Konstantin Alekseevich Kalinin

Konstantin Alekseevich Kalinin was an outstanding Soviet aircraft designer and pilot, born on January 24 (February 5) in 1887 [not in 1889] in Warsaw to a military family. Thanks to his parents, he was able to get a good education, first home, then he went to a real school and a teacher's seminary. In 1907, after the death of his mother, KA Kalinin joined the 184th Warsaw Infantry Regiment, and in 1909 brilliantly passed exams at the Odessa Military School.

With the outbreak of the Great War in July 1914 KA Kalinin was transferred to Kronstadt and sent to the artillery unit. Since March 23, 1916 KA Kalinin is a cadet of the Gatchina Military Aviation School. From October 1916 he was a military pilot of the 26th Corps Squadron of the Ninth Army, from November 1916 - the Chief of the Squadron, and in December he was the commander of the detachment.

At the end of the military aviation school had the following certification: "The character is balanced, calm, determined, noble." Excellent mental ability, quickly grasps and assimilates everything new.He is able to assess the situation and quickly choose the right decision.In his decisions it is firm, consistent and logical and practically to the service in aviation, to which he is devoted and who knows and loves. He is very fond of comrades, he is strict with the lower ranks, he is fair and accessible, he understands people quickly and rarely makes mistakes in them. strict, fair and authoritative boss. He loves to fly and flies perfectly, boldly, thoughtfully, carefully and beautifully. When performing combat missions, he is extremely persistent, moderately cautious, cool and brave. Is capable of fighting in very difficult conditions. Has organizational skills and will be able to breathe people into cheerfulness and desire to work. It is very desirable as a squad leader. "Everything that was said subsequently was fully confirmed, and the remarkable features of the subject subsequently received a new development.

After the October Revolution of 1917 KA Kalinin took his detachment to the East. In December 1918, he was appointed Director by the commander of the Volynsky Air Division of the UPR Army, later received the rank of captain, and from January 1919 became an inspector of the Kiev region.

During the Civil War, the pilot Kalinin could not escape the service of the Petliurists. Once, after seeing the Jewish pogrom in Proskurov (now Khmelnytsky) that the haydamaks had committed, aviators, mechanics and conscious security men occupied a large part of the city where the Jews lived, and rebuffed the bandits. After some time, K.A. Kalinin managed to leave the Petliurists and get to Moscow.

In June 1920, Konstantin Alekseevich from the Vozduhoflot reserve was transferred to the Moscow Aviation Technical School, created by Professor N.E. Zhukovsky, who was immediately enrolled in the second year after passing the exams for the first year. At the end of the year the technical school is transformed into an institute, and then to the Air Force Academy named after N.Ye. Zhukovsky.

Here an ordinary listener organizes a flying circle and teaches comrades flights. But in mid-November 1922, during an unreasonable purge, Konstantin Alekseevich was dismissed with a remarkable formulation - as "a former officer and an intellectual." From that moment on, he is on the blacklists forbidding the excluded verification commissions to enter the educational institutions of the RSFSR. To receive the diploma of the academy, he only had to pass a few credits. Kalinin had a hard time experiencing an exception from the academy.

In 1925, Konstantin Alexeyevich graduated with brilliance from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, defending the graduation project of the K-1 passenger aircraft, which was taken into mass production after the state tests.

In 1926 he organized and headed the aviation design bureau in Kharkov. Under his leadership, passenger aircraft K-4 and K-5, which served in the 30's. Russian airlines, as well as a number of experimental aircraft (K-8, postal, K-9, with folding wings, K-10, connected), including one of the largest in those years aircraft: 7-engine K-7. In 1937 - the world's first "tailless" bomber K-12, which was the prototype of modern supersonic aircraft. A characteristic feature of his aircraft was the elliptical shape of the wing and horizontal tail plane.

When A.N. Tupolev offered Kalinin to go to America for a license to manufacture aircraft of the firm "Douglas" in the Soviet Union, he replied: "We must make domestic aircraft!"

In the period 1922 - 1938 K . A . Kalinin was created 11 aircraft designs. Some of them were built in series, and those in several versions, while others were experimental and made its contribution to the refinement of rational structures for the production of samples or to check the original technical solutions.

K-1 - experimental passenger plane, was built in 1925 at the repair - aviation plant #6 in Kiev. Its design and construction are typical for passenger planes Kalinin . This podkosny vysokoplan with wing elliptical shape in plan, a motor, a closed cabin crew and non - retractable landing gear. The construction is mixed , wooden - metal. The plane successfully passed the test. To further develop the work Kalinin and his family moved to Kharkov, then the capital of the Ukrainian SSR, and began to work at the aviation plant as an aircraft designer. K-2 was created in 1927 , according to the scheme is similar to the K - 1 but all - metal construction ( in the order of the experiment, which was not continued ) and with a more powerful engine. It was built in several copies.

In 1927, K-3 was created - an airplane intended for the carriage of two bed patients, on stretchers and one accompanying person. The first airplane of this type in the country.

K-4 was a multipurpose aircraft, created in 1928. Built 22 instance in passenger, sanitary and aerofoto embodiments with engines BMW-IV , Junkers L.5 and M-6. In 1929 the pilot M.A.Snegirev navigator T.Spirin and mechanic In. Keglevich performed on the plane K-4 "Chervona Ukraine " complex for that time of the flight length of more than ten thousands km (with landings).

