107 years ago - on February 7, 1906, a legendary man was born in the Moscow region - the ancestor of a large family of "all-terrain vehicles", "dolphins of the fifth ocean" or simply workers. Such epithets were awarded in different years to aircraft of the AN brand, named after their creator, Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov.

Godfather

In such cases, they usually start with banality. Something like: "he dreamed of aviation since childhood." Fortunately, in this story you can do without beaten cliches. Little Olezhek Antonov, a native of the village of Trinity, Podolsk region, did not dream of taking to the skies. He knew that it would be so. From the very young years, from the age of four - when he accidentally heard the enthusiastic story of his older brother about the fantastic flight of Louis Blériot across the English Channel - he could not imagine a different fate for himself.

Alas, the parents of the future genius did not share the confidence of their child. Father, even though he himself is an engineer

a builder by profession, believed that a man should do something more thorough than soaring in the clouds. Mother did not understand at all why a person should fly. Only one grandmother understood her little grandson and once gave him a model of an airplane.
This toy for a little boy has become everything - both a physics textbook and visual aid on aerodynamics, and a source of inspiration, and a generator of ideas. Playing with the airplane, letting go of his dream into the sky, he looked at it for a long time, watched it anxiously, trying to understand the main thing - how and why does it fly?

No, the engineering books that the boy secretly dragged from his father's library probably also played a role. Although the future genius met the first law of aerodynamics in a slightly unconventional way ...
One fine day he came to visit the Antonovs Godfather Oleg - artist Sokol. Among his things was a large umbrella - earlier painters used such, protecting themselves from the sun during sketches. The boy, who by that time had collected an extensive collection of newspaper clippings, at least somehow connected with the flight theme, knew that in addition to airplanes, there were also parachutes in the world. So why an umbrella - not a parachute? Armed with the umbrella of his "godfather Falcon", Oleg jumped out of the open window.

Fortunately, the landing turned out to be soft - cucumbers with fluffy tops were just ripening under the window. And bruises and "gingerbread" from his parents did not particularly excite him. Much more exciting was the realization amazing fact- during the "flight" the umbrella was pulled out of the hands with force. The disparate pieces of the puzzle seem to have finally come together: so that's why they fly ...

We'll go the other way

In 1921 15-year-old Antonov came to the headquarters of the Red Air Fleet with a peremptory request: to enroll him in a flight school. Naturally, he was ... refused. He was a schoolboy, and then only the military were allowed to learn to fly, and even then with command posts. The only remaining solution came to mind: to build a glider myself and learn how to fly it.

The Antonov family by that time had moved to Samara. It was here, having acquired several like-minded people, the future designer organized a branch of the Moscow Aircraft Modeling Society "Soaring Flight". The circle members themselves, however, decided not to stand on ceremony and immediately called themselves a design bureau. It was headed, of course, by Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov. And the first glider was built, of course, according to his own project.

They came up with a simple name for their brainchild - "Dove". But to be sure, they added the abbreviation OKA-1 - according to the initials of the main creator and model number. Many, many years will pass before Antonov's creations become the legendary "ANs". He himself, almost to the last, will duplicate their names with this abbreviation "OKA" with the serial number of the model.

School of Life

It turned out to be much more difficult to build the Dove than it was to come up with. Banal plywood, and that was in big

in short supply and cost a lot of money. Everything that was possible was used - up to the seats from the Viennese chairs that were used for the chassis. The control was made from a piece of a water pipe. But most of the spare parts were corny pulled from the dump of the nearest airfield. A year later, OKA-1 "Dove" was ready. It was decided to test it in action at the second All-Union Glider Games in the Crimea. Exactly an hour remained before the train's departure, when a terrible thing happened - it turned out that the dimensions of the "Dove" slightly exceeded the dimensions of the doorway in the workshop.

We rushed to open the second sash - Antonov will describe that day in detail in one of his many books. - With bated breath, they tilted the fuselage in order to pass diagonally with the center section - it doesn’t go! Some ten millimeters were missing. Butt joints and extreme ribs rested against the crossbars of the door frame. The arrow was already approaching 7. It was a forty minute drive to the station, then loading. Time was running out. What to do? Gathering our courage, we closed our eyes and together fell on the glider. There was a plaintive crash, we almost fell off the porch, but found ourselves on the street with our brainchild in our hands ... In the thickening twilight, the yellow eyes of the locomotive stared at us.

At night, already on the train, Antonov will wake up from terrible nightmare: dreamed that the center section was 20 millimeters longer.

And already in Feodosia, he clearly understood that his first glider was also ugly in appearance.

"Ugly plane doesn't fly well"

Subsequently, Antonov will pronounce this phrase at every opportunity. big aesthete, external characteristics aircraft since then, he was far from the last concern.

For me, an airplane is not only the result of technical thinking, but also a work of art. Its forms should be harmonious and graceful.
Few people know, but Antonov's second passion was painting. For hours he stood idle with an easel, trying to capture the harmony of nature, which then embody it in his winged creations. He didn't hide it. On the contrary, he gladly shared his secret with others: "Many correct solutions for aircraft structures were born in the drawing." And henceforth, experts always noted Antonov's gliders, which looked more beautiful than others, were distinguished by unusual streamlining, a non-standard approach to the arrangement of parts.

Why do all your planes have wings on top? Antonov was once asked.

Have you seen a bird with wings underneath? he replied.

Changed the dream without changing the dream

Despite the abundance of lumps in the first pancake, the "Dove" nevertheless rose into the sky. More precisely, "he made several tiny jumps under the control of the pilot Zernov" on one of the Crimean mountains, as Antonov, not without self-irony, would later write. At that moment, he finally realized that his true passion was aircraft design. No, the dream of flying itself has not gone away - it has only lost ground. In the summer of 1925 he entered the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute at the aircraft building department. But before that, he managed to build the OKA-2 glider, on which he made his first solo flight. Since then, he has been flying little by little, but always on each of his devices.

And five years later, 24-year-old student Oleg Antonov returned to the All-Union Gliding Games. This time - with its own, in modern terms, fundamentally innovative glider with the ambitious name "City of Lenin".

Beautiful, like all Antonov's brainchildren, the incredibly elegant apparatus caused heated debates among connoisseurs. The most serious discussion flared up around the tail, mounted on a thin beam and kept from torsion by cables - no one had done this before Antonov, and ground strength testing methods had not yet been invented. Unexpectedly for everyone, the dispute was resolved by one of the members of the organizing committee, the esteemed Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin. He checked the rigidity of the fastening in the old grandfather's way - with all his strength he leaned on the tail with his shoulder and ... gave the go-ahead for the flight.

It's about the winners they say: "contrary". And about the losers never say "because of." They are not talked about at all - no one is interested in what caused the failure, even if there were very objective reasons for it. Excellent, even ingenious for its time, the "City of Lenin" crashed, falling into a strong storm. Pilot Adolf Jost miraculously escaped by falling into the sea, but having managed to throw off his heavy boots and flight jacket.

A painful year will pass before it turns out that what looked like a failure turned out to be a ticket to life. Remembering the young, ambitious and clearly talented boy, Ilyushin - by that time already a recognized and venerable aircraft designer - would invite Antonov to his design bureau. By that time he would have just finished college.

