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The Soviet Union developed a major aviation industry. There were some efforts to establish a civil aviation industry, but it got no government support. In the end the Germans who were involved in the Rapollo Effort helped establish civil air connections--Deruluft (1921) using mostly Dutch and German aircraft. It was a small, but viable business, but cut terminated as a result of increasing Germany-Soviet tensions and the NKVD arrests of people associating with Germans (1937). The principal Soviet effort was oriented toward military aircraft. At about the same time Druluft was founded we begin to see what were called 'design bureaus' appearing. The most famous began with recent university graduate Andrey Tupolev and his professor, Nikolay Zhukovsky Zhukovsky, founded the Central Aero Hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) (1921). Tupolev headed the aviation department. They developed wind tunnels. Tuoolov also championed the idea of replacing wood with duralumin (one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminum alloys). We are not sure how much aluminum was a available in the Soviet Union. Nor so we know if the price mechanism was still in operation or how the design bureaus were affected by Lenin's New Economic Policy. The next year Tupolov founded the Tupolev design bureau (OKB Tupolev/OKB-156. It got off to a slow start, but would eventually create over 300 different design, about 100 of which were actually built, some 70 in serial production. This included the Tu–95, Tu-160, Tu-154 and Tu-144. Tupolov's aircraft would set more than 78 world records. [Singh] Tupolev wasn't the only design bureau active in the early Soviet Union. Aleksandr Sergeyevich Yakovlev designed and built the AIR-1, a two-seat light biplane. The first occurred t (1927) The AIR-1 prototype was fitted with an ADC Cirrus engine. and the improved AIR-2 was developed. The AIR-3. a two-seat monoplane, appeared (1929). Yakovlev design bureau would eventually produce the famous YAK fighters. Stalin was not interested in civil aviation and when he had real power (late-1920s), important financing became available to Soviet design bureaus. From this point, Soviet aviation was oriented strongly toward military aviation and innovative aircraft appeared in the Soviet Union. Then the aircraft industry got caught in the cross hairs of Stalin's horrific Great Terror (1934-38). This included the purges of the Soviet military, including the Red Air Force. And the reason that the Red Air Force was so ineffective when the NAZIs attacked were the arrest of many senior Red Air Force commanders during the purges. We also notice a large number of obsolete aircraft types. We are not sure why this was, but we suspect that surviving commanders did not want to draw attention to large numbers of obsolete types. Another reason was the arrest of several top designers during the purges. So in the critical years while the Germans were developing modern aircraft, top Soviet designers languished in the Gulag. Actually they had a good chance of surviving because special camps were created for useful scientists and technicians. Stalin had little respect for intellectuals and was suspicious of scientists. He believed they were lazy and undisciplined and worked best (most productively) under pressure (fear) and close supervision. One notable novel provides a fictionalized description of this part of the Gulag. [Solzhenitsyn] ] Those designers who were not arrested were unwilling to take chances with innovative designs. We suspect that another part of this is related to why Soviet industry proved so inefficient in comparison to Western industry. Another factor was Stalin's purges which decimated the leadership of the Red Air Force. This meant that the Red Air Force was poorly led when the Luftwaffe attacked. And as a result, at the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union had the world's largest air force. The Luftwaffe, however, dominated the skies over the great battles of Operation Barbarossa. Much of the Red Air Force was caught on the ground because Stalin was afraid of provoking Hitler. As a result, modern aircraft was high on the list of needs requested through Lend Lease. The Soviets produced planes from American designs using American-furnished tooling in factories evacuated to the east of the Ural Mountains. The Soviets had many competent designers and as a result of the War they were allowed greater freedom to innovate. Fighters from the Yakovlev and Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) design bureaus proved to be highly effective and were reaching the front in large numbers (1944). They were mass-produced in part because of large quantities of aluminum supplied by America through Lend Lease.
