Literary and historical notes of a young technician. Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov: biography Oleg Antonov biography
February 7, according to the new style, marks the 107th anniversary of the birth of Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov, an outstanding aircraft designer, whose name occupies an honorable place in the history of aviation. Doctor of Science, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, laureate of the Lenin Prize and State Prizes of the USSR, creator of the legendary AN-2 (“maize”), as well as the creator of 74 (!) Diverse models aircraft(52 types of gliders and 22 types of aircraft), the founder and leader of the famous Soviet experimental design office.
The works of the designer made his surname one of the most famous in the world. During the Great Patriotic War he participated in the creation and development of the Yak fighter, one of the most popular and popular aircraft of that period. Together with his design bureau, Antonov shocked the world with the creation of the An-22 Antey heavy turboprop transport aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of 250 tons and the An-124 Ruslan, which had a take-off weight of 402 tons.
O. Antonov was a multifaceted and comprehensively developed personality - he was actively involved in sports and painting (“if I had not become a designer, I would have become an artist”), wrote works on air gliding (“On wings made of wood and canvas”, “Ten times over again” , “For everyone and for myself” and others), poems and even stories for children. D.S. Kiva, General Designer and President of the Antonov State Enterprise since 2005, spoke about his outstanding predecessor: “Everyone admired his knowledge, vast experience, amazing intuition with a rare combination of purely human qualities - the ability to attract people’s hearts, captivate them, rally them, inspire confidence that they can handle any difficult task.”
Oleg Antonov was born on February 7, 1906 in the village of Trinity, Podolsky district, Moscow region, in a family of hereditary nobles - Konstantin Konstantinovich and Anna Efimovna Antonov. When the boy was six years old, the family moved to Saratov.
The Antonov family at the beginning of the 20th century
“I started dreaming about aviation early,” Antonov recalled, “I was in my fourth year when my cousin came to us from Moscow and began to talk about the fantastic flight across the English Channel made by Louis Blériot. All this made a very strong impression on me. Sixty-four years have passed, but I still remember that evening and my brother's story! I decided that I would fly like Blériot (...) And I started building gliders in order to fly. There was no other way for me then. So he became an aircraft designer. All my life I built, built ... True, I flew a little myself. On all of their cars. We, the designers, need this: not a single tester, not a single most detailed report, instrument records will tell about the aircraft what you will feel when you take the helm in your hands. (...) The sky is beautiful. Start all over again, I would become a pilot!
Monoplane "Bleriot XI", on which the Frenchman Louis Bleriot flew across the English Channel
Parents did not support children's craving for flying. The father worked as a civil engineer and predicted the future of electrical engineering for his son, the mother believed that a person had nothing to do in the sky. And only the grandmother supported children's dreams by giving a model of an airplane with a rubber engine.
In Saratov, there was virtually no information about aviation. Oleg had to extract information from newspapers and magazines. What, according to him, did a good job - it was possible to consider a variety of aircraft from the point of view of their development. The enthusiastic boy even published a handwritten magazine "Aviation Fans Club", distributed it among his peers with whom he designed kites and aircraft models.
After graduating from a labor school, a 15-year-old motivated youth applied to aviation school Red Air Fleet but got rejected. Then it was possible to study only as a pilot and only with command experience. Antonov was not at a loss, he organized the "Circle of Aviation Lovers", where he designed more serious models. Soon - he took part in the first glider design competition in the USSR, where he sent his amateur drawings. “One day I was walking around Saratov, and suddenly I saw: in the window of the kiosk, the 8th issue of the Smena magazine for 1924 with drawings of my glider! At that time, I knew the rules of drawing still poorly, and I drew many knots in perspective and even painted them with watercolors. On the cover of the magazine, the young aviator rushed with a dashing roll over the Clouds. His large scarf fluttered in the wind and gave the whole picture a romantic uplift.
Cover of the magazine "Change" for 1924
At that time, a branch of the Moscow Soaring Flight Society was opened in Saratov, which had its own glider section and design bureau, headed by O. Antonov. In this design bureau, the young men developed the OKA-1 "Dove" glider, which was presented to the public at the Second All-Union Congress of Gliders in Koktebel in 1924. OKA-1 and its creators received certificates of honor for the originality of the idea - the design was extremely complex, but they were used in production exclusively improvised materials. In the same year, two books by the 18-year-old designer were published with illustrations by the author: "The simplest models of paper gliders" and "Why do we need gliders."