The first

In 1931 Antonov moved to Moscow, where he headed the Central Bureau of Glider Design. New models of gliders were baked like pies. In total there will be about fifty. And everyone is different, and each new one is like the quintessence of all the best that was in the previous ones. But most importantly, each one is designed not just to fly, but to perform a specific function. Actually, this addiction to utility will always distinguish Antonov - each of his gliders, and then each aircraft, will be built to solve a specific problem, to achieve a specific goal.

Actually, for the time being, he did not even think about the construction of aircraft. But it was 1938. An urgent diversification of the aviation industry was required - the country was preparing for war, even if only a few knew about it. The glider plant was closed as an outright anachronism, Antonov was transferred to the Yakovlev Design Bureau. Dreams were over, the young engineer received an extremely clear task - to design a short takeoff ambulance aircraft with characteristics similar to the German Fi 156 Storch. Just two years later - it was the autumn of 1940 - ambulance aircraft No. 2 (aka OKA-38) passed factory tests and entered the Air Force Research Institute. And this still hides one of the most legendary mysteries of the Soviet aviation industry: well, who today will guess that it is the unsightly German "Storch" that is the prototype of the legendary "Annushka"?

However, before the birth of Annushka was still far away. It was in Antonov’s head that his first plane needed to be slightly modified in order to get an unpretentious and almost universal machine for the needs of the national economy. But on the eve of 1941, few people worried about the national economy. All forces, all resources were poured into the design bureau of Ilyushin and Mikoyan, where such fighters, bombers and attack aircraft that the country needed were stamped in full swing. There will be a lot of them soon...

In skillful hands and tanks fly

September 2, 1942 An air raid alarm went off at the Bykovo military airfield. A tank landed on the runway. Without turning off the engines, the car moved at full speed towards command post. There, the frightening unit finally slowed down, and the smiling head of the tanker stuck out of the hatch. Or a pilot?

However, it does not matter at all, because the answer to his smile was dozens of guns aimed at him. Everything was expected from the Germans - modern secret developments, sabotage, in a word, anything. But this could not be dreamed even in a nightmare ...
History is silent about what it cost the pilot Sergei Anokhin to prove to the inhabitants of the airfield that he was his own. And the flying tank is not a German sabotage, but another Antonov development.

Unfortunately, this flight of the A-40 glider, also known as "KT" or "Wings of the Tank", turned out to be the first and last. Actually, that's why he landed in Bykovo, that the test flight did not go according to plan - despite a decent speed of 130 km / h, he failed to rise above 40 meters, but because of large mass and low streamlining, the engines desperately warmed up and worked at the limit of power. In 1943 work on the development of vehicles for towing heavy equipment was finally curtailed.

And yet he flew! - Lighting up his eyes, Antonov will remember. He really wanted to be useful to the country, which was going through difficult times. But, alas, his ideas did not fit into the realities of wartime. Take, for example, the AN-2 - agricultural transport, with the idea of ​​​​which he knocked on all possible doors, starting from the end of the thirties. High ranks from aviation and even colleagues shrugged their shoulders - they say that the country does not need such an aircraft. Outdated at the project stage.

Love story longer than life

And after the war, he still built his "Annushka". What truths - a story worthy of a separate story. In 1947 it took off for the first time in the sky: the legendary AN-2 is a versatile agricultural aircraft capable of performing many tasks, and at the same time carrying a dozen passengers. Able to take off from the ground and land even in an open field with completely failed engines.

And then he built it again - with floats instead of landing gear. This is to make it easier for firefighters.

And then again - with improved high-altitude characteristics. For geophysicists to be able to probe high-altitude layers of the atmosphere.

And then 16 more times - polar explorers, meteorologists, doctors, paratroopers, military men and many others received their modification AN-2. Annushka mastered 18 different professions, scattered to three dozen countries and broke all longevity records - in small batches, but this aircraft is still being produced.

Antonov himself later admits: the AN-2 was his favorite aircraft. Not only because it turned out to be so in demand, but also because it finally approved its creator as an accomplished, recognized aircraft designer. It was after "Annushka" that he had his own design bureau, albeit exiled to distant Kyiv.

"An-2" is an amazing airplane, it can even land on the roof of a barn, and take off from the bell tower." Eric Brown, Canadian pilot

From "Annushka" to "Antey"

“When the huge shadow of the Antey swept over the airfield of Le Bourget, even the most ardent pessimists let out a cry of admiration. This is fantastic! A flying tanker! A train in the air! to express the impressions that the Soviet supergiant made even on experienced participants of the salon. This is, of course, the number one sensation, before which the rest of the exhibits pale." This is Gerard Favard, a French reporter who was full of epithets about Antonov's next creation, presented to the world at the Le Bourget air show.

In the mid 60s. of the last century, the AN-22 - that is, Antonov's twenty-second aircraft - made a splash on an international scale. Between him and "Annushka" there were, of course, quite a few other vehicles: the first turboprop transport AN-8, capable of transporting 8 tons of cargo at speeds up to 600 km / h; and AN-10, which laid long-distance routes to the USA and the Indian Himalayas; and AN-12 - the most common transport aircraft of its time, withstood 40 (!) Civil and military modifications. And they were all good, unique and loved in their own way. But it was the AN-22, like the Annushka once, that was especially difficult for Antonov.

He received the task to design it at the peak of his career, but "Antey" almost became its end.

Antonov simply did not know how to make it: conceived as a record holder in terms of size and carrying capacity, which has no analogues in the world, it provided for a giant hatch with an area of ​​67 square meters in its belly. The catch was that in flight, this section of the fuselage must be under enormous pressure. If Antonov had applied the then-accepted classical aerodynamic scheme, it would have twisted the plane with such a hole in the belly, like a paper bag.

The solution came literally out of nowhere. At night, awakened as if from an electric shock, he jumped up and, right in the dark, drew a fundamentally new design scheme. And then, without turning on the light, he went to bed. Because until the end of his days he lived according to the routine once and for all: "Woke up. Work. Lunch. Work."

The same principle, scrawled at night in a notebook with a simple pencil, would later form the basis of the giant aircraft AN-124 "Ruslan" - the absolute record holder in terms of carrying capacity and the AN-225 "Mriya" - the record holder in general of everything and everything and simply the largest aircraft in the world.

True, Mriya will be built after Antonov's death. During his lifetime, he himself managed to create more than 50 gliders and about 30 aircraft, not counting their numerous modifications. Airplanes that to this day continue to fly around the world, carrying on their silver wings the cherished dream of a little boy: "The sky is beautiful. Start all over again, I would become a pilot!"


AN-2. transport aircraft. 1947


AN-10, passenger aircraft. 1957


AN-24, passenger aircraft. 1959


AN-30, aerial photography, 1974


AH-72-P patrol service 1977



Glider OKA 14. Oleg Antonov ready for takeoff



Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov and Elizaveta Avetovna Shakhatuni

Once Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov was asked a question:
- Why do all your planes have wings on top?
- Have you seen a bird with wings below? he replied.



Light transport aircraft AN-2. famous "Annushka": "Aviation without AN-2. that a left-hander without a left hand "


Heavy transport aircraft AN-22, the famous "Antey"
Taking the car, the air marshal asked Antonov: - Are you sure that such a "pot-bellied" will fly?
- It will fly, - Antonov answered smiling.

    Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich Encyclopedia "Aviation"

    Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich- O. K. Antonov Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich (19061984) Soviet aircraft designer, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1981), Hero of Socialist Labor (1966). A. one of the founders of Soviet gliding. In youth and student years ... ... Encyclopedia "Aviation"

    ANTONOV Oleg Konstantinovich- (1906 1984) Soviet aircraft designer, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1981), Hero of the Socialist. Labor (1966). Antonov is one of the founders of Soviet gliding. In his youth and student years, he developed training gliders OKA I, 2, 3, "Standard 1, 2", ... ... Military Encyclopedia

    - (1906 84) aircraft designer, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1981) and the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (1967), Hero of Socialist Labor (1966). Under the leadership of Antonov, a number of aircraft were created, including An 124 (Ruslan). Lenin Prize (1962), State Prize of the USSR (1952) ... Large encyclopedic Dictionary

    - [R. 25.1(7.2).1906, p. Trinity of the Moscow Governorate], Soviet aircraft designer, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1968), Hero of Socialist Labor (1966). Member of the CPSU since 1945. In 1930 he graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute named after ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

    - (1906 1984) Soviet aircraft designer, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1981), Hero of Socialist Labor (1966). A. one of the founders of Soviet gliding. In his youth and student years, he developed training gliders OKA 1, 2, 3, "Standard 1, 2", a glider ... ... Encyclopedia of technology

    - (1906 1984), aircraft designer, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1981) and the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1967), Hero of Socialist Labor (1966). Under the leadership of Antonov, a number of aircraft were created, including the An 124 ("Ruslan"). USSR State Prize (1952), Lenin Prize ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

The origins of the Antonov family are lost in the foggy thickness of time. It is only known for certain that the great-grandfather of the brilliant aircraft designer lived in the Urals and was a very noble person - the chief manager of local metallurgical plants. The grandfather of Oleg Konstantinovich, Konstantin Dmitrievich, received an engineering education and built bridges all his life. After leaving the Urals, he settled in Toropets, a small town in the Pskov province, where the Antonovs had a tiny estate. His wife was Anna Aleksandrovna Bolotnikova, the daughter of a retired general, according to the memoirs of her contemporaries, a woman with a monstrously difficult character, who tormented everyone who, one way or another, came into contact with her. She gave birth to her husband three children: Alexander, Dmitry and Konstantin. Konstantin Konstantinovich followed in his father's footsteps and became a famous civil engineer. Among his colleagues, he was known as an active person, fenced well, participated in equestrian competitions, and was engaged in mountaineering. He married Anna Efimovna Bikoryukina, a kind and charming woman who gave him two children: Irina and Oleg, who was born on February 7, 1906.

In 1912, Konstantin Konstantinovich moved to Saratov with his whole family. This happened for a number of reasons. Firstly, influential relatives lived there, promising help to the young family. The second reason for leaving was the unbearable nature of my grandmother, Anna Alexandrovna. By the way, despite the difficult temper, the grandmother adored Oleg and constantly spoiled him.


At the same time, student Vladislav Viktorovich, Oleg's cousin, returned from Moscow to Saratov. In the evenings, the young man liked to talk about the latest metropolitan news. In the first place, of course, there was talk about aviation - flying machines at the beginning of the last century, everyone was addicted. Six-year-old Oleg caught every word. He was fascinated by the exploits of the first pilots. Much later, Oleg Konstantinovich wrote: “The stories made a huge impression on me. Sixty-four years have passed, and I still remember those evenings. That's when I decided that I would fly."

Parents, of course, did not pay attention to the boy's hobby. Anna Efimovna generally said that there was no need for people to rise into the sky, and her father believed that a man needed to find himself a more thorough occupation. Only my grandmother understood everything, she gave the future aircraft designer the first model of an airplane with a rubber engine in his life. After that, Oleg began to collect everything, one way or another related to aviation - drawings, photographs, literature, toy models. Compiled a kind of reference book subsequently rendered great help to Antonov - he knew perfectly well the entire aircraft industry of the world. The designer recalled: “This meeting taught me to look at aircraft from the point of view of their development. No one will convince me that Junkers was the first to create "cantilever wings" for the aircraft. This was done in France long before him - in 1911 by the designer Lavasser ... ".

The study of young Oleg at the Saratov real school, where he entered to study exact sciences, did not bring him much success - he was far from the first student in the class. But Antonov perfectly learned the French language, which in the future repeatedly helped him out during meetings with foreign delegations. When did the first World War, Oleg's mother, following the customs of the Russian intelligentsia, got a job as a nurse. Work in the hospital ended tragically for Anna Efimovna. Bandaging the wounded, she received an infection through a scratch on her arm and, in the prime of her life, died in agony from blood poisoning. It happened in 1915, after which the Antonov family moved to Groshevaya Street, and Oleg was raised by his grandmother.

At the age of thirteen, Oleg, together with local children, founded the Aviation Fans Club. Soon the "Club" had its own magazine of the same name, published in a single copy. The editor, journalist, artist, calligrapher and publisher was Antonov. The magazine contained cut-out photographs of aircraft and their technical data, hand-drawn drawings, interesting stories, reports on meetings of the "Club", advice to novice model builders. There were even poems about pilots. In those years, there was no systematic literature in Saratov, a boyish magazine, unique in its seriousness, passed from hand to hand, even falling into the greasy fingers of red military pilots.

When Antonov was fourteen years old, the Saratov real school was closed. Children were admitted to a single school only from the age of sixteen, his elder sister Irina already studied there legally. The boy made a bold decision - he began to go to school with his sister. He quietly sat in the back rows and greedily absorbed everything that he could give educational institution. Gradually they got used to it and two years later they issued a certificate of completion. After that, Oleg tried to enroll in a flight school. However, only strong, experienced people from the working class were taken there. Antonov, on the other hand, was 12-13 years old, he suffered from typhus and hunger. Not despairing, the future aircraft designer applied to the Saratov University for the railway department. He was accepted, but after a while the faculty was liquidated during the reorganization. Oleg flatly refused to enter the construction industry.

In order not to waste time, he, together with his comrades from the "Club", began to design his own glider. And soon a branch of the Society of Friends of the Air Fleet appeared at the Saratov Provincial Executive Committee. Its leader, former actor Golubev, cordially greeted the guys, helped them get some materials and provided them with a room - a small hall of the Saratov Industrial College. It was here that the first brainchild of Antonov, the OKA-1 "Dove" glider, was created.

In 1924, the guys received an offer to take part in the second glider meeting held in the city of Koktebel. In the shortest possible time, "Dove" was completed. Without conducting any tests, Oleg Antonov and his friend Zhenya Bravarsky loaded their creation onto the train platform and set off for the cherished Crimea. Half a month later they arrived in Feodosia, with great difficulty on clumsy Crimean mazhars ferried the glider to Koktebel.

God alone knows how two young men from Saratov managed to restore their fairly battered aircraft on the road. As a result, the Dove received permission to take off, and a professional pilot Valentin Zernov was appointed to fly it. However, the glider never took off, making only a couple of short jumps, it glided over the grass of a gentle slope. Oleg Konstantinovich forever remembered the words of the test pilot said after this: “Guys, do not lose heart. This bird is not bad, but you will have better.” Zernov was not mistaken. For the unique design of the airframe, Antonov received a diploma, but the main thing was different. At the rally, he met many enthusiasts who rushed like him into the sky. Among them were Artseulov, Ilyushin, Pyshnov, Tikhonravov, Tolstykh and many other famous personalities.