Experiments with aviation began with theoretical projects (1880s). Prominant scientists were Nikolai Kibalchich and Alexander Mozhaisky. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky continued their work (1890s). Nikolai Zhukovsky set up the world's first Aerodynamic Institute in Kachino near Moscow (1904). The Imperial Russian Air Force (Императорскiй военно-воздушный флотъ) was founded as part of the engineering branch of the Army (1910). The Imperial Russian Army purchased French planes and began training the first military pilots. Preliminary experiments with synchronised machine guns were carried out before the war in different countries. An early Russian gear was designed by a Lieutenant Poplavko. The history of military aviation in Russia is strongly associated with Igor Sikorsky. He built the first "giant" plane just before the outbreak of World War I (1913). It was a four-engine plane--the Russky Vityaz, and his famous bomber aircraft, the Ilya Muromets., These were the forerunner of the multiengine strategic bombers. Dmitry Grigorovich built “flying boats” for the Imperial Russian Navy (1913). Russian aviators conducted the first flights in the Arctic, a challenge in the primitive planes then availavlke (914). They were looking for polar explorer Georgy Sedov's lost expedition. Russi entered World War I second in aize only to France. Many of the Russian planes were bought in France and older models. The Russians used aplanes for reconnaissance and coordination of artillery fire and were slower than the ermans to equip planes for combsat. A squadron of Sikorsky's Ilya Muromets bombers was deployed and used to attavk German and Austro-Hungarian military targets (December 1914). Pyotr Nesterov conducted the first aerial suicide attack. Russia's leading fighter ace was Aleksandr Kazakov, who shot down 32 enemy planes. The Imperial Russian Air Force was made became a separate branch of the army directly under command of the Stavka (commander-in-chief's HQ) (1915). Russian aircraft prodction coukld not keepo up with the Germans as the military reverses began to affect the economy. The Russians produced about 5,000 planes in contrast to 45,000 in Germany. Of course the Germans could deploy only a fraction of their production on the Eastern Front. Sikorsky produced an advanced four-engine bomber called Alexander Nevsky (1916). He was unable to massd produce it, however, with the onset of the Revolution and the collapse of the Russian economy (1917). He emigrated to the United States (1919).
The Soviet Union developed a major aviation industry. There were some efforts to establish a civil aviation industry, but it got no government support. In the end the Germans who were involved in the Rapollo Effort helped establish civil air connections--Deruluft (1921) using mostly Dutch and German aircraft. It was a small, but viable business, but cut terminated as a result of increasing Germany-Soviet tensions and the NKVD arrests of people associating with Germans (1937). Soviet autorities founded a their own airline--the Volunteer Association of the Aerial Fleet (Dobrolet). It began regular air service with Junkers F-13 flights beteen Moscow and Nizhnii Novgorod (1923). The passengers faced a real challenge. They faced cold weather and droaning noisy engines. Dobrolet gradully eventully reaching into the eastern area, Outer Mongolia and Siberia. As Stalinism took hold, Communist officials wanted full control. Dobrolet was merged with the Main Administration of the Civil Air Fleet into one staten airline--which would called Aeroflot. [Singh] The principal Soviet effort, however, was oriented toward military aircraft.
At about the same time Druluft was founded we begin to see what were called 'design bureaus' appearing. The most famous began with recent university graduate Andrey Tupolev and his professor, Nikolay Zhukovsky Zhukovsky, founded the Central Aero Hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) (1921). Tupolev headed the aviation department. They developed wind tunnels. Tuoolov also championed the idea of replacing wood with duralumin (one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminum alloys). We are not sure how much aluminum was a available in the Soviet Union. Nor do we know if the price mechanism was still in operation or how the design bureaus were affected by Lenin's New Economic Policy. The next year Tupolov founded the Tupolev design bureau (OKB Tupolev/OKB-156. It got off to a slow start, but would eventually create over 300 different design, about 100 of which were actually built, some 70 in serial production. This included the Tu–95, Tu-160, Tu-154 and Tu-144. Tupolov's aircraft would set more than 78 world records. [Singh] Tupolev wasn't the only design bureau active in the early Soviet Union. Boris Ivanovich Cheranovsky began testing tailless flying wing gliders (1924). The BICh-3 was the first flying wing aircradt (1926). [Shavrov, p. 431.] Aleksandr Sergeyevich Yakovlev designed and built the AIR-1, a two-seat light biplane. The first occurred (1927). The AIR-1 prototype was fitted with an ADC Cirrus engine. and the improved AIR-2 was developed. The AIR-3. a two-seat monoplane, appeared (1929). Yakovlev design bureau would eventually produce the famous YAK fighters. Aleksandr Moskalev created futuristic designs for a delta-wing fighter (1933). A propeller prototype flew in 1936, but in the days befire jets, Moskalev was thinking about a rocket engine.
