Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich

Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich was born on February 6 (January 25, old style) in 1883 in Kiev in an intelligent labor family. His father, Pavel Dmitrievich, a great-nephew of the famous Russian writer Dmitry Vasilievich Grigorovich, first served in a sugar factory, later - in the quartermaster of the military department. Mother, Yadviga Konstantinovna, was the daughter of a rural doctor. Since childhood, Dmitri showed interest in exact disciplines, loved to make. Therefore, when the question arose of where to go to study, the parents sent their son to the Kiev real school.

As stated in the statute of this institution, it "provided general education adapted to practical needs, with in-depth study of a number of exact sciences." Mandatory were two European languages ??- German and French. Much more hours were devoted to subjects of the natural cycle and exact sciences than in classical gymnasiums. Quite a lot of lessons were devoted to practical training in workshops and laboratories.

Graduates of a real school had the right to enroll in polytechnic institutes and classical universities, albeit in physics, mathematics and medical faculties. Naturally, after graduating from a real school in 1902, Dmitry Grigorovich chose for his further education the mechanical department of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute of Emperor Alexander II.

Despite the fact that the institute created in 1898 did not yet have a fully equipped training base, its leadership managed to assemble a very strong research and teaching staff. Moreover, in the KPI it was obligatory to attract students to active scientific and practical activities. The basis of its steel scientific and technical circles. This prompted future engineers to self-deepen knowledge in the most modern industries, instilled a taste for search and design work, and formed a scientific and technical thinking culture. It was the participants of the KPI circles who became the real pioneers in the development of new types of equipment.

One of these centers of student creativity, in which almost from the first days of its establishment, Dmitry Grigorovich actively participated, was the Aeronautical Circle KPI, founded in 1905. It was supervised by Nikolai Borisovich Delone, a student of Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky, a professor of mechanics. Members of the circle listened to N.Delone’s lectures on the basics of aeronautics, they themselves performed with reports and reports and, most importantly, were actively engaged in the design and manufacture of their own aircraft. After some time, the KPI Aeronautical Circle actually began to play the role of the first technical training and research center of the aviation technical profile in the south of the Russian Empire (another powerful aviation center was established in St. Petersburg). For several years, the people of Kiev have created about 40 new designs of aircraft. Indeed, it was not for nothing that many members of the circle later became well-known aircraft designers, and some of them gained great fame.

Before the end of the KPI, Dmitry went to the Belgian city of Liege, where he attended two semesters at one of the institutes, studying aerodynamics and engine theory. “Since 1909,” wrote N. Suknevich, the wife of Dmitry Pavlovich, “when Dmitry graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, we were both passionate about aviation. Our room was littered with mechanical parts, engine components, various parts. Not far from the Polytechnic Institute on the Kurenevsky airfield, he removes the shed and adapts it to the hangar. Next hangar another polytechnic - Igor Sikorsky. Dmitry made the first lightweight sports biplane G-1 with the Anzani engine with a capacity of 25 horsepower from bamboo, which he tested on January 10, 1910. "

The next work of D. Grigorovich was an airplane built according to a scheme that inherited the design of the French Bleriot XI aircraft, also with the Anzani engine, but with its own control system and chassis design. It was built by Grigorovich together with the Kiev motor sport amateur Ilnitsky. Financial assistance Ilnitsky was enough to complete work on a new airplane and demonstrate it at the Kiev exhibition of aeronautics. The aircraft attracted the general attention of aviation specialists and amateurs. The magazine "Automobile and aeronautics" called it the best design of the exhibition.