In 1925, Oleg Konstantinovich was recommended for admission to the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. Having collected his things, Antonov left for the northern capital, where, to great joy, he was enrolled as a student of the ship faculty, hydroaviation department. In Leningrad for the future designer in literally a huge number of responsibilities and commitments have collapsed. Energetic and already well versed in gliding, the young man was elected secretary of the technical committee of the ODVF, at the same time he got a job as an instructor in an aircraft modeling circle. However, this activity did not bring money, and in order to live, Oleg Konstantinovich wrote notes for newspapers, drew posters, and made models of aircraft. And the future designer also went to lectures, successfully passed tests, had an internship and, most importantly, did not stop designing and building gliders. A lot of time was taken away from him by the flights that he made at the airfield of the glider station. In addition, it is known that he liked to visit theaters and exhibitions. It is impossible to understand how Antonov managed to do all this. Obviously, the slogan proclaimed later in the form of an answer to the question of how to cope with business - "to do leisurely actions without intervals between them" - was born at that time, in the difficult years of Leningrad studies.

In 1930, Oleg Konstantinovich graduated from the institute, and in 1933 the twenty-seven-year-old designer was appointed to the post of "chief" in the design bureau of the glider plant in Moscow. He was charged with developing light-winged vehicles, which the new plant in Tushino was supposed to produce in mass quantities. By that time, the young aircraft designer already had vast experience in building gliders. Having created his “Dove” OKA-1 in 1924, Antonov over the next six years made OKA-2 and OKA-3, “Standard-1” and “Standard-2”, as well as a powerful soaring glider “City of Lenin”, which won a bunch of rave reviews at the next Koktebel rally. Oleg's comrades were not at all surprised at his high appointment. However, in this life nothing comes easy and you have to pay for everything…. Leaving a tiny room on Tchaikovsky Street in Leningrad, Antonov said to his friends: “In my opinion, this is where I got my TBC.” In the future, Oleg Konstantinovich was repeatedly treated for tuberculosis, but the disease constantly returned to him.

Until the Tushino plant was completed, the glider design bureau was forced to use the workshop offered by Osoaviakhim and located on the Garden Ring in the basement high-rise building. These cellars were formerly used to store wine, but have now been given over to two combined organizations - jet pilots and glider pilots. Glider builders were led by Oleg Antonov, and the group studying jet propulsion was headed by Sergei Korolev.

For several years, Antonov designed more than twenty different models of gliders. Oleg Konstantinovich achieved his main goal - to create a mass aircraft for various segments of the country's population. For eight years, the plant produced two thousand gliders a year - an incredible figure for that time. Their cost was also incredible - in the old calculation, no more than one thousand rubles. What is curious, despite the hellish workload, Antonov managed to play sports. Tennis has been his passion throughout his life. The aircraft designer played almost like a professional tennis player. He had to go to Petrovka, where the capital's courts were located, early in the morning, before work. In the same years, Antonov married for the first time. His wife was Lidia Sergeevna Kochetkova, a friend of Ira's sister. Everything happened very quickly. Having met at the beginning of summer on a tennis court, the young people already in September went to Koktebel on a honeymoon trip.

Housing in those years was very difficult. The Antonovs lived together with the Sheremetyevs in one common apartment. Each family had a room, one more - a common one, in which there were drawing boards for designers. The room was used as an office for group work. On rare weekends, Antonov took up the brush. He painted pictures with inspiration, even participated in a number of exhibitions of amateur artists. His favorite subjects were landscapes, still lifes and, of course, gliders. And in 1936, Lidia Sergeevna gave birth to a son. They called him romantically - Rolland.
Oleg Konstantinovich, unlike dozens of other designers, was not under arrest, but the cruel fate of the second half of the thirties of the last century did not bypass him. In Osoaviakhim, the leadership changed, the views of the new bosses on gliding as a mass sport began to be expressed in one phrase: “They fly less, they live longer!”. The decline of gliding began already in 1936, in subsequent years everything finally collapsed. Antonov was removed from his post, and the glider plant was closed. Talented designers dispersed in all directions. Oleg Konstantinovich first of all turned to his old comrade from the Koktebel rallies - the outstanding aircraft designer Alexander Yakovlev. He, knowing Antonov's talents perfectly, gave him the job of a leading engineer in his design bureau. It was 1938 outside.

The new work suited the designer quite well, he had long wanted to switch from the development of gliders to the creation of aircraft, seeing this as a logical continuation of his activities. In the spring of 1940, Antonov was appointed chief designer of a small design bureau at an aircraft factory in Leningrad, and in 1941 he was transferred to Kaunas (Lithuanian SSR). On one Sunday morning, June 22, 1941, the aircraft designer woke up from a strong roar. Soon one of the employees ran into his room with wide eyes: "War ...". Kaunas was near the border, an urgent order came from above: "Immediately prepare for evacuation." Loudspeakers anxiously talked about the bombing of Sevastopol, Kyiv, Vilnius, Riga, Zhitomir, Brest .... Antonov left the city in the evening. Together with the last workers of the design office, in a captured fire truck, he drove east along a road clogged with refugees. An hour later, the Germans entered Kaunas. For two days, under incessant shelling from the air, a car drove along broken primers. Often I had to move into a ditch and hide in forests and bushes. People spent the night in haystacks next to the road. Antonov reached Moscow only towards the end of the second day.

And again he had to start from scratch. The hastily assembled team was sent to the old glider factory. “We will again create gliders: transport and cargo,” Antonov announced to people a few days later. A couple of months later, Oleg Konstantinovich developed a unique A-7 airborne transport glider. The device was designed for seven passengers and was necessary to provide people, ammunition and food for partisan groups fighting deep behind enemy lines. "Antonov-7" could land on small forest clearings, on plowed fields, even on frozen, snow-covered rivers. As a rule, landings took place at night by the light of fires, in which, after unloading, an inexpensive glider was usually burned. It is hard to imagine what a huge help these aircraft provided. partisan movement during the war years. It was not by chance that the medal "To the Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" adorned Oleg Konstantinovich's chest.

In mid-October, when the Germans broke out onto the Leningrad Highway and found themselves eighteen kilometers from the capital, Antonov's group boarded a train and set off for Western Siberia. For two weeks she traveled to Tyumen. Oleg Konstantinovich found himself in a city unfamiliar to him, where he had to live and work, run the most complex mechanisms of the plant and the design bureau, without having enough people and materials, heat and water. However, Antonov had no shortage of experience in such cases.

After the enemy was driven back from Moscow, Oleg Konstantinovich returned to the capital. He was appointed chief engineer of the Glider Committee of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry, and in February 1943 Antonov moved to the Yakovlev Design Bureau, which was developing the famous Yaks. The talented aircraft designer took part in the modernization and refinement of the entire range of combat vehicles from Yak-3 to Yak-9. In the fall of 1945, Oleg Konstantinovich was offered to head a branch of the Yakovlev Design Bureau at the aircraft plant named after. Chkalov in Novosibirsk. He, without hesitation, agreed, because he was to begin work on the creation of a new type of aircraft, and not military, but agricultural. The country needed machines with a large carrying capacity, capable of taking off both from a good airfield and from any relatively flat field. His closest associates went to Novosibirsk with Antonov. In addition, Oleg Konstantinovich took with him a whole course of graduates of the Novosibirsk Aviation College. It was a big risk. Twenty-year-old young guys, without experience, hungry, half-dressed and unkempt, were supposed to become the basis of a team that was given the most important tasks. However, Antonov had an amazing ability to rally employees around an idea. He said: “Orders do not create a team, although they are needed. It is not created by rearranging or gathering people. It is not the building that unites the team. The main thing is unity of purpose. If people understand and accept it, they don't need to be spurred on. And the "kindergarten" did not disappoint. In August 1947, the first copy of the AN-2 was already standing at the gates of the assembly shop.