In 1925, O. Antonov entered the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute at the Department of Hydroaviation of the Ship Faculty. During his studies he created six types of gliders. Some of them were released in small series. The release of the glider "City of Lenin", which received the approval of the famous designer S. V. Ilyushin, became a record.
After graduating from the institute, Antonov was sent to work in Moscow to create a glider design bureau. Soon, when the construction of the plant in Tushino was completed, Antonov was appointed chief designer in it. During his work, he assembled more than 30 non-powered aircraft for various tasks. Some models have set world records. For example, "Rot-Front 7" set a record for flight range, flying 749.2 km. The record lasted 30 (!) years.
Glider "Rot-Front 7"
In 1938, O. Antonov took the position of chief engineer for training aircraft at the A. S. Yakovlev Design Bureau, at the personal invitation of the chief designer. Within a year, Antonov developed the Aist small-sized aircraft, which was put into serial production in Kaunas.
During the Great Patriotic War, Antonov was given the task of launching mass production the A-7 landing transport glider developed by him in 1940. More than 500 of these gliders were used in military operations. For this, the designer was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War." In 1942, Antonov developed the A-40 to transport light armored vehicles or a light tank. However, he spent most of his time on finalizing and improving the Yak fighter, which was widely used in combat operations.
After the war, Antonov left for Novosibirsk - to lead the design bureau at the aircraft factory. The result was not long in coming. On August 31, 1947, an experimental model of an agricultural aircraft, a year later called AN-2, carried out its first test flight. September 6, 1949 the aircraft went into series production. “Russians are excellent pilots,” wrote Canadian pilot E. Brown, “AN-2 is an amazing airplane. He can even sit on the roof of a barn, and take off from the bell tower.
Legendary AN-2
Domestic pilots nicknamed this plane "Annushka", and civilians - "corn". The device could perform various tasks - from irrigating fields to extinguishing fires, from training paratroopers to participating in Arctic research. Several thousand various modifications of the AN-2 were produced.
Since 1952, the life of O. Antonov was closely connected with Ukraine. He moved to Kyiv with a group of leading specialists, founded the Aircraft Design Bureau (now it is the O. K. Antonov Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex). Most of the new team were graduates of the Kharkov Aviation Institute (where since 1977 O. Antonov worked as the head of the department).
The first project of the new design bureau was the AN-8 transport aircraft, with two turboprop engines, launched into series in 1958 in Tashkent.
The development of the An-10 and An-12 aircraft began in 1955 after N. S. Khrushchev visited the Design Bureau. In a conversation with the head of state, Antonov proposed the creation of a single 4-engine aircraft in passenger and cargo versions.
Experts believe that the An-10 had a combination of properties that is rare for a passenger liner: high speed flight, a relatively short required length of the runway 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. Antonov was very upset by the 1972 disaster and shared with his Kyiv friend the famous surgeon N. Amosov: “No, I will not build large passenger aircraft. I will not 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?
In the autumn of 1960, O. Antonov received an order to develop a giant aircraft for transporting large loads. A huge unprecedented flying machine was named AN-22 "Antey". The constructive solution for the super-lifting aircraft came to the designer in a dream. The first flight of the giant took place in February 1965.
AN-22 "Antey"
In June of the same year, "Antey" was exhibited in Paris at the international air show. French journalist Gerard Favard spoke of the most gigantic aircraft that existed on the planet at that time: “When the huge shadow of Antey swept over the airfield of Le Bourget, even the most ardent pessimists let out a cry of admiration. It's fantastic! Flying Tanker! Train in the air! What epithets were invented these days! But none of them could express the impressions that the Soviet supergiant made even on experienced participants in the salon. This is, of course, the number one sensation, before which the rest of the exhibits pale. And I will take the liberty of declaring on behalf of all visitors to the salon that not one of them passed indifferently past the Soviet "Antey" - "the main sensation of the salon."
Antey set 41 world aviation records.
Antonov's most powerful development was the supergiant aircraft AN-124 Ruslan, during the creation of which technical solutions that were very bold for that time were found. In particular, the supercritical swept wing was used for the first time in the world on an aircraft of this class. Ruslan set 30 world records.
"Ruslan"
"Ruslan" was the last aircraft created under the direct supervision of O. K. Antonov, who died on April 4, 1984. The outstanding aircraft designer of our time was buried at the Baikove cemetery in Kyiv. His name is the Kyiv Mechanical Plant and the design bureau, which he led.