Fedor Tereshchenko, a descendant of a wealthy merchant family, one of the initiators of the KPI and its sponsors, became interested in the development of Dmitry Grigorovich. Tereshchenko also studied at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute and dreamed of becoming an aviator. His passion for aviation was so strong that in his estate in the village of Chervonoye, Berdichevsky district, he even equipped an aircraft workshop and airfield. Fyodor Tereshchenko proposed to Grigorovich to cooperate. Soon two of their sport airplanes appeared - the G-2 and the G-3. The designer and the main performer of all the works was Dmitry Grigorovich, the patron of the arts was Fyodor Tereshchenko. Later, Fedor Tereshchenko became one of the first Russian pilots; during the revolutionary events he emigrated abroad and died in Paris in 1950.

Back in the years of study at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, Grigorovich became interested in the idea of ??creating a seaplane and even began to make his drawings. But Kiev, where in the beginning of the 20s of the last century only land aviation was rapidly developing, could not be the place where Grigorovich's dream came true. Therefore, in 1911, Dmitry Grigorovich went to St. Petersburg - the then capital of the Russian Empire. But he didn't manage to start working as an engineer at a new place. He got a job as a journalist in the popular science journal "Bulletin of the ballooning". It was in 1911 that the famous work of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's Study of World Spaces with Jet Instruments was published in this journal.

Attracted attention and publications D. Grigorovich. One of the first he appreciated the possibility of using aviation for military purposes: “... a modern airplane is no longer a toy, but a powerful and always ready means of communication, reconnaissance and even combat, and for modern military affairs it is as necessary as infantry, cavalry or artillery ". These lines were written the same year when the official magazine of the Imperial Russian Automobile Society “Automobile” magazine published the following: “Aviation is now a fashionable toy, very interesting, but which occupies a position far from ordinary, and the future role of aviation is so vague and hazy. that arguing for it in the name of progress is probably not worth it. ” At that time, even prominent statesmen and military authorities not only in Russia were ambiguous about aviation;

Dreaming of returning to practical work, Grigorovich was not limited to purely theoretical studies and journalistic activities. He flew one of his planes from Kiev to St. Petersburg and carried out several successful flights there at the Commandant airfield. They were witnessed by a well-known aviation amateur, Sergei Schetinin, the founder of the first in the Russian Empire aircraft building plant called “The First Russian Aeronautical Partnership of the SS Shchetinin and Co.”. Over time, Schetinin invited a young engineer to work, to the position of manager and technical director of the plant.

After reviewing the state of affairs at the plant, Dmitry Grigorovich proposed to create new aircraft designs, which at that time were very necessary for the military industry of the empire. The case, which in a short time completely changed the profile of the enterprise, and Dmitry Grigorovich led to the first row of Russian and world aircraft designers, helped the successful implementation of this intention.

Once, the head of the naval aviation of the Baltic Fleet, the captain of the second rank Dmitry Alexandrov, addressed the plant management with a request to repair the Donne-Levek military seaplane damaged in training flights. At Schetinin they became interested in the device, and Dmitry Grigorovich, together with the head of the drawing bureau Sedelnikov, suggested repairing the plane and at the same time making its drawings and setting up production of such devices at the factory.

During this work, the idea was born to create a hydroplane, but with the introduction of fundamental changes in its design as compared with Donne-Leveque. D. Grigorovich proposed to install the aircraft not on the float, necessary for take-off and landing on water, but to design a “flying boat” that could simultaneously play the role of the fuselage and landing elements of the land plane.

The new design, called M-1 (“Sea-first”), has surpassed all expectations of specialists. The body of the aircraft was a whole meter shorter than that of Donna-Leveque, and the wing profile provided significantly better aerodynamic characteristics. The car first took to the air on June 1, 1914 - two months before the start of the Great War.

Almost immediately, the designer began working on the creation of a new boat, in which the shortcomings of both Donna-Leveque and M-1 would be taken into account. It was already a completely original car, which was named M-2. For the first time, a special slipway was used on it, on which the hull was located with the keel upwards, which provided convenience during the operations of its assembly and fine-tuning.

There was no general theoretical justification for the design of hydroplanes capable of operating in two environments - air and water, at that time. The total effect of hydraulic and gas effects on them was far from always foreseen. Therefore, the problems, now and then arising before the developers of such equipment, had to be solved literally on the move by accumulating theoretical and practical experience.