However, the serial production of the aircraft was still far away. Antonov not only had to carry out numerous tests and checks of the AN-2, he also had to endure clashes with the bureaucracy of the governing apparatus, with obsolete traditions, with indifference to the fate of new inventions. Oleg Konstantinovich often repeated: “Our work is not as smooth and quiet as it seems .... In our work, the main thing is the struggle. The struggle is the most uncompromising, the sharpest.” And this struggle has made itself felt. From the experiences of Antonov, an exacerbation of tuberculosis began. For four months he was treated in sanatoriums and hospitals, and after that he took antibiotics for a long time.

It was decided to build the AN-2 aircraft in Kyiv. The Antonov Design Bureau moved from Novosibirsk to Ukraine. All efforts were not in vain, on September 6, 1949, the first serial AN-2 took off into the sky. Much later, summing up his activities, the designer said that this was his greatest success.

The general designer immediately liked the new city. The move also benefited the health of Oleg Konstantinovich. “This is where I dream of staying until the end of my life,” said Antonov. “Stop traveling around the country: Saratov, Leningrad, Moscow, Kaunas, Tyumen, again Moscow, Novosibirsk. Isn't it too much?" For the rest of his life, Oleg Konstatinovich lived in Kyiv. It was in the capital of Ukraine that all the famous aircraft of the ingenious aircraft designer were born, which brought glory to our Fatherland.

The huge workload of official and public affairs forced Antonov to strictly regulate the work. In his office, he always appeared at exactly 9 o'clock in the morning. He looked through the mail coming from all over the world, held a meeting to solve specific problems. Then the General Designer got acquainted with new developments, looked at the drawings, criticized, recommended, carried out test calculations, estimated various options, linking together the results of the activities of workshops, departments and groups. The creative process in the mind of Oleg Konstantinovich did not stop for a minute. In his office and at home, he always had a drawing board handy. He began to draw, as a rule, suddenly, abandoning all other things, as if the born idea itself was looking for a way out. In the afternoon, Antonov held meetings with people and organizations, made the necessary trips. In the remaining time, he worked on magazines, got acquainted with new editions. In the evening, the General Designer got behind the wheel of his own "Volga" and drove home - to his small two-story cottage in a workers' settlement.


Designers A.S. Yakovlev and O.K. Antonov in the design bureau in 1943 http://proznanie.ru

The garden near the house became for Antonov a place of spiritual rest, as well as a source of new ideas. By his own admission, all his life before moving to Kyiv, the designer lived at a construction site, all his life he woke up not from the noise of foliage outside the window, but from the gnashing of an excavator. Antonov wrote, “A lot of design discoveries were made by me between chokeberry and apple trees, between sea buckthorn and hazel. Working in the garden increases my efficiency, as a result, the garden does not take away, but saves time.

Close friends and acquaintances often gathered in his house, among whom were: architect and academician Anatoly Dobrovolsky, writer and surgeon Nikolai Amosov, scientist Lubomir Pyrig. Antonov did not like to be at the table in the spotlight, but actively supported the conversation on any topic. He himself preferred to talk about literature, among the writers Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Nikolai Gogol were close to him. He knew their works practically by heart. In addition, Oleg Konstantinovich was very fond of listening to music. People's Artist of Ukraine and good friend Antonov family Dina Petrinenko often sang in their house. Nikolai Amosov said: “To all his appearance Oleg protested against the image of a successful businessman of the “stagnation” era - Antonov was not interested in sauna, fishing and other hobbies of leaders of his rank. He preferred to work in the garden, read, visit exhibitions. At the same time, he was a determined and courageous person. He spoke freely on any topic, criticized the leadership, which he accused of inept management and the lack of "feedback" .... At the same time, Oleg seemed to keep everyone at a distance, even I could not completely overcome this over the long years of our friendship. Why is that, I thought? It was not a matter of intelligence, such a feeling arose from his extreme modesty and vulnerability.

Of course, sometimes there were tragedies. Near Kharkov, an AN-10 crashed with passengers, literally in front of Antonov, an AN-8 crashed. Oleg Konstantinovich was very upset by what happened. He told his friends: “I won’t build passenger planes anymore. I can't stand the simultaneous death of many people. After the accident with the "ten" I woke up more than once at night in a cold sweat ... ". harsh life made its own unforeseen adjustments to the fate of well-designed, thoroughly tested air machines, forcing the creator, shaken by misfortune, to suffer. Antonov cared about each of his cars, each accident with the aircraft he created laid a heavy burden on the heart of the designer. The same Amosov wrote: “Oleg Konstantinovich was too sensitive for the General. At the same time, it was happiness for the people. After all, the AN-10 at one time in our country carried the maximum number of air passengers. This is very responsible... And how scary it is to make even the smallest mistake.
Despite the terrible illness, Antonov was actively involved in sports throughout his life: he played tennis, ping-pong, went skiing, and went hiking. The aircraft designer said: cultured man must treat his body - the source of energy and the reservoir of the mind - with the same love with which a good mechanic treats his mechanism. The car loves care, lubrication and affection! What to say then about such a complex mechanism as the human body!

It is worth noting another feature very characteristic of Antonov - the continuous modernization of an already seemingly completed design. He began to follow this rule when he built gliders - always it was a series of aircraft, every detail of which was subjected to constant improvement. The designer argued that modernization processes are often more important and effective than the creation of a new aircraft with unexplained capabilities: “Sometimes an inexpensive and simple change in an aircraft, car, machine tool can increase the accuracy and productivity, and sometimes give machines new properties. Modification is always cheaper and faster than the creation of a new aircraft or diesel locomotive.

The birth of Ruslan (in 1981) became a kind of swan song for Oleg Konstantinovich. He embodied in the new car all the basic design principles developed by him throughout his life. In addition, the giant aircraft has absorbed all the most modern ideas that have appeared in the world's aircraft industry in recent years. The designer's work on the AN-124 coincided with his election to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR.

At work, Antonov has always been resolutely against administrative-command methods of management. In general, he practically never ordered - in the most intelligent form he advised or asked. He always referred to "you". There was only one episode left in history when he, unable to restrain himself in a dispute, threw an inkwell at his opponent. However, this was really the only case, and Oleg Konstantinovich, thank God, missed. Antonov, who has already become a world-famous aircraft designer, impressed his subordinates with his accessibility. At any moment he could appear in the department, stand behind the back of the employee, intervene in the work, continue the development of someone else's thought, which seemed interesting to him. He was especially attracted by the non-standard views and ideas of others. None of the major designers paid so much attention to amateur inventors, enthusiasts and craftsmen. Oleg Konstantinovich had an amazing ability to recognize talented people, with all his might he supported their undertakings, invited them to work with him. Many famous designers grew up under his wing. Antonov transferred this support of gifted people to the students of the Kharkiv Aviation Institute. NOT. Zhukovsky, where from 1977 he headed the aircraft design department.