Further project management was carried out by the General Designer P.V. Balabuev, a student and successor of O.K. Antonova. The world premiere of "Ruslan" took place in Le Bourget in May 1985, where he, as before "Antey", called huge interest. Serially "Ruslan" was produced at aircraft factories in Kyiv (17 copies) and Ulyanovsk (34 copies). Currently, Ruslans are operated in Russian Air Force, in Volga-Dnepr, Polet and Antonov Airlines.
An-124 "Ruslan" over the domes of the Kremlin
Today, the creators of Ruslan are trying to increase the commercial and consumer attractiveness of Ruslan, the problem of joint Ukrainian-Russian production of the liner is becoming more and more urgent. In recent years, new civilian versions of An-124-100 have been certified: An-124-100M, An-124-100-150 and An-124-100M-150.
In the interests military transport aviation it is proposed to resume mass production of Ruslan in the An-124-200 version. They talk about the possibility of operating this liner for another half a century.
Over the entire period of existence of the Antonov Design Bureau, 483 world records were set on its aircraft (by the end of 2005), 378 of which have not been broken so far.
In 1999, for achievements in aviation, Antonov's name was inducted into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame in San Diego, California.
Grave of O. Antonov
As Oleg Konstantinovich said in one of his last speeches: “You can go further only in a revolutionary way, mastering new ideas. And the limits new technology, as you know, does not exist.
Indeed, it doesn't exist. The Antonov Design Bureau developed an even larger AN-225 Mriya aircraft. If "Ruslan" lifted 150 tons of payload, then "Mriya" - 250. "Mriya" made its first flight in 1988, and in May 1989 performed flights with "Buran" at Baikonur.
An-225 "Mriya" carries the space shuttle "Buran"
Now the AN-225 is in flight condition and is used by the air transport division of the ASTC. O. K. Antonov - Antonov Airlines.
Since 2009, the famous association, which includes several large enterprises in different cities, is called the Antonov State Aircraft Concern.
In 2011, the Ukrainian short-haul passenger aircraft An-158 (An-148-200) was certified, designed to carry from 86 to 99 passengers. In 2012, the Russian leasing company Ilyushin Finance Co signed a contract for the sale of 15 An-148 and An-158 with the Panamanian leasing company South American Aircraft Leasing S.A.
I. Weisberg, who visited the aircraft factory in Ulyanovsk in August 2012, in his article “For Ruslan, 30 years is not an age!” notes: “The huge half-empty hangars seemed to freeze in anticipation of the giant aircraft for the production of which they were built. The plant still employs specialists who mastered the serial production of Ruslan. New modifications of Ruslan, taking into account the installation of the most modern equipment, are liners of the 21st century. The main thing is not to “chatter” the issue and not to miss the time for the implementation of all decisions taken for the modernization and resumption of serial production of a unique aircraft.
We add: this would be an excellent continuation of the main work of the outstanding domestic aircraft designer O. K. Antonov.
Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich
Born: January 25 (February 7), 1906
Died: April 4, 1984 (age 78)
Biography
Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov - Soviet aircraft designer, doctor of technical sciences (1960), professor (1978), academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Hero of Socialist Labor (1966). Laureate of the Lenin Prize (1962) and Stalin Prize second degree (1952). Husband of aircraft designer Elizaveta Shatakhuni.
Born on January 25 (February 7), 1906 in the village of Troitsa, Voronovskaya volost, Podolsky district, Moscow province (now part of the Troitsky administrative district of Moscow). Russian.
Since 1912 he lived in the city of Saratov. In 1915-1922 he studied at the Saratov real school (he graduated from two classes) and high school(now - secondary school No. 23).
With young years was fond of aviation, was engaged in a school circle of aviation enthusiasts; in 1921, he applied to the Red Air Fleet with a request to be admitted to an aviation school, but was refused due to his age and the admission of only commanders of the Red Army.
In 1924, while studying at the railway faculty of Saratov University, where he entered, in order to be closer to aviation, he built his first glider, organizing a local aviation enthusiasts' circle. In the same year educational institution was closed, and Antonov had to look for a new place of study.
In 1924, he took part in the second All-Union Glider Tests in Koktebel, on Mount Uzyn-Syrt.
In 1925 he entered the mechanical engineering faculty of the LPI named after M. I. Kalinin, from which he graduated in 1930.