The following development was really successful - the two-seater flying boat M-5, the tests of which ended in April 1915. In it, the designer managed to find the best ratio of engine power (100 hp.), Wing area (37.96 sq. M), take-off weight (960 kg) and drag. Famous pilot George Friede, who flew on the M-5 under all the bridges on the Neva River, described the hydroplane as outstanding. The device possessed excellent seaworthiness, on tests exceeded some characteristics recorded in the technical specifications. For example, instead of the recorded 275 kilograms of cargo, it took 300 kg, the maximum height was gained not in ten minutes, but in three and a half.

Immediately after the flight tests, the aircraft was commissioned by the Baltic and Black Sea fleets. The release of seaplanes of this type lasted until 1923. This is a high figure for that time, because the structures then replaced each other for several months. Moreover, the M-5 fairly quickly squeezed out of the domestic naval aviation overseas vehicles and became one of the two main types of flying boats that were widely used by the Russian army for military purposes.

The next successful brainchild of Grigorovich was the double sea reconnaissance bomber M-9, which since the beginning of 1916 was launched into the series and was produced until 1924. With an engine of 150 liters. with. This machine developed a speed higher than many of the fighters of that time, perfectly kept on the water at a storm of four points, which allowed it to be used in the open sea. Thanks to the concave redan, the plane could land and even take off from the snow. M-9 had excellent aerodynamic qualities. With this development, D. Grigorovich proved to the aviation world that a flying boat may have less drag and weight than a land plane.

In September 1916, this was vividly confirmed by an outstanding pilot of the first generation of aviators, Lieutenant Jan Nagursky. He was the first in the world to make two loops in a row on a flying boat. No one succeeded in repeating Nesterov’s loop on flying boats of other designs.

Armed with a machine gun, and later an automatic cannon with a 37 mm caliber of Shishmarev and four pound bombs, the M-9 became the leading naval aircraft of the Russian army in the Baltic and Black Sea theaters of the First World War. He brilliantly established himself not only as a naval intelligence officer, but also as a bomber. It should be noted that due to the successful design and combat qualities of this machine, she became interested in the countries - allies of Russia. Several samples of M-9 were purchased by the United States, and the United Kingdom purchased its drawings and technical documentation.

The year 1916 turned out to be extremely fruitful for Dmitry Grigorovich and for his team. One after another of the shops of the plant out new aircraft. The most noticeable trace in the history of aviation was left by the fastest at the time in the world, an armored flying fighter boat M-11, a naval reconnaissance M-15, a special “winter” two-float seaplane M-16 (pilots also called it Zimnyak) long-range maritime reconnaissance bomber and mine setter MK-1 (“Sea cruiser”).

In the same year, Dmitry Grigorovich, together with the head of the design bureau of the Shchetinin plant, Mikhail Shishmarev, began to design a hydroplane called GASN - “Special Airplane”. It was the world's first naval torpedo bomber, capable of carrying and dropping a torpedo in the direction of an enemy ship. Since the seaplane was planned to hang the torpedo, it was designed according to a two-float biplane scheme with a cabin on the center wing section of the lower wing. Torpedo was fixed between the floats. The hydroplane could carry a payload of almost one and a half tons (1,450 kg). His first test flight on August 24, 1917 showed that the aircraft had excellent seaworthiness and controllability on water, but its refinement due to new circumstances was resumed in very different conditions.

The successful activity of the Schetinin plant in the field of hydroaviation led to an increase in the plant's productivity of up to 30–40 cars per month. The number of employees also increased significantly: if at the time when D. Grigorovich first came to the factory, only 120 people worked there, then by the beginning of 1917 there were already more than two thousand workers and engineers.