All questions and problems that arose in the team of Antonov Design Bureau, as a rule, were discussed publicly. Oleg Konstantinovich could, with unexpected ease for everyone, admit his mistake, accept someone else's point of view. In this case, he said: "I made a mistake and this needs to be experienced." In addition, he showed interest in the fate of his employees - he helped with topics for scientific dissertations, independently compiled lists of awardees, knocked out awards. All this created a unique creative atmosphere around Antonov, full of goodwill and trust. “I always wanted to do the maximum possible with him,” said colleagues. Once a French newspaper journalist asked Antonov: “Tell me, how many aircraft have you created?”. “On my own, that is, alone, I could not develop anything other than an airplane, even washing machine", - the designer answered with a smile. Warm words about colleagues speak of a complete lack of vanity in this person.

It seemed that the years had no power over the age of Oleg Konstantinovich. Outwardly, the General Designer looked much younger than his years, he remained young in spirit. Elegant, emphatically intelligent, courteous, always well-dressed, Antonov was liked by women. During his life he was married three times. From each wife he had children. The second wife, Elizaveta Avetovna Shakhatuni, gave birth to his daughter Anna, and the third wife, Elvira Pavlovna, gave birth to a son, Andrei, and a daughter, Lena. By the way, Elvira Pavlovna was thirty-one years younger than her husband. Oleg Konstantinovich did not break off friendly and business ties with former spouses. All his children were friends with each other, and his wives periodically talked. How Antonov managed to maintain such a complex balance of relationships is still a mystery.

However, it would be naive to believe that the formation of Oleg Konstantinovich's aircraft, the solution of the problems of the design bureau took place without contradictions and conflicts. A characteristic feature of that era was bureaucracy, and often the incompetence of leadership in the areas where this leadership was carried out. Plus, the desire to show power over talented people, obsessed with innovative ideas. The only way out of the situation was the struggle, which took away an infinite amount of strength and health from the aircraft designer. The whole history of the formation of the most popular aircraft AN-2 is a living example of this. And when Antonov nevertheless broke through his "Annushka", he had difficulties of a different kind - along the official line. The most sophisticated method of "ditching" the initiative. After the first tests of Ruslan, an anonymous letter came to the very top that the air giant would certainly fall apart at the turn. There was a trial... Oleg Konstantinovich was accused of abusing the allocation of money to purchase books for the KB library. There was a trial... After the third marriage, the academician was scolded for the old man's "pranks". Proceedings were not held, but the study was. One can only imagine how much nerves this took from Antonov, how much the victories cost and how much he had to pay for them each time.

Oleg Konstantinovich died in Kyiv as a result of a stroke on April 4, 1984. On the 6th, his funeral took place with full honors. A funeral meeting dedicated to the brilliant aircraft designer was held in the Great Hall of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Next to the coffin of the deceased on the pillows were the awards received by Antonov during his lifetime - the medal of the Hero of Socialist Labor, three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the Red Banner of Labor, the medals of the laureate of the State and Lenin Prizes and many others. A huge number of ordinary people accompanied Oleg Konstantinovich on his last journey to the Baikovskoye cemetery.



Installed on the building of the Kharkov Aviation Institute (now the National Aerospace University
them. N. E. Zhukovsky). Photo by Dmitry Khramov/center]

In addition to designing aircraft, Antonov managed to do many different things: he organized art exhibitions “Scientists draw” in Kyiv and Moscow, which presented works by the largest scientists and technicians of our country, fought for the ecological salvation of Lake Baikal, supported the all-Union significance of the town of Koktebel as a center of ultralight aviation and gliding, tried to rehabilitate the good name of the aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky, participated in the Moscow runs of home-made cars, held by the magazine "Technology - Youth".
Antonov tried to live by the standards of an ideal bright future, and in most cases he succeeded. This was expressed in the versatility of his interests, in restlessness, in bright altruism, in the desire to express himself creatively to the end, to the last breath, and, finally, in his honesty, decency and modesty.

Based on the book by Vasily Zakharchenko "Oleg Antonov"

ctrl Enter

Noticed osh s bku Highlight text and click Ctrl+Enter

February 7, 2006 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov, a man whose name has remained with us for more than two decades since his death. Years are not able to erase his unusually bright and attractive image from memory. "Outstanding aviation designer", "extraordinary leader", " bright personality”, “a man with a capital letter”, “artist”, “writer”, “sportsman” - this is not just a listing of individual aspects of Oleg Konstantinovich’s personality, these are epithets that amaze us with their diversity and together give a rare example of an exceptionally eventful life. The outstanding surgeon Nikolai Mikhailovich Amosov said: "Oleg Konstantinovich was ... multifaceted, he intertwined a deep knowledge of technology with art."

However, aviation has always remained the most important aspect of Antonov's life. He created 52 types of gliders and 22 types of aircraft, including the largest and most lifting ones in the world, devoted much energy to the development of dozens of other aircraft, founded an original design school, and brought up a team of worthy successors to his work. The design bureau created by Oleg Konstantinovich, undergoing structural changes, being consistently called the "mail box", the Kyiv Mechanical Plant and, finally, the Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex, was invariably associated with the name of its founder, remaining simply "Antonov Design Bureau" in the everyday speech of millions of people, because the very name of this man entered the history of aviation forever and became symbolic.

Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov was born on February 7, 1906 in the Moscow province, in the noble family of Anna Efimovna (photo) and Konstantin Konstantinovich Antonov.

In 1912 the Antonov family moved to Saratov, on the Volga. There, little Oleg from the stories of his cousin first heard about airplanes. At that time there was practically no literature on aviation in Saratov. Oleg cut out all the information about her from newspapers and magazines, making up a kind of reference book. “This meeting did me a great service,” he later wrote, “by teaching me to consider aircraft from the point of view of their development.” Together with his peers, Oleg created the Aviation Fans Club, published a handwritten aviation magazine. The passion for flying drew the obsessed guys to the military airfield, where they got acquainted with the design of aircraft, studying their wreckage on the outskirts of the airfield, and to the book market in search of random books on aviation.

Since 1923, Oleg has been actively working in the Society of Friends of the Air Fleet, creating gliders of his own design, in particular, a training apparatus called the Dove, for the successful design of which he was awarded a diploma. Indefatigable creative nature, his tenacious memory, in which the designs of almost all aircraft known by that time were kept, allowed the young Antonov, a student of the hydroaviation department of the ship faculty of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, to create training gliders OKA-3, Standard-1, Standard-2, OKA-7, OKA -8 and the first record glider "City of Lenin".

At the end of 1930, after graduating from the institute, Oleg Antonov was sent to Moscow to organize the Central Design Bureau for gliders. In Tushino, a suburb of Moscow, a glider plant was being built. In 1933, when the construction of the plant was completed, Antonov was appointed chief designer. On Antonov's gliders of the Rot-Front series, record flight ranges were achieved (photo).

In the late 1930s, Antonov was invited to his design bureau by chief designer A.S. Yakovlev and offered him a job as a lead engineer for training aircraft. But the Great Patriotic War began. Antonov received a government order to organize the production of the A-7 multi-seat airborne transport glider, which he developed in 1940. In October, the plant was evacuated to the city of Tyumen in Siberia, where over 500 transport gliders were manufactured. In the same period, Antonov creates a "winged tank" - an original glider for transporting a light tank. Piloted by S. Anokhin, he flew in tow behind a heavy bomber TB-3 designed by A.N. Tupolev. Unfortunately, big losses TB-3 in battles led to the fact that soon there was nothing to tow the "winged tank", and the tempting idea had to be abandoned.