In 1928-1929 he designed the construction of passenger aircraft K-5. From 1930 to 1934, 296 K-5 aircraft were produced in various modifications. K-5 were the main Aeroflot aircraft on domestic routes until 1940 and continued to be used as a transport aircraft during the Great Patriotic War. For the creation of these aircraft, Konstantin Kalinin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Ukrainian SSR. The K-5 since 1929 for a long time became the most extensive passenger plane of domestic production. Individual machines of this type survived their creator much and flew to the end of the War.

The passenger airplane K-5 (Designer KA Kalinin-Yu.U.) became one of the main passenger aircraft in the Soviet Union in the 30s. It was created in Kharkov in KA Kalinin Design Bureau simultaneously with the creation of the PS-9 aircraft (Designer AN Tupolev-Yu.U.), without any "pomp" and "hype". Both planes performed the same useful work - they transported eight passengers at a speed of 170-180 km / h, at a distance of up to 750 km, but the K-5 carried it out with one M-17 engine, PS-9 used two engines M-17, which made it less profitable. As a result, in the mass production of the Union, about 260 K-5 and only 70 PS-9 aircraft were built. The reason was that Tupolev's plane was heavier than K-5 by 55%.

In 1930, the K-6 was created - a mail plane, according to the scheme, a scaled parasol with a wing, feathers, chassis and some other knots from the K-5. Delivered from Moscow to Kharkov matrix of the newspaper "Pravda". Serially not built.

In 1930, the K-9 was created, and in 1932 the K-10 was built. The aircraft were intended for use as light communication, agricultural, sports, training aircraft. These were were not built in series.

In 1933, the K-7 was built - a heavy seven-engine bomber of a two-beam scheme, one of the largest aircraft of its time. The heyday of the Kalinin school was in 1933, when in a record time under his leadership a giant seven-kilometer K-7 aircraft was created according to a scheme as close as possible to the flying or, as the author said, the "inhabited" wing. The car was built in just nine months at the Kharkov aircraft factory. At the final stage of the factory tests, the aircraft crashed. It was planned to build two more K-7s at the aviation plant in Voronezh, where the Kalinin Design Bureau was transferred in 1934, but these works were not completed.

In 1936, the K-12 was created - the bomber of the "tailless" scheme. Keels with rudders of direction were located at the ends of the wing, and controls for roll and pitch - along the trailing edge of the wing. The characteristics of stability and control were previously studied on a specially constructed glider of a similar scheme. The plane was built in several copies.

K-13 - bomber - midplane with biplane horizontal and two vertical tails, was created in 1937. Chassis was retractable. The plane was tested in flight, but in connection with the arrest of Kalinin in 1938 the work was stopped.

Konstantin Alekseevich Kalinin gave a wide and diverse creative scope to the whole team and every person. Kalinin was loved and deeply respected, his authority in the collective was unshakable. It was enough for him to give the assignment and people worked for days and nights. None of the main designers of those years had such creative glow in a small, experienced material difficulties, the team.

With the K-7, which suffered a catastrophe in November 1933, there was a similarly rapid and undeserved drop in the prestige of its creators. Together with the K-7, then a whole school of aircraft construction was lost. The first and only failure, as noted by the emergency commission, which occurred not through the fault of the CB, it was enough that his many years of successful activity was questioned.

Kalinin did not make loud statements about his patriotism, adherence to the new system of life, did not give public oaths of fidelity at solemn meetings and mass events. His attitude is used to express actions and deeds. The clouds began to thicken after the completion of the construction and the K-7 disaster.

At the height of the summer of 1936 Kalinin suffered yet another misfortune. The collective of the Design Bureau was disbanded, and several designers were transferred to Podlipki near Moscow, supposedly for finishing K-12. A year later, this aircraft, decorated with "Firebird", was shown at the traditional Tushino parade, the aircraft was included in the plan of the pilot aircraft construction for 1938 and even allocated a plant for it. But the miracle did not happen.

Although Kalinin repeatedly tried to prove the need for a machine of this type, he could not break the confrontation with his project. The K-7 aircraft entered the history of the world aviation as a bold step, since similar aircraft at that time did not exist in any country in the world. They appeared only during the Second World War, showing how far-sighted was the design of the outstanding Soviet aircraft designer Konstantin Kalinin and his associates.

After the February plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) in 1937, a wave of repression covered the defense industry. In the industry, an action plan was prepared to "expose and prevent sabotage and espionage." On April 1, 1938, in Kaliningrad, Kalinin was arrested. The charge was standard for 1937-1938 - "anti-Soviet activities and espionage." October 22, 1938 at a closed session of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, Konstantin Kalinin was accused of anti-Soviet activities and espionage and sentenced to be shot. On October 22, Konstantin Alekseevich was shot. Who "tuned" the denunciation to him, it is not known to this day.

Kalinin was rehabilitated on August 10, 1955. In the name of Konstantin Kalinin, asteroid No. 3347 is named. Kalinin's death in the years of Stalinist repressions of one of the remarkable representatives of the country's technical elite was, undoubtedly, reflected in the development of domestic aviation.