Reactive Scientific Research Institute
Katyusha rocket launchers firing during WWII, which were created at RNII | |
Parent institution | People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry |
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Founder(s) | Gas Dynamics Laboratory and Group for the Study of Reactive Motion |
Established | 21 September 1933 |
Key people | Sergei Korolev, Valentin Glushko |
Address | Onezhskaya St, 8/10 |
Location | , , |
Dissolved | 18 February 1944 transferred to the Scientific-Research Institute 1 (NII-1) |
Awards: |
Part of a series of articles on the |
Soviet space program |
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Reactive Scientific Research Institute (commonly known by the joint initialism RNII;
History
The 'Reactive Scientific Research Institute' (RNII) was officially established on 21 September 1933 by combining the Group for the Study of Reactive Motion (GIRD) with the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL).[3][1] Personnel based in Leningrad were relocated to Moscow.[4]
Background
Before 1931 there were two Soviet organizations devoted to researching rocket technology, the
Timeline
- 21 September 1933 – creation of RNII from the merger of GDL and GIRD.[3][1]
- 31 October 1933 – RNII transferred to the responsibility of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry[3]
- January 1937 – RNII was renamed Scientific-Research Institute 3 (NII-3) and transferred to the responsibility of the People’s Commissariat of the Defense Industry.[5]
- 1939 – NII-3 was transferred to the responsibility of the People’s Commissariat of Ammunitions.[5]
- 15 July 1942 – NII-3 was renamed State Institute of Reactive Technology (GIRT) directly reporting to the USSR Council of People’s Commissars.[4]
- February 1944 – GIRT was transferred to the responsibility of the People’s Commissariat of Aviation Industry and renamed Scientific-Research Institute 1 (NII-1).[5]
Organization
The first Director of RNII was
In the initial period, RNII had four departments:
- The first department was engaged in the development of solid fuel engines and rockets (Y. A. Pobedonostsev, K. K. Glukharev, L. E. Schwartz);
- The Second Division developed liquid fuel engines (M. K. Tikhonravov, A. I. Stenyaev, A. G. Kostikov); Brigades of liquid-propellant engines – V. P. Glushko and L. S. Dushkin;
- The Third Division dealt with cruise missiles (P.P. Zuykov): cruise missiles — E. S. Shchetinkov , jet launch — V. I. Dudakov;
- The fourth department investigated the properties of solid fuels (I. S. Alexandrov).
Total personnel at RNII ranged from 403 in 1935 to a peak of 836 in 1941.[7]
Research and development
During RNII's existence the following were created:
- 1933 – various liquid propellent rocket engines;
- 1938 – military tests of the fundamentally new weapons begun in 1929 (at GDL) – RS-82 and RS-132 rockets were completed;
- 1939 — flight tests of the cruise missile 212 with engine ORM-65;
- 1940 — pilot V. P. Fedorov flew the Rocket aircraft RP-318;
- 1941 – On June 21, orders were signed by Joseph Stalin to begin production of the Katyusha missile launcher, which was 24 hours before Nazi Germany invaded;[8]
- 1942 — test pilot G. Ya. Bakhchivanji makes a flight on the first aircraft in the USSR equipped with ZHRD. The engine was designed by RNII;
- 1943–1944 – a number of experimental ballistic and cruise missiles and engines were developed;
- 1942–1944 – an attempt to create a interceptor missile aircraft 302, however it was never successfully flown and the project was cancelled in 1944.[9]
RS-82 and RS-132 rockets
Design work on RS-82 and RS-132 rockets (RS for Reaktivnyy Snaryad, 'rocket-projectile') began in the late 1920s at GDL.[10] In 1932 in-air test firings of RS-82 rocket from an Tupolev I-4 aircraft armed with six launchers successfully took place.[11] After September 1933 development was continued by RNII, including designing several variations for ground-to-air, ground-to-ground, air-to-ground and air-to-air combat. The RS-82 rockets were carried by Polikarpov I-15, I-16 and I-153 fighter planes, the Polikarpov R-5 reconnaissance plane and the Ilyushin Il-2 close air support plane, while the heavier RS-132 rockets could be carried by bombers.[4] Many small ships of the Soviet Navy were also fitted with the RS-82 rocket, including the MO-class small guard ship.[10]
The earliest known use by the
Katyusha rockets
In June 1938, RNII began developing a multiple rocket launcher based on the RS-132 rocket.[13] Gvay led a team of designers and engineers to build multiple prototype launchers firing the modified 132 mm M-132 rockets over the sides of ZIS-5 trucks. The trucks proved to be unstable, as a solution to this V.N. Galkovskiy proposed mounting the launch rails across the top of the vehicles. In August 1939, the completed rocket was the BM-13 (BM stands for боевая машина (translit. boyevaya mashina), 'combat vehicle' for M-13 rockets).[14]
Towards the end of 1938 the first significant large scale testing of the rocket launchers took place, 233 rockets of various types were used. A salvo of rockets could completely straddle a target at a range of 5,500 metres (3.4 mi). Various rocket tests were conducted through 1940, and the BM-13-16 with launch rails for sixteen rockets was authorized for production. Only forty launchers were built before Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.[14] By the end of the war 12 million rockets of the RS type were produced for the Soviet armed forces.[4]
Liquid propellant rocket engines
Development of
RP-318 rocket-powered aircraft
The RP-318 was
Great Purge
During the 1930s Soviet rocket technology was comparable to Germany's,[18] however Joseph Stalin's Great Purge severely damaged its progress. RNII was particularly affected with Director Kleymyonov and Chief Engineer Langemak arrested in November 1937, and later executed. Glushko was arrested in March 1938 and with many other leading engineers was imprisoned in the Gulag.[19] Korolev was arrested in June 1938 and sent to a forced labour camp in Kolyma in June 1939.[20] However, due to the intervention by Andrei Tupolev, he was relocated to a prison for scientist and engineers in September 1940.[21] From 1937 to 1944 no serious work was carried out on long range rockets as weapons, or for space exploration.[22]
Successors
In February 1944, the institute merged with Design Bureau OKB-293, led by Soviet engineer Viktor Bolkhovitinov, which had developed the short-range rocket powered interceptor called Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1. [23] The new organisation was named Scientific-Research Institute 1 (NII-1), and became the responsibility of the People’s Commissariat of Aviation Industry.[5]
In 1965, NII-1 was re-named the Scientific-Research Institute for Thermal Processes (NII TP) and became part of the newly created
In 1992, NII TP became part of
Legacy
A number of writers have noted the importance of RNII to the future Soviet space program, including Siddiqi:[25]
…it is clear that the work at RNII was not only productive but also extremely important in terms of the later achievements of the Soviet rocketry program. Apart from the purely technological advancements and the mastery of important practical processes, the years at RNII also gave the young engineers their first active involvement in issues of organization and management.