It should be noted that both the personal features of Grigorovich and his unique knowledge and skills acquired in the KPI contributed to the high rate of creation of new and new designs. Like other outstanding designers of aviation and rocket and space technology, who studied at KPI (Sikorsky, Mikulin, Kalinin, Lyulka, Lyulyev, Korolev, Chelomey), he had not only deep fundamental training. Grigorovich knew the production perfectly well; he could replace any worker, draftsman or engineer. His colleagues said that Dmitry Pavlovich personally drew not only a general view, but also working drawings of individual components and parts of airplanes, worked on calculating the strength and weight of their structures, could not only lead workers, but also, if necessary, show how to properly manage the tool.

This mobilized his colleagues and colleagues for new achievements. Therefore, in parallel with the work at the plant of S. Shchetinin, on June 1, 1917, Grigorovich founded his own research aircraft building plant called “DP Grigorovich”. At this enterprise, Dmitry Pavlovich designs, tests and prepares several more machine designs for serial production. These were flying boats M-17, M-18, M-19, M-20 and M-21 belonging to the class of "amphibious aircraft". They could take off from land and sit on the water. The aircraft also performed the functions of counter-agents, which provided for their very high speed and other aerodynamic characteristics.

The revolutionary events of 1917-1918 interrupted Dmitry Grigorovich's quick pace in the aircraft industry. In March 1918, his plant was nationalized and redeveloped to produce agricultural equipment. According to some reports, in those days he received an invitation to go abroad, but remained in his homeland. The enterprise of S. Shchetinin was also reorganized into the State Aviation Plant "Red Pilot".

Trying to survive and save his loved ones, D. Grigorovich began to work in the Main Committee of the United Aviation Plants (Golovkoavia) - the leading body of aircraft engineering. However, he did not work there for long: during the famine in Petrograd, Grigorovich and his family moved to Kiev, then to Odessa, then went to Taganrog. In Taganrog, he worked at an aviation factory, whose main profile was the repair of aircraft and engines. On the initiative of Grigorovich, outside of all sorts of orders and plans, the MK-1 sea float fighter (Rybka) was built there. Dmitry Pavlovich took direct participation in its design and production. Soon the order for "Rybka" was transferred to the plant "Red Pilot", and Grigorovich was able to return to Petrograd.

On the "Red Pilot", in addition to introducing the new aircraft into production, Grigorovich completed work on the GASN sea torpedo bomber, which had been half forgotten in the factory yard since 1917. The hydroplane was repaired, some changes were made to its structure, and in the summer of 1920 test flights began.

In connection with the receipt of an order for the design of a new naval reconnaissance aircraft in mid-1922, Grigorovich moved to Moscow, where he was appointed Technical Director and Head of the Design Bureau of the State Aviation Plant No. 1 (GAZ 1), the former Dux Aircraft Factory. In this position, Grigorovich replaced another well-known aviation specialist, Nikolai Polikarpov, who was transferred to the Golovkoavia design department.

The company built a new Soviet R-1 reconnaissance aircraft for a 400-liter engine. with. The aircraft was designed on the basis of the captured English car DN-9 (De Hevilend). Before joining the enterprise of D. Grigorovich, the stipulated dates were broken, the work did not go well. Perseverance, knowledge of the case and organizational skills of Grigorovich accelerated the revival of production and ensured the operational solution of dozens of large and small tasks. Already on June 29, 1923, after the successful tests of the Air Force, the first two R-1 aircraft were handed over. And after a while, the plant produced 38 such machines every month.

In addition, the design team of the company worked hard on another order - the creation of a domestic fighter. They became a biplane I-2 with an M-5 engine in 400 liters. pp., developed under the leadership of D. Grigorovich and put into service in early 1925. It was a wooden plane with wings of a small sweep, in which some constructive solutions found during the work on the previous version of the I-1 (Fighter One) were further developed. Thanks to the appearance of the I-2 by order of the USSR Revolutionary Military Council signed by M. Frunze, the fighters of foreign brands in April 1925 were removed from the arsenal of the Red Army.