In 1931 he headed technical part Higher Glider Flight School and the Central Bureau of Glider Designs of Osoaviakhim, engaged in the construction of gliders (OKA series, US series / "Training-serial", training soarer "Upar"). Since 1933 - chief designer 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 Chief Designer Yakovlev.
From 1946, he headed the OKB branch in Novosibirsk, later - his OKB-153.
Since 1952, he led the Kyiv GSOKB-473 (since 1952 - the Kiev GSOKB-473, since 1966 - the Kyiv Mechanical Plant, since 1984 - OKB named after O. K. Antonov, since 1989 - the Antonov Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex ).
In 1962 he was awarded the title of General Designer of the Design Bureau.
Member of the CPSU (b) since 1945. Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR. Member of the Council of the Union Supreme Council USSR 5-11 convocations (1958-1984) from the Kyiv region. He was elected to the Supreme Council of the 9th convocation from the Kiev-Svyatoshinsky constituency No. 494 of the Kyiv region, a member of the Transport and Communications Commission of the Council of the Union.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Oleg Antonov provided assistance to the family of the convicted Ukrainian poet, dissident and political prisoner Vasily Stus (he helped with the employment of his wife), wrote letters in defense of the poetess Lina Kostenko. In November 1965, Oleg Antonov signed an open letter to the Central Committee of the CPSU (the so-called letter 78) protesting against political repressions against representatives of the creative intelligentsia of the Ukrainian SSR and discrimination against Ukrainian literature.
Oleg Antonov was fond of painting, wrote poetry.
He died on April 4, 1984 in Kyiv. He was buried at Baikovo Cemetery.
Developments
Under the leadership of Antonov 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
For great success in the design of new aircraft and in connection with the 60th anniversary of his birth, Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on February 5, 1966 with the gold medal "Hammer and Sickle" and the Order of Lenin.
Three Orders of Lenin (12.7.1957, 5.2.1966, 3.4.1975)
Order of the October Revolution (April 26, 1971), Patriotic War 1st degree (July 2, 1945), Red Banner of Labor (November 2, 1944).
He was awarded various medals: "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 2nd degree (1944), "For valiant work in the Great Patriotic War of 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 of the second degree (1952) - for the An-2 aircraft
Lenin Prize (1962) - for the An-12 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.
A. N. Tupolev Gold Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1979).
Diploma of the Central Executive Committee for the creation of training and record gliders (1933).
Honorary citizen of Saratov (1981).
Memory
In Kyiv, a street was named after O.K. Antonov. There is a memorial plaque on the house where he lived. Also named after O.K. Antonov is a cargo airport.
Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich (1906-1984).
Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov was born on January 25 (February 7) in the village of Troitsa, Moscow province, in the noble family of Anna Efimovna and Konstantin Konstantinovich Antonov. His great-grandfather, Dmitry Antonov, was a Decembrist, close to Ryleev and the poet Volkov, and his grandfather Konstantin Antonov was associated with the leading artists of his time. Fearing obstacles in entering the institute, Antonov was forced to hide his noble origin.
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 has been of great service to me., he later wrote, - having taught 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. In 1924 he built his first glider "Dove", and presented it at competitions in the Crimea. For a successful design was awarded a diploma.
In his youth and student years, Antonov created: the glider "Dove", OKA-2, OKA-3, OKA-7, OKA-8; training gliders "Standard-1", "Standard-2"; record soaring glider OKA-6 "City of Lenin".
In 1930, after graduating from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. M. I. Kalinina Oleg Antonov worked as an engineer, and since 1931 - chief designer of the Moscow Glider Plant in Tushino. During his work, he created about 30 types of gliders, incl. serial training UPAR, US-3, US-4, BS-3, BS-4, BS-5; a series of gliders "Rot Front"; IP, RE, M, BA-1, A-1, A-2. On gliders of the "Rot-Front" series were achieved record ranges flight.
Since 1938, Oleg Antonov worked in the Design Bureau of A.S. Yakovlev. Today it is ASTC - a scientific and technical complex, the initial letters of which are inscribed on tens of thousands of machines now flying on all continents.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Antonov developed a number of landing gliders. In 1942, the A-40 glider he created was tested for the transfer of the T-60 light tank.
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 his work with 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 head a branch of Yakovlev's design bureau at an aircraft factory.
