Oleg Antonov (aircraft designer)

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For the Italian volleyball player, see Oleg Antonov (volleyball).

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Konstantinovich and the family name is Antonov.
Oleg Antonov
Олег Антонов
USSR (now Kyiv, Ukraine)
CitizenshipRussian Empire → Russian SFSR → Soviet Union
Alma materLeningrad Polytechnic Institute (1930)
Occupations
Years active1924–1984
Known forAntonov aircraft
Title
Spouse
Stalin Prize (1952)
  • Lenin Prize (1962)
    • Signature

    Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov (

    aeroplanes (such as the Antonov An-2, Antonov An-12) and numerous gliders
    for both civilian and military use.

    Early life

    Antonov was born on 7 February 1906 in Troitsy, Moscow Governorate, Russian Empire (now Podolsky District of the Moscow Oblast), Russian Empire to a family of Russian ethnicity.[1] In 1912, the Antonovs moved to Saratov, where he attended the non-classical secondary school (now gymnasium №1) and secondary school (now school №23). From an early age, Antonov was fascinated with aviation and spent much of his spare time at the local airfield.

    Early engineering career

    At the age of 17, Antonov founded the "Amateur Aviation Club" and later joined the "Organization of Friends of the Air Force". Later he designed the OKA-1 "Pigeon", a glider that was entered in a competition in Moscow where he won the first prize, a flight on a Junkers 12 aircraft.[2][3]

    In 1930, Antonov graduated from the

    Kalinin Polytechnical Institute in Leningrad. He continued to design gliders and in 1931 Antonov became the chief designer at the Moscow Glider Factory. During the next eight years, he designed 30 different gliders including the Standard-1, Standard-2, OKA-6 and the large "City of Lenin" glider. Due to a requirement that all pilots in the Soviet Union had to begin their flight training in gliders, Antonov was able to produce up to 8,000 gliders per year.[2]

    In 1938, after an incident when an instructor defected to the West using a glider, the Soviet government reversed its decision regarding glider training, banned the sport of gliding and shut down the Moscow Glider Factory.

    Professional designer career and World War II

    Following the closure of the glider factory in 1938, he unsuccessfully applied to enter Zhukovsky Air Academy the same year. He then in 1940 joined Yakovlev's Sportsplane Factory and there, after receiving two aircraft from Germany in June 1940, he was assigned to prepare the German Fi 156 Storch for production in Kaunas. He was also tasked with designing an ambulance version of the aircraft.[4][5]

    Antonov was appointed chief designer for the Yakovlev Design Bureau. In 1940 a new aircraft design bureau under his own management was established in Leningrad. The German invasion resulted in the closure of the plant and he was reassigned to work on the A-7 glider. The factory was later reorganised to produce A-7s.[2]

    During World War II, the A-7 was used for airbridge supply of the Soviet partisans behind the front lines. Antonov also worked on the Antonov A-40 biplane glider that was designed to airlift tanks, but this project proved unsuccessful. In total during the war around 450 A-7s were produced. In 1943, Antonov returned to the Yakovlev design bureau to fill a vacancy as Yakovlev's first deputy designer. He was put in charge of Yak-3 and also of production at Novosibirsk. Much of his time and energy was devoted to the improvement of the Yak series, one of the most mass-produced fighter aircraft types of World War II.[2]

    Postwar career and establishment of the Antonov Design Bureau

    Antonov An-2
    An-124-100 Ruslan
    civil certificated version of the strategic airlifter

    After the war, Antonov requested that Yakovlev let him work independently, heading Yakovlev's subsidiary design office at the aircraft manufacturing factory at Novosibirsk. On 31 May 1946, Antonov was appointed head of the newly redesignated facility (subsequently known as the

    Ukrainian SSR. In September 1946, Antonov, in addition to his management of the design bureau, became the director of the Siberian R&D Institute for Aeronautics.[2]

    The first of the Antonov Bureau's designs was the SKh-1 (Sel′sko Khozyaystvennyi- pervoy - agricultural-first one) agricultural aircraft, later redesignated An-2, designed to meet a 1947 Soviet requirement for a replacement for the Polikarpov Po-2 which was used in large numbers as both an agricultural aircraft and a utility aircraft. Antonov designed a large single-bay biplane of all-metal construction, with an enclosed cockpit and a cabin accommodating 12 passengers.

    A series of significant transports followed under Oleg Antonov's direction. Antonov aircraft (design office prefix An-) range from a rugged An-2 (which itself is comparatively large for a biplane) through the

    An-225 Mriya entered development, still under Antonov's guidance, but did not make its maiden flight until 1989 after his death. In November 2004, FAI placed the An-225 in the Guinness Book of Records for its 240 records. Some of Antonov's designs are also built abroad, such as the Shaanxi Y-8
    .

    In 1965 Antonov signed a petition in defense of

    Soviet dissident Ivan Dziuba.[6][7][8]

    Family

    Antonov was married three times (to Elena Kochetkova, Yelyzaveta Shahatuni, and Elvira Antonova) and was the father of four children (Rolan, Anna, Elena, and Andrei).[9]

    Death

    Oleg Antonov died 4 April 1984 in

    Ukrainian SSR, and was buried in Baikove Cemetery
    .

    Honorary titles, awards and legacy

    Russian 2006 commemorative coin featuring Antonov's portrait and aircraft
    Ukrainian 2006 commemorative coin featuring Antonov's portrait and aircraft

    During his lifetime, Antonov was recognized as a

    Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 5th, 6th and 7th convocations
    .

    Among numerous awards, Antonov received the

    Lenin Award
    in 1962.

    Antonov was decorated with three

    Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st class
    .

    A street in

    Solomyanka
    neighborhood is named after Oleg Antonov.

    In 1999, Antonov was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.[10]

    A coin was minted of copper nickel alloy in 2006 by the

    Bank of Russia
    to commemorate 100 years since Antonov's birth.

    External links

    Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oleh Antonov.

    Gallery

    References

    Notes

    1. ^ "Антонов Олег Константинович". Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
    2. ^ a b c d e "Biography of Oleg K. Antonov."Archived 22 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine People’s Museum Press Service of Antonov ASTC, Council of Antonov ASTC, © 2005. Retrieved: 25 May 2009.
    3. ^ Soviet Life. Embassy of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics in the USA. 1980.
    4. ISBN 978-0-7146-4784-5
      .
    5. ^ Dancey, Peter G. (22 April 2017). Soviet Aircraft Industry. Fonthill Media. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
    6. ISBN 9781780229287. Archived
      from the original on 4 April 2023. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
    7. ^ "AS 922. Appeal in Defense of Arrested Ukrainian Intellectuals". Blinken Open Society Archives. Archived from the original on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
    8. Zn.ua (in Ukrainian). Archived
      from the original on 3 January 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
    9. ^ (in Ukrainian) "The police asked Antonov not to go in shorts on the bazaar" Archived 8 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Segodnya (7 February 2008)
    10. ISBN 978-1-57864-397-4
      .

    Bibliography

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