Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev (10 November 1888 – 23 December 1972) was a Russian and later Soviet aeronautical engineer known for his pioneering aircraft designs as the director of the Tupolev Design Bureau.
Tupolev was an early pioneer of aeronautics in Russia and served as a protégé of Nikolay Zhukovsky. Tupolev designed or oversaw the design of more than 100 types of civilian and military aircraft in the Soviet Union over 50 years, some of which set 78 world records. Tupolev produced many notable designs such as the Tu-2, Tu-16, Tu-95, and Tu-104, and the reverse engineered Tu-4.
Tupolev was highly honoured in the Soviet Union and awarded various titles and honours including the Hero of Socialist Labor three times, Order of Lenin eight times, Order of the Red Banner of Labour two times, made an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1953, and a Colonel-General of the Soviet Air Force in 1968.[1] Tupolev was also honoured outside the Soviet Union as an honorary member of the British Royal Aeronautical Society and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in recognition of his work.[2][3] In 2018, Vnukovo International Airport was formally renamed to Vnukovo Andrei Tupolev International Airport in his honour.
Early life
Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev was born on 10 November 1888 in Pustomazovo, a village near the city of Kimry in Tver Governorate, Russian Empire, the sixth of seven children born to his Russian parents.[4] Tupolev's father, Nikolai Ivanovich Tupolev (1842–1911), was a native of Surgut, who worked as a notary for the governorate. Nikolai had studied law at St. Petersburg University, but was expelled after the assassination of Alexander II for his ties to revolutionaries despite not being involved in their actions. Tupolev's mother, Anna Vasilievna (née Lisitsyna) (1850–1928) was born in Torzhok in the family of a judicial investigator, and graduated from the Mariinsky Gymnasium in Tver. Anna's parents purchased the small estate in Pustomazovo where Tupolev was born. After first being educated at home, Tupolev studied at the Gymnasium in Tver and finished in 1908. Tupolev then applied for courses at two Russian universities: Imperial Moscow Technical School (IMTU) and the Imperial Moscow Engineering School. Tupolev was accepted at both, but ultimately chose to attend at IMTU.
In 1909, Tupolev began studying aerodynamics under the Russian aviation pioneer Nikolay Zhukovsky, and volunteered for the Aeronautical workshop (Kruzhok) headed by Zhukovsky. In 1910, together with his workshop friends, Tupolev built and test piloted his first glider.
Aircraft design
Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute
Tupolev was a leading figure of the Moscow-based Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI; ) from 1929 until his death in 1972. The Central Design Office or TsKB based there produced bombers for the Soviet Air Force and some airliners, which in the years before World War II and especially in his 1930s-era designs, were based partially on the all-metal aircraft design concepts pioneered by Hugo Junkers. In 1925, Tupolev designed a twin-engine bomber, the TB-1, which was considered one of the most advanced designs of the time. By 1934, Tupolev had led the design bureau that designed the largest aircraft flying in the world at the time, the 63-meter wingspan, eight-engined Maksim Gorki, again built with the Junkers metal structure airframe concepts. In 1937, an improved version of the earlier TB-1, the four-engined TB-3, made a landing at the North Pole. As the number of qualified aircraft designers increased, Tupolev set up his own office, producing a number of designs designated with the prefix ANT from his initials.
Sharashka
However, on 21 October 1937, Tupolev was arrested together with Vladimir Petlyakov and the entire directorate of the TsAGI and EDO during the
Later years and death
After Khruschev's removal from office in late 1964 and the rise of Leonid Brezhnev, the ageing Tupolev gradually lost positions at the centres of Soviet power to rivals in the aircraft industry. The prestigious Tu-144 programme enjoyed top level support until 1973, as did the important Tu-154 airliner, but the favored position the Tupolev Design Bureau enjoyed through Tupolev's personal political connections was largely eclipsed by the Ilyushin aircraft manufacturing and design company. To his contemporaries, Tupolev was known as a witty but crude master of obscene vocabulary who invariably and energetically insisted on fast and adequate technical fixes at the expense of scholastic ideal solutions. A hallmark of Tupolev was to get an aeroplane into service very rapidly, then began an often interminable process of improving the shortcomings of the "quick and dirty" initial design. To his competitors among the Soviet aircraft design community, he was known above all as politically astute; a shrewd and unforgiving rival.
Tupolev died on 23 December 1972 and was buried in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Memorials
Various streets in cities across the Eastern Bloc were named in honour of Tupolev, as well as one in Western Europe, the Tupolevlaan near Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. In 1973, the Kazan Aviation Institute was named after Tupolev, and a monument of him was erected in Kazan in a public square at the intersection of Dekabristov, Gagarin and Korolev Streets.
Personal life
Tupolev was married to Yuliya Nikolaevna Tupoleva (née Zheltyakova) until her death in 1962. Tupolev's daughter Yuliya (1920–2011) was a doctor who was awarded the title of Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation. Tupolev's son Aleksey (1925-2001) was a successful pioneering aircraft designer who designed the Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic passenger jet, and helped design the Buran space shuttle and the Tu-2000 long-range heavy bomber.
Tupolev was never a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union despite his status and being elected to several deputy positions.
Awards and honors
- Hero of Socialist Labour, three times (1945, 1957, 1972)
- Eight Orders of Lenin (1933, 1945, 1947, January 1949, December 1949, 1953, 1958, 1968)
- Order of the October Revolution (1971)
- Order of the Red Banner of Labour, twice (1927, 1933)
- Order of the Red Star (1933)
- Order of the Badge of Honour (1936)
- Order of Suvorov second degree (1944)
- Order of the Patriotic War first degree (1943)
- Lenin Prize (1957)
- Four Stalin Prizes first degree (1943, 1948, 1949, 1952)
- USSR State Prize (1972)
- Order of Georgi Dimitrov (People's Republic of Bulgaria, 1964)
- Laureate of the Zhukovskii Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958)
Aircraft designed by Andrei Tupolev
''List (partial) of retired or active aircraft designed or made by aviation designer/engineer Andrei Tupolev; incl. both military and civilian planes, jets and other aircraft:''
- Tupolev Tu-2
- Tupolev Tu-16
- Tupolev Tu-22
- Tupolev Tu-95/Tupolev Tu-116
- Tupolev Tu-104
- Tupolev Tu-114
- Tupolev Tu-124
- Tupolev Tu-126
- Tupolev Tu-134
- Tupolev Tu-144
- Tupolev Tu-154
Literature
- "S. P. Korolev. Encyclopedia of life and creativity" - edited by C. A. Lopota, RSC Energia. S. P. Korolev, 2014 ISBN 978-5-906674-04-3
External links
References
- Central Museum of the Military Air Forces of the Russian Federation. Monino.ru. Retrieved on 2012-08-09.^
- 2013 Honours, Medals & Awards Royal Aeronautical Society, retrieved 2014-09-29^
- Credited as Andrie N. Tupelov. Fellow and Honorary Fellow Roster 2014