On May 31, 1946, the government of the USSR transformed the branch into a new design bureau. O.K.Antonov was appointed chief designer and entrusted him with the creation of an agricultural aircraft CX-1, known today throughout the world as 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 kinds 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 forest lands 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.Antonova 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 put into serial production at the Tashkent Aviation Plant.
Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich.
"Chicks" Antonov.
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List of sources:
V.D. Zakharchenko. Antonov.
A.N. Ponomarev. Sky Conquerors.
A.N. Ponomarev. Soviet aviation designers.
I.I. Shelest. Wing to wing.
Almanac " Great Russia. Personalities. Year 2003. Volume II.
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 Alexandrovna Bolotnikova, the daughter of a retired general, according to the memoirs of her contemporaries, a woman with a monstrously heavy character, tormenting 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 - everyone was fond of flying machines at the beginning of the last century. 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 the First World War began, 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 older 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 the educational institution could give. 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, warmly welcomed 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. AT as soon as possible 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 northern capital, where, to great joy, he was enrolled as a student of the ship faculty, hydroaviation department. In Leningrad, a huge number of duties and commitments literally fell upon the future designer. 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 also future constructor I 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 of a multi-storey 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 various models 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 teamwork. 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 has changed, the views of the new bosses on gliding, as mass view sports, 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 to the 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 went to 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 " Kindergarten"didn't 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 long time took antibiotics.
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.
Huge workload of office 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, considered 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 Ukraine and good friend Antonov family Dina Petrinenko often sang in their house. Nikolai Amosov said: “With 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 mismanagement and lack of " feedback"…. At the same time, Oleg seemed to keep everyone at a distance, even I could not completely overcome this for long years 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, hiking trips. 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 - it was always 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 for last 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 amazing ability 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 have developed anything other than an airplane, even a washing machine,” the designer replied smiling. 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 younger than husband for thirty one years. With former spouses Oleg Konstantinovich did not break off friendly and business ties. 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. characteristic feature of that era there was bureaucracy, and often the incompetence of the 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 formation 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. Great amount common 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"
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Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich - General Designer of Experimental Plant No. 473 of the Ministry of Aviation Industry of the USSR.
Born on January 25 (February 7), 1906 in the village of Troitsa, Voronovskaya volost, Podolsky district, Moscow province (now part of the Troitsky administrative district of Moscow). Russian. Since 1912 he lived in the city of Saratov. In 1922 he graduated from school.
Since 1923, he worked as the executive secretary of the glider section at the Saratov provincial department of the Society of Friends of the Air Fleet. Designed and built training gliders OKA-1 "Dove" and OKA-2.
In 1925, he entered the hydroaviation department of the naval faculty of the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, where he became secretary of the technical committee of the glider section of the Leningrad flying club. Designed and built training gliders OKA-3 and "Standard". In 1930 he graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute.
From January 1931 he was the head of the Central Bureau of Glider Designs of Osoaviakhim. Designed training gliders "Standard-2" (OKA-5), OKA-7, US-1 (OKA-8) and US-2 (OKA-9), soaring glider "City of Lenin".
In 1932-1938 he was the chief designer of the Tushino Glider Plant. In this position, he designed soaring gliders RF-5, RF-6, RF-7, training gliders US-3, US-4, US-5, US-6, PS-1, PS-2, BS-3, BS -4, BS-5, M-1, M-2, M-3, M-4, M-5, M-6, experimental gliders RE-1, RE-2, RE-3, RE-4, RE -5, RE-6, RF-1, RF-2, RF-3, RF-4, IP-1, IP-2, BA-1, "6 conditions" and DIP, experimental motor glider LEM-2.
In 1938-1940 he worked as a leading engineer in the design bureau of A.S. Yakovlev. Under his direct supervision, the Ya-19 passenger aircraft was developed.
In 1940-1941 he was the chief designer of the aircraft factory No. 23 (Leningrad, now St. Petersburg). He built the OKA-38 communications aircraft (a copy of the German Fieseler Fi-156 Storch aircraft). In the spring of 1941 he was appointed chief designer of an aircraft plant in the city of Kaunas (Lithuania), where he was supposed to establish serial production aircraft OKA-38. Work on the introduction of the aircraft into the series was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II.