Best of the day

In 1943, O.K. Antonov returned to the design bureau of A.S. Yakovlev, who offered him the position of his deputy. Oleg Konstantinovich devoted a lot of effort to improving the Yak fighters, one of the most massive aircraft of the Second World War. Recalling the work of Yakovlev, he said: "I learned the credo of this wonderful designer for the rest of my life - you need to do only what you need." At the same time, Antonov did not lose his dream of his aircraft for peaceful skies. After the war, Antonov turned to Yakovlev with a request to release him for independent work, and in October 1945 he left for Novosibirsk to lead a branch of the Yakovlev design bureau at an aircraft factory. On May 31, 1946, the government of the USSR transformed the branch into a new design bureau. OK. Antonov was appointed chief designer and entrusted him with the creation of the agricultural aircraft SH-1, known today throughout the world as the An-2. In September 1946, O.K. Antonov, in addition to the leadership of the design bureau, was assigned the duties of the head of the Siberian Research Institute for Aviation. Antonov's energy and efficiency allowed him to cope with all matters, and the first-born of the new design bureau first took to the skies on August 31, 1947.

Three years passed in hard work on the organization of the team and the introduction of the An-2 into production. At the same time, its modifications were created for various applications. This aircraft became the only aircraft in the world that has been in mass production for more than 50 years. He won the fame of an exceptionally reliable car. Over the years of operation, several hundred million passengers, millions of tons of cargo have been transported on it, more than a billion hectares of fields and forests have been processed. He has traveled to almost every corner of the world. For the creation of the An-2, O.K.Antonov and his associates were awarded the State Prize of the USSR.

In 1952, O.K.Antonov and the leading specialists of the design bureau moved to Kyiv, where they had to create both the team and the production base almost anew. At the end of 1953, the design bureau received an order to create a transport aircraft with two turboprop engines. The aircraft was designed and built in two years. In 1958, the aircraft under the designation An-8 was launched in mass production at the Tashkent Aviation Plant.

The development of the An-10 and An-12 aircraft began in 1955 after a visit to the design bureau by the head of the USSR N.S. Khrushchev. In the course of a conversation with him, O.K. Antonov suggested creating a single four-engine aircraft, but in two versions: passenger and cargo. The concept was approved, and the team began to solve this difficult task. The An-10 aircraft had a combination of properties that is rare for a passenger airliner: high flight speed, relatively short required runway length, and the ability to take off and land on unpaved and snow-covered airfields. Considering these features, Aeroflot operated the An-10 on short inter-regional routes with poorly prepared and unpaved lanes. Off-design modes of operation, frequent takeoffs and landings led to the rapid consumption of its resource. This caused the formation of fatigue cracks in the strength elements of the An-10 structure, and in 1972 a disaster occurred. Oleg Konstantinovich took the incident hard. He shared his experiences with his friend Nikolai Amosov: “No, I will not build large passenger aircraft,” he said. “I won’t survive the simultaneous death of many people. After the accident with the “ten” I woke up more than once from a night call in a cold sweat and picked up the phone with a trembling hand - is it really an accident with my plane again? Since then, the problems of fatigue strength have become one of the main concerns of designers. In the interests of reliability and durability of structures, all aircraft being created are subjected to repeated load tests.

After the creation of the An-10 and An-12, the Antonov Design Bureau firmly took its place among the leading aircraft manufacturing companies in the country. Its own, "Antonov" school of design was created, a new generation of talented team leaders was formed, industrial and housing construction social issues were resolved.

In 1962, O.K.Antonov became the General Designer. Earlier, in 1960, he successfully defended his dissertation, and Academic Council Moscow Aviation Institute awarded him the title of Doctor of Technical Sciences. In the same year he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Oleg Konstantinovich treated both large and small works carried out under his leadership with equal attention: all creative tasks were equally important to him. Simultaneously with the aircraft, he created a series of all-metal gliders A-11, A-13, a motor glider A-13M, a record A-15. For the creation of gliders, O.K. Antonov received a special award from the International Aviation Federation - the “Paul Tissandier Diploma”. “The navy has been developing for a long time,” Antonov said. - There were frigates, cruisers, battleships, now there are nuclear ships, and sailing yachts remain. So are gliders. They will be built and flown as long as there are updrafts and people who want to fly. And they will always be."

Antonov always understood that in the vast expanses of the Soviet Union there is a great need for a small aircraft that does not need airfields. This is how the SLE arose - "short takeoff aircraft" (now this term is widely used in world practice). A small car, later called the "Bee", in the course of successive improvements from a four-seater became a seven-, and then an eleven-seater. In the birth of the "Bee" and its subsequent modifications An-14M and An-28, perhaps, Antonov's firmness as a designer and his determination in achieving the goal were manifested to the maximum extent.

In the period 1957-1959. the An-24 passenger aircraft was being created with the widespread use of glue-welded joints of structural elements. The difficulties associated with the introduction of new technology were overcome thanks to the firm position of Oleg Konstantinovich. Based on this aircraft, 14 modifications have been developed, including the transport An-26 and the aerial photography An-30. Reliable cars of this family still play important role in the transportation of passengers and goods, perform many special functions.

The next brainchild of the team, which was headed by Antonov, was the An-22 "Antey", which marked new step in aircraft construction - it became the world's first wide-body aircraft. In terms of its size, it surpassed everything that had been created in world aviation by that time, and required the solution of a number of design and technological problems, as well as a large volume of experimental work. In Paris, at the 26th International Aviation and Space Salon, the plane immediately became the center of everyone's attention and became a major sensation. The English "Times" wrote: "Thanks to this aircraft Soviet Union ahead of all other countries in the aircraft industry ... ". About Oleg Konstantinovich himself, foreign correspondents spoke as follows: “The designer is elegant, with good manners of a real artist, has a refined mind, inclined to analyze, speaks English and French.”

The very first flights of the Antey confirmed that aviation had taken a new step forward. The aircraft proved this by delivering gas turbine stations, bucket wheel excavators, trucks and other bulky cargo to the Far North. And the country's armed forces received a powerful tool that significantly increases their mobility.

For many years, Oleg Konstantinovich persistently sought to create economical gas turbine engines for small aircraft. And when such engines appeared, he took up the development of a deep modification of the An-14 called An-28 and the An-3 agricultural aircraft - a new version of the famous An-2.

A characteristic feature of Oleg Konstantinovich was to defend his point of view on the expediency of creating this or that aircraft. As a rule, his position was based on a deep knowledge of the situation and its comprehensive analysis.

Keeping pace with progress, in the 1970s, Antonov set up a team led by him to create transport aircraft with bypass turbojet engines. An-72 became the first such machine, and a little later its modification An-74 appeared, which today are indispensable in uninhabited areas where there are no concrete airfields. Under the leadership of Oleg Konstantinovich, the extremely difficult task of creating the heavy long-range transport aircraft An-124 Ruslan was also solved. To do this, the General Designer went for very bold technical solutions for that time. In particular, the supercritical swept wing was used for the first time in the world on an aircraft of this class. One of the techniques that made it possible to achieve a high weight perfection of the aircraft was the widespread use of composite materials. "Ruslan" turned out to be an exceptionally successful aircraft. It set 30 records, and in total, as of the end of 2005, the design bureau had 483 world achievements on its account, 378 of them have not been beaten so far (photo).