and Chertok:[26]
All of our rocket-space technology historians consider it obligatory to mention the founding role of RNII, the Reactive Scientific-Research Institute, in the origin of domestic cosmonautics.
Awards and rewards
- Hero of Socialist Labor.[27]
- Other participants in the creation of the famous rocket weapon of the Second World War, the
- In 1966 the following employees of RNII were assigned crater names on the far side of the Moon for their contribution to rocketry; Sergei Korolev, Aleksandr Fedorov, Georgy Langemak, Vladimir Artemyev.[30]
- In 1962 the names GIRD and RNII were assigned to crater chains on the far side of the Moon.[31]
See also
- Gas Dynamics Laboratory
- Group for the Study of Reactive Motion
- Keldysh Research Center
- Soviet rocketry
Explanatory notes
- ^ The word “reaktivnyy” means “reactive” in Russian and is commonly used to denote "jet propulsion". However in the 1930s and 1940s "reactive" was normally used to describe both jet and rocket propulsion. In the case of RNII it was primarily used to describe what we would now call rocket propulsion.[1]
- ^ 11.01.1934. the position of deputy head of the RNII was eliminated, and instead of it the post of chief engineer was introduced.
References
- ^ a b c d Chertok 2005, p. 9 Vol 1.
- ^ a b c Chertok 2005, p. 167 Vol 1.
- ^ a b c d Siddiqi 2000, p. 7.
- ^ a b c d e Zak, Anatoly. "History of the Rocket Research Institute, RNII". www.russianspaceweb.com. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f Chertok 2005, p. 10 Vol 1.
- ^ Siddiqi 2000, p. 7-8.
- ^ Harrison, Mark (January 2001). "The soviet market for inventions : the case of jet propulsion, 1932 to 1944". Warwick Economic Research Papers: 38. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
- ^ Chertok 2005, p. 171 Vol 1.
- ^ Chertok 2005, p. 196 Vol 1.
- ^ a b c "Russian Rocket Projectiles – WWII". Weapons and Warfare. 18 November 2018. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
- ^ Chertok 2005, p. 165 Vol 1.
- ISBN 978-1-84603-981-2.
- ISBN 5-217-03205-7.
- ^ ISBN 0-85368-606-8.
- ^ a b Glushko, Valentin (1 January 1973). Developments of Rocketry and Space Technology in the USSR. Novosti Press Pub. House. pp. 12–14, 18.
- OCLC 22704082.
- ^ Siddiqi 2000, p. 8-9.
- ^ Chertok 2005, p. 167-8 Vol 1.
- ^ Siddiqi 2000, p. 10-11.
- ^ Baker & Zak 2013, p. 9.
- ^ Siddiqi 2000, p. 11-14.
- ^ Siddiqi 2000, p. 10.
- ^ Chertok 2005, p. 174,207 Vol 1.
- ^ "Ministry of General Machine-building of USSR (MOM)". Global Security.org. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
- ^ Siddiqi 2000, p. 9.
- ^ Chertok 2005, p. 164 Vol 1.
- ^ of the State Research Center "Keldysh Center". History. Official website Archived 2016-05-28 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Who created the "Katyusha"? Andrey Kostikov: the life and fate of the inventor of "Katyusha" Who is the designer of Katyusha". Retrieved 5 June 2022.
- ^ "Указ Президента СССР от 21.06.1991 № УП-2120 «О присвоении звания Героя Социалистического Труда создателям отечественного реактивного оружия»". КонсультантПлюс. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
- ^ Brief chronology of rocket engine building in the USSR
- ^ "Gas Dynamic Laboratory (in Russian)". History of Russian Soviet Cosmonautics. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
Sources cited
- Baker, David; Zak, Anatoly (9 September 2013). Race for Space 1: Dawn of the Space Age. RHK. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
- Siddiqi, Asif (2000). Challenge to Apollo : the Soviet Union and the space race, 1945–1974 (PDF). Washington, D.C: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA History Div. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
- Chertok, Boris (2005). Rockets and People Volumes 1–4. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved 20 June 2022.