But the fine-tuning and design support of the I-2 fighter D. Grigorovich had to be engaged already in Leningrad. At the beginning of 1925, Dmitry Pavlovich was again transferred to the Krasny Pilot plant (later - State Aviation Plant No. 23), where Aviatrest created the country's first Department of Marine Research Aeronautical Engineering. He was assigned to be headed by D.Grigorovich, the most famous designer of flying boats in the country. The circle closed, and Grigorovich returned to the company, which began his brilliant career.

In a short time, under the leadership of Dmitry Grigorovich, a number of projects and research samples of naval reconnaissance aircraft were prepared: MRL-1 (“Marine reconnaissance with Liberty engine”), its subsequent modifications - MR-2, MP-3, training aircraft MUR-1, MU -2 ("Marine Training with the engine" Ron "and" Marine Training "); ROM-1, ROM-2, ROM-2bis ("Scout of the open sea"), two-float, two-tail naval destroyer under two MM-1 tandem engines ("Marine minononset"), MT-1 ("Sea torpedo carrier" ).

Unfortunately, due to some design flaws, incomplete compliance with customer requirements, and sometimes because of overt intrigues in the aviation industry, most of these machines did not reach mass production.

The chain of certain failures coincided in time with the start of the campaign launched against the old specialists, that is, people who had been formed before the revolution and working in the national economy of the USSR. It was on them that the state leadership blamed for the lag in the pace of industrial development. “Upstairs” did not pay attention to the fact that plans for the development, introduction and manufacture of new equipment, which were sent to enterprises, often did not take into account the realities of the then economy - the lack of qualified personnel, the wear and tear and obsolescence of the machine park. The pursuit of “socially alien” quickly gained momentum. Special commissions "on the elimination of sabotage" were created at each defensive enterprise.

The first loud lawsuits against the "bourgeois experts" were the Shakhty affair and the Industrial Party affair. On September 1, 1928, the turn reached Grigorovich. He was arrested in his office, accused of sabotage and sent to Butyrka prison. Following him, he was arrested by his comrades - A. Sedelnikov, E. Maioranov, V. Corvin-Kerber, who worked with him in the "First Russian Aeronautical Partnership of S.S. Shchetinin and K °". Soon, a wave of arrests of aviation specialists swept through other defense industry enterprises.

Meanwhile, in the spring of 1928, the USSR government adopted the “Plan for the construction of armed forces for the future five-year plan”. It proclaimed that the main task of the military-political leadership is the achievement of two goals: “... in numbers, not inferior to the main enemies; according to the technique, to be stronger than them in the decisive types of weapons, namely, in the air fleet, artillery and tanks ”. Therefore, the leadership of the OGPU decided to use the imprisoned specialists in their direct specialties. The Deputy Chairman of the OGPU, Heinrich Yagoda, defended this idea, and was entrusted with the task of overseeing the first prison design bureau.

They established a design bureau in December 1929 directly in the Butyrskaya prison, having equipped two cameras with drawing accessories. Dmitry Grigorovich was appointed Chief Designer of the Special Design Bureau (this name was given to him), Nikolai Polikarpov, who was arrested on charges of participating in a counter-revolutionary organization, was appointed his deputy. Prisoners who were enrolled in the OKB were improved in conditions of detention — they increased their nutritional standards, more often they were taken to the bathhouse and were allowed to see their relatives. Immediately after the formation of the design bureau, he was visited by the Deputy Chief of the Air Force, Y. Alksnis, and set the task: by the spring of 1930, to design a fighter, the characteristics of which would be no worse than those of the best foreign analogues.

Over time, the group of Grigorovich was transferred to the territory of the aviation plant them. Menzhinsky (GAZ number 39), located near the Central airport. In his memoirs, another famous Soviet aircraft designer Alexander Yakovlev, who received at the end of the Air Force Academy. Zhukovsky was assigned to this plant, he wrote: "They lived and worked in the mysterious" Seventh Hangar ", adapted to the internal prison." The guards divided this hangar into two parts: in one there was a living area, in the other - working premises.