"Ruslan" was the last aircraft created under the direct supervision of O.K.Antonov. After his death, the ideas of the general were put into practice by his followers. Orienting the OKB team towards solving new problems, O.K. Antonov said in his last speeches: “You can go further only in a revolutionary way, mastering new ideas. And the limits of new technology, as you know, do not exist.

The years that increasingly separate us from Antonov, at the same time make his image more complete and vivid. After all, he was not only an outstanding designer, but also a man of a special warehouse. He, who received an excellent upbringing, had his own style - peculiar, elegant, confident. He possessed a special charm, combining great seriousness with softness and natural grace; he combined a powerful mind and a noble soul.

Oleg Konstantinovich was a figure who did not fit into the ordinary ideas about a major leader of the Soviet period. He was a brave and determined person. He spoke freely on any topic. The basis of O.K.Antonov's creative activity was his multifaceted engineering knowledge. He knew almost all the major achievements in the field of technology and, of course, everything about aviation. His amazing memory kept all the information about the aircraft of the past and present. It was worth asking him about something like that, and you heard a fascinating and detailed story about aircraft, past events, forgotten sensations (photo).

Everyone saw O.K.Antonov restrained, balanced. He had absolute authority among his subordinates. “The team is not created by orders, although they are needed,” Oleg Konstantinovich liked to repeat. - It is not created only by gathering and rearranging people. The team is not united by the building in which it works. The main thing, without which there can be no team, is the unity of purpose ... The creation of a friendly, efficient team is a special work, a work of the highest order.

Elizaveta Avetovna Shakhatuni, Lenin Prize winner, one of Antonov’s closest associates, who worked with him for over 40 years, recalls: “The main thing that characterizes Oleg Konstantinovich is his unconditional talent, exceptional love for his work and, of course, intelligence. These qualities primarily determined his relationship with the team. Everyone who came to work for Oleg Konstantinovich was immediately infected by his obsession. He knew how to arrange people in such a way that he did not push them in their work. Employees themselves became carriers of his aspirations, his ideas ... Oleg Konstantinovich could admit his mistake: “I made a mistake - I have to go through this ...” - he sometimes admitted with ease unexpected for everyone ”(photo).

The views of the General on the personality of a leader in the modern world are interesting: “... a leader must be cultured and educated ... He, in my deep conviction, must be extremely tolerant, even gentle, yes, a gentle person. After all, softness in circulation does not at all exclude firmness of will. Such a leader should have a huge gift of persuasion based on extensive experience and knowledge and never resort to a naked team ... And, of course, he himself should not be a stupid performer. Doing even the smallest thing, he must remember the fundamental tasks, the ultimate goals.

Antonov drew beautifully himself and knew painting in subtleties. “If I had not become a designer, I would have become an artist,” he once admitted. The sense of beauty did not betray him when he wrote his books: “On Wings of Wood and Linen”, “Ten Times First”, “For Everyone and for Myself”, numerous articles, lectures and speeches. The book "Muse in the Temple of Science" widely presents the poetic work of scientists. Among them is the poet Oleg Antonov. “In aviation,” Oleg Konstantinovich wrote, “the relationship between technical perfection and beauty is especially noticeable. Even at the dawn of aviation, aircraft designer Captain Ferber said: “A beautiful aircraft flies well, but an ugly aircraft flies badly” ... As the work progresses, the conceived aircraft, right before our eyes, becomes more and more slender, elegant, and harmonious.

O.K.Antonov paid much attention to amateur designers and inventors. He understood these restless people, helping them to the best of his ability. OK Antonov said: "A lover is a person who will never allow marriage, this is a person who works inventively, with love."

All his life Oleg Konstantinovich was athletic. He skied, flew gliders, played tennis and ping-pong: "In old age, sport is especially necessary - believe my life experience," he said.

Oleg Konstantinovich was one of those who were not created for old age, and this can be understood - such a temperament, such a creative frenzy cannot come to terms with the bridle of age. He burned down in just two weeks, burned out as he lived - rapidly, violently. His creative nature seemed to have chosen death to match - here a leisurely and humiliating withering was unthinkable.

Biography

He was born on January 25 (February 7), 1906 in the village of Troitskoye, now the Podolsky district of the Moscow region.

In 1925 he entered the mechanical engineering faculty of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. Kalinin, who graduated in 1930.

In 1931 he headed technical part Higher Gliding Flight School and the Central Bureau of Glider Designs OSAviaKhim, engaged in the construction of gliders (OKA series, US series / "Training-serial", training glider "Upar"). Since 1933 - the chief designer of the glider plant in Tushino. Since 1938 he was a leading engineer at the Yakovlev Design Bureau. In 1940-1941 he was the chief designer of a plant in Leningrad.

In 1941, he was given the task of organizing the production of gliders in Kaunas on the basis of a former tram plant, but soon the outbreak of war destroyed the undertakings; Antonov was appointed chief engineer of the glider department of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry. Since 1943 - First Deputy General Designer Yakovlev, 1946 headed the OKB branch in Novosibirsk, later - his OKB-153 (since 1952 - Kiev GSOKB-473, since 1966 - Kyiv Mechanical Plant, since 1984 - OKB named after O. K. Antonov, since 1989 - Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex "Antonov").

In 1962 he was awarded the title of General Designer of the Design Bureau.

Member of the CPSU since 1945. Deputy of the Council of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 5-11 convocations from the Kyiv region.

Lived in Kyiv. Died April 4, 1984. He was buried at the Baykove cemetery in Kyiv.

Developments

Under the leadership of Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov, the following were created:

  • gliders - Golub, Rot Front-1, Rot Front-2, Rot Front-3, Rot Front-4, A-11, A-13, A-15;
  • transport aircraft - An-8, An-12, An-26, An-22 "Antey", An-32, An-72, An-124 "Ruslan", An-74;
  • multi-purpose aircraft - An-2, An-14 "Bee", An-30, An-28, An-3;
  • passenger planes - An-10 and An-24.

Awards and titles

  • Per great success in the design of new aviation equipment and in connection with the 60th anniversary of the birth of Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 5, 1966, he was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the presentation of the Hammer and Sickle gold medal and the Order of Lenin.
  • Awarded 3 orders of Lenin (07/12/1957, 02/05/1966, 04/03/1975), orders October revolution(04/26/1971), Patriotic War 1st degree (07/2/1945), Red Banner of Labor (11/2/1944).
  • He was awarded various medals: "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 2nd degree (1944), "For valiant work in the Great Patriotic war 1941-1945" (1945), "20 years of victory over Nazi Germany" (1965), "For valiant work in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V. I. Lenin" (1970).
  • Stalin Prize (1952, for the An-2 aircraft).
  • Lenin Prize (1962, for the An-12 aircraft).
  • State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR (1976, for the An-24 aircraft).
  • Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1968).
  • Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1981).
  • Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the Ukrainian SSR.
  • Awarded the A. N. Tupolev Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1979).
  • Diploma of the Central Executive Committee for the creation of training and record gliders (1933).

Memory

  • In Kyiv, on the house where O.K. Antonov, a memorial plaque was installed.
  • His name was given to the aviation scientific and technical complex and a street in Kyiv.
  • The Central Bank of the Russian Federation issued a commemorative coin in 2006.
  • In 2006, a Ukrainian postage stamp dedicated to Antonov was issued.

    Commemorative coin of Russia

    Commemorative coin of Ukraine

    Postage stamp of Ukraine