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Vladimir Petlyakov

Vladimir Petlyakov

Vladimir Petlyakov
(1891-1942)

Soviet aircraft designer. Graduated from the Moscow Higher Technical School (1922). In 1917-1918, a technical draftsman of the aviation design and test bureau at the aerodynamic laboratory of the Moscow Technical University. In 1921-1936 he worked at TsAGI. He supervised the design of the wings of many ANT aircraft, the introduction of the ANT-4, ANT-6 bombers into the series, and the creation of the ANT-42 (Pe-8) bomber. Petlyakov is one of the organizers of metal aircraft construction in the USSR.

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Together with Belyaev, he created a method for calculating a cantilever wing with a rigid skin. Since 1936 - Chief Designer. Head of the design department and first deputy director of the experimental design plant of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (ZOK TsAGI) Petlyakov calculated the wing of the famous heavy bomber ANT-6 (TB-3) and headed the development of a more modern long-range high-altitude multi-engine aircraft ANT-42 (TB-7 or Pe-8). In the summer and fall of 1937, he took part in the work of Soviet technical delegations in the United States and France, which ended with the purchase of licenses for a number of foreign aircraft (including the Douglas DC-3).

On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the October Revolution, in 1937, he was arrested on charges of "deliberately delaying the development of the ANT-42". In the summer of 1938, Petlyakov was allowed to return to work in the Special Technical Department (STO) of the NKVD, formed from aviation workers arrested in the "Industrial Party case" at plant number 39.

Under the direct supervision of L.P. Beria, KB-29 was organized as part of the service station, in fact, a whole association of design bureaus engaged in the design of new combat aircraft. The main part of the team of designers consisted of prisoners who lived and worked in the building of KOSOS TsAGI, which was turned into a kind of prison. All the actual leaders of the design bureau were also prisoners, including A.N. Tupolev. So, such designers as A.N. Tupolev, V.M. Petlyakov, V.M. Myasishchev, I.G. Neman, S.P. Korolev and others. Here in 1937-1940 Petlyakov worked on the Pe-2 aircraft.

On January 12, 1942, when flying a serial Pe-2 through Moscow, Vladimir Mikhailovich Petlyakov died in a plane crash.

Myasishchev Vladimir Mikhailovich

Myasishchev Vladimir Mikhailovich
(1902-1978)

Soviet aircraft designer, major general engineer (1944), general designer of OKB-23, doctor of technical sciences (1959), professor (1947), honored worker of science and technology of the RSFSR (1972). Hero of Socialist Labor. Lenin Prize Laureate, Honorary Citizen of the Tula Region (2017)

After the tragic death in 1942 of the designer V.M.Petlyakov, it became necessary to continue work on the further improvement of the Pe-2 aircraft, the main dive bomber of our aviation. In this regard, part of the OKB staff and V.M. Myasishchev himself were sent to a serial plant, where Pe-2 aircraft were produced. During the war years, at least eight modifications of this bomber appeared.

The need for a long-range fighter led to the creation of the DIS, a long-range escort fighter. The car has passed factory tests. The flight range without outboard tanks was 1,700 km, and with outboard tanks - almost 4,000 km. It was essentially a flying fortress, as the aircraft had two 20mm cannons in the nose of the fuselage, two 37mm (or 45mm) cannons at the bottom and one cannon at the top. The flight speed of the DIS was 50 km/h higher than the speed of the German Me-109 fighter.