (NW-2bis / MG-31): Modified version of the bis variant with a more powerful MG-31 engine.
• UTI-6 (NW-6): aerobatic training aircraft. Was a small biplane that was built on behalf of OSSOAWIACHIM in OKB-30 in 1939.
• NW-5 (U-5, NW-5bis, U-5LSch): Two-seat training aircraft in biplane design, similar to the Polikarpow U-2 (Po-2) but somewhat smaller, with a closed cabin. In 1937 the aircraft with the MG-40 engine by the designer MA Kolossow was finished. However, not enough engines of this type could be made available. In 1938 this aircraft was converted to the M-11F (NW-5bis). By mid-1939 5 machines with M-11 and one M-11G were built and designated as U-5. One of these machines was equipped with a MG SchKAS (right lower wing) and launch devices for 4 missiles of the type RS-82 each were attached under both lower wings (U-5LSch - light attack aircraft).
• U-5bis: 5 aircraft with M-11F engines were ordered and successfully tested. Another 7 machines have been built and equipped with different engines. Series production did not take place due to the bid for Yakovlev's UT-2 and Polikarpov's U-2.
• U-5-MG-31F (LSch): This U-5 variant was ordered by the Moscow military district and manufactured by its front workshop in 1942. A MG-31F was used as the engine. The upper wing was borrowed from Polikarpow I-153 . The aircraft reached a speed of 272 km / h and was mainly used as a light staff aircraft.
• NW-4: Two-seat biplane seaplane with a central float , the landing gear could be retracted laterally into the float located under the fuselage , similar to that of the Grumman JF-1 .
• MU-4: Two-seat small flying boat with M-11F engine, 2 copies were built, but the project was abandoned in favor of the Schawrow Sch-2 .
• Mu-5: MU-4 with more powerful MW-6 engine (project)
• IS-1 : (IS - Istrebitjel skladnoj) biplane fighter aircraft, landed and took off as a biplane because the lower wings could be retracted sideways for cross-country flight. In the winter of 1940 the first prototype with an M-63 engine was completed.
• IS-2 : like IS-1 but with a more powerful M-88 engine, completed in 1941. This aircraft did not go into series production either, since several types of fighter aircraft with a simpler design were already being produced at this time.

source

• Wilfried Copenhagen : Lexicon Soviet Aviation. Transpress, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-344-00005-5 .