In June-July 1941 - chief engineer of the Glider Directorate of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry of the USSR. From July 1941 - chief designer of a glider aircraft plant (Moscow, from the autumn of 1941 in the evacuation in the city of Tyumen). He designed and built the A-7 landing glider, the A-2 two-seat training glider, the A-40 "Winged Tank" glider (designed to transport a tank by air). The A-7 glider during the Great Patriotic War was widely used to supply partisans, for which O.K. Antonov was awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree.
In January 1943 - May 1946 - Deputy Chief Designer of the OKB A.S. Yakovleva. At the same time, in 1945-1946, he was the director of the OKB Branch at aircraft plant No. 153 (Novosibirsk). Participated in the modernization of the Yak-7, Yak-9 and Yak-3 fighters.
Since May 1946 - Chief Designer of the Experimental Design Bureau for Civil and Transport Aircraft in Novosibirsk. During these years, he designed the An-2, An-6 aircraft, the A-9 soaring glider, and the A-10 two-seat soaring glider. The An-2 multi-purpose aircraft, which made its first flight in 1947, became the best biplane in the world and is still flying.
In the summer of 1952, OKB Antonov was transferred to Kyiv and received the name OKB-473 (in 1965-1966 - Pilot plant No. 473, since April 1966 - Kyiv Mechanical Plant, currently - O.K.Antonov ASTC). In 1962, O.K.Antonov was appointed General Designer of the Design Bureau. During the years of his leadership in the design bureau, the following were designed and built: transport aircraft An-8, An-12, An-22 "Antey", An-26 and An-32; passenger aircraft An-10, An-14 "Bee" and An-24; jet transport aircraft An-72 and An-124 "Ruslan"; multi-purpose aircraft An-3 and An-28; gliders A-11, A-13 and A-15.
The An-22 "Antey" aircraft is still the world's most load-lifting turboprop aircraft (lifts up to 100 tons of cargo), and the An-124 "Ruslan" aircraft was for its time the most load-lifting jet aircraft (lifts up to 170 tons of cargo). On aircraft developed under the direct supervision of O.K.Antonov, 244 world aviation records were set. Among the advantages of OKB Antonov's aircraft, professionals recognize the possibility of taking off from small airfields, the ability to transport large heavy machinery, high maneuverability, relative cheapness and efficiency.
For great success in the design of new aviation technology and in connection with the 60th anniversary of the birth by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 5, 1966 Antonov Oleg Konstantinovich awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the gold medal "Hammer and Sickle" and the Order of Lenin.
Simultaneously with design work, since 1977 he was the head of the Department of Aircraft Design at the Kharkov Aviation Institute.
Member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine since 1960. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 5th-11th convocations (since 1958).
Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR since 1981, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR since 1967 (corresponding member since 1960), Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the Ukrainian SSR (1976), Doctor of Technical Sciences (1960), professor (1978).
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), medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st degree (08/31/1944), other medals, Polish orders of the Revival of Poland 3rd degree (197..) and Merit for Poland 3rd degree (03/04/1981).
Winner of the Lenin Prize (1962, for the creation of the An-12 aircraft), the Stalin Prize of the 2nd degree (1952, for the creation of the An-2 aircraft), the State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR (1976, for the creation of the An-24 aircraft). He was awarded the A.N. Tupolev Gold Medal of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1983).
In Kyiv, a memorial plaque was erected on the house where O.K.Antonov lived, and a monument was erected on the territory of the aviation scientific and technical complex that bears his name. Streets in Kyiv and Saratov, as well as the Central Aeroclub of Ukraine and schools in Kyiv and Saratov are named after him.
Compositions:
The simplest models of paper gliders. Saratov, 1924;
Why do we need gliders? Saratov, 1924;
The simplest model of a paper glider. M., 1925;
Why do we need gliders? 2nd edition. Saratov, 1925;
The theory of glider flight. M., 1933;
Technical description of airframes US-3 and PS-1. M., 1933;
Gliding - to the masses. M., 1933;
Technical description of airframes US-3 and PS-1. 2nd edition. M., 1934;
Technical description and operation of airframes US-4 and PS-2. M., 1936 (with A.Shashabrin);
Brief technical description and instructions for assembling and disassembling the US-6 airframe. M., 1938;
On wings made of wood and linen. M., 1962;
For everyone and for yourself. M., 1965;
Ten times first. M., 1969;
Ten times first (in Ukrainian). Kyiv, 1973;
Ten times first. 2nd edition. Kyiv, 1978;
Ten times first. 3rd edition. Kyiv, 1981;
Gliders and airplanes. Kyiv, 1990.