In just three months, the prisoners designers and engineers have developed a model of the future fighter. They spent even less time on the construction of his research sample - a month, and on April 29, 1930, he was first tested in the air. Later, the world saw two more aircraft of this design - "Klim Voroshilov" and "Present to the XVI Party Congress." They differed in engines and shape of the fairings on the hood and chassis.

In terms of high maneuverability and good payload, the fighter at that time was one of the best in the world. The armament of its base samples consisted of two machine guns PV-1 with 1200 rounds of ammunition. Later on these machines installed four machine guns and hung 40 kilograms of bombs. Horizontal speed - 278 km / h - by that time was considered very good. Its first name, BT-5 (BT meant “inner prison”), was changed over time. The plane received the cipher I-5, and before the end of the tests it was launched into a series. After taking it into service until 1939, over 800 machines of this type were released. Some of them were used at the beginning of the Second World War.

The success of the I-5 fighter inspired the leadership of the OGPU to expand the network of Special Design Bureaus, or, as they were called, sharashki. And the OKB D. Grigorovich received the following order - to develop a whole range of combat aircraft. Among them was a heavy sea bomber. True, his design sketch and did other design teams. Among them was a group led by the little-known “red Italian” Robert Bartini. He proposed a forty-ton supergiant project using the original catamaran scheme. It was enough just one word from the recognized designer of the seaplanes Grigorovich, who then really needed the state commission to accept his project, and Bartini’s bold proposal would be rejected. But the decency of Dmitry Pavlovich did not allow him to bend one another. Even for their own salvation.

Soon the staff of the OKB Grigorovich was expanded to 300 people at the expense of freelance specialists, and under the new name of the Central Design Bureau (Central Design Bureau) it was introduced into the technical department of the OGPU Economic Department. The mode of detention of prisoners of the Central Clinical Hospital was relaxed. And on July 10, 1931, Dmitry Grigorovich received long-awaited freedom. In those days, Pravda newspaper published the Resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee: “... Amnesty ... Grigorovich Dmitry Pavlovich, Chief Designer for Research Aircraft Building, who repented of his previous actions and hard work, proved in practice his repentance. To award him with a diploma of the CEC of the USSR and a cash premium of 10,000 rubles. ”

After his release, Dmitry Grigorovich remained to work in his Central Design Bureau. At that time, there were carried out searches and research of the best schemes of light and heavy attack aircraft, developed cannon fighter monoplanes I-Z and PI (factory code DG-52), armed with recoilless cannons and machine guns, which were produced in large series.

Dmitry Pavlovich combined his work with the Central Clinical Hospital with teaching and research at the Moscow Aviation Institute, where he headed the Department of Aircraft Design and Design. Talented designers of aviation and anti-aircraft missile technology began to emerge from his school, among whom was the future outstanding designer, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences Peter Grushin. Grigorovich and his students were among the first to begin using special alloy steel and alloys for building aircraft, which made it possible to maintain the strength of aircraft structures even at supersonic speeds. Using this approach, Dmitry Pavlovich designed and built a plane with a record range, called the Stal-MAI.

In the spring of 1938, Grigorovich was given a new position - the head of the newly organized design bureau in Novosibirsk. But he could not go to Siberia - he became seriously ill and on July 26 of the same year, at the age of 56, died of blood cancer. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

The result of D. Grigorovich’s life was 80 types of designed airplanes, of which almost four dozen were built serially, a powerful school of talented students, creators of aviation and space technology, and brilliant design solutions that are considered to be classic in aircraft engineering to this day. The portrait in the memorial gallery of outstanding graduates of the KPI and the exposition in the State Polytechnic Museum of the University convey to modern polytechnic students the memory of the great achievements and victories of their glorious predecessor.