Stalin was not interested in civil aviation and when he had real power (late-1920s), important financing became available to Soviet design bureaus. The Soviet Union began a massive military build up. Stalin was interested in technology and industry. And a vast sums of money were devoted to bulding up the Soviet military, including the Red Air Force. This created enormous oipportunities for Soviet avization designrts and techniciams, but it was not the wisewst of career moves. Stalin's interest meant that he ws losely following results. And if Soviet reserch groups did not produce the desired results--which were virtually unachievanle, there were drastic consequences. Many would be arrested and shot others incliding mny liminries while not shot would find themelves in the Gulag. From this point, Soviet aviation was oriented strongly toward military aviation and innovative aircraft appeared in the Soviet Union. Stalin believed that the Soviet Union was surounded by hostile capitalist countries. It is true that the capitlist West was hostile, partly because the Soviet Union was engaged in hostile acts and espionage and suppoorting revolutionary activities. After the Civil War (1919-21) there was no miltary threat from the West. The threat would come from another socialist totlitarian regime--National Socialist Germany. Hitler like Stalin begn a massiuve militay build up in violation of the Versailles Peace Treaty. As poart of the military build up, advamvds in aviatiion and innovative aircraft behan to be develooped in the Siviet Union. Much of these declopments were largeky unknown outside the Soviet Uniin. Until Stalin suprrised Amnerica by sending one of TUpelov's creations, Antonov-25 on a an unannounced 5,200 mile flight across the North Pole to America. Ot wa the first non-stopo dlight from Moscows to America. It created a media sensation. The pilot, Valery Chkalov, met wuith Shirley Temple, President Roosevelt, and Gem Marshall. There was public talk of peace, Chkalov spoke of peace mentioning how the 'mighty Columbia and Volga Rivers both flow peacefully into the same world ocean'. Behind the scenes, however, the implications were serious for President Roosevelt and the American military. America was no longr untouchable behind great oaceans. [Patterson] Chkalov would die less thn a year later testing a new Soviet fighter. One aviation nhistorian claims that the flight saved thg expensive Anerican B-17 proigram. [Kerevan] Russian interest in rocketry dates back to the work of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1902). The Soviets after the Revolutio set up an secret program to worke in rocket propulsion Rocket Scientific Reserach Institute (RNII) (1933). A central figure was Sergey Korilov who would head the Soviet space program after World War II. Korilov was arrested and sent to a severe Gulag camp in Siberia and was only reserved by the intervention of Tupolov. Tupolov at the time had also been arrested, but from his prison factory he did what he could to rescue as many other NKVD victims as possible. [Kerevan] Many other RNII researchers were shot and the projects mostly abandoned. some oroigress wa made on poickt propulsion, but Stalin eventually closed the porigram down to focus resources in aircraft that were immediatateky iseful on he battlefield (1944). While work on rocketry, Soviet design teams began working on jet engimes (1930s. They began with ram jets which led them into the pure jet. Ram jets can not serve to power aircraft dir the simole reason that a plane needs to at high speed before ram jets can operate. Here thy were a dacade ahead of reserchers in the West, especially the Americans. The primary advicate for jet aircraft in the Sobiet Unioin was Red Arny chief Mikhail Tukhachevsky. [Harrison, p. 15.] His innovtive ideas fell into dusrepute after Stalin irdered him arrested and shot. Jet reserach did continue. Artem Mikoyan is commonlyb seen as the father of the Siviet jet engine. The effort proved more complicated tha anticipated. The primary problem was the intense temperatures genated in a jet engine mean that advanced steel allpuys were needed which were unobtainabkle in the Siviet Unioin. The Germans had the same opriblem with their jets whivh could be only flown a few hours before thy had to be replaced. The Sioviet Union dis not solve this problem until after the War andby secretly stealing WSrestern technology. The advances in jet propulsion were made by Mikoyan & Gurevich design bureau which produced the MIG aircraft. They dusguised some of theiur wirk froim Stalin who soured on jet reserach durung the War--a brave step in the Soviet Union. The Siviets jets like the MIG-15 are often zttruibuted to the Germans scientists captured by the NKVD andforced to work in the Soviet Union. This must hve hlped, but it is not clear to what extent. .
Then the aircraft industry got caught in the cross hairs of Stalin's horrific Great Terror (1934-38). This included the purges of the Soviet military, including the Red Air Force. And the reason that the Red Air Force was so ineffective when the NAZIs attacked were the arrest of many senior Red Air Force commanders during the purges. We also notice a large number of obsolete aircraft types. We are not sure why this was, but we suspect that surviving commanders did not want to draw attention to large numbers of obsolete types. Another reason was the arrest of several top designers, including Tupolev, during the purges (1937). They were arrested, amd tortured. Many were summarily shot. Tupolev was commited to th Gulag. Part of the charges against him was tht the Ant 24 flight to America had been a ruse to deliver secret technology to the Americans. He was saved in 1939 when he and other who had not been shot were trasferred to one of the speciual camps for scientists (1939). So in the critical years while the Germans were developing modern aircraft, top Soviet designers languished in the Gulag. Actually they had a good chance of surviving because special camps were created for useful scientists and technicians. Stalin had little respect for intellectuals and was suspicious of scientists. He believed they were lazy and undisciplined and worked best (most productively) under pressure (fear) and close supervision. [Kerevan] Not only was personal fear a factor, but therir families were alo in danger. One notable novel provides a fictionalized description of this part of the Gulag. [Solzhenitsyn] They were not released until Hitler launched the Barbarossa invaion of the Soviet Union (June 1941).
Those designers who were not arrested were unwilling to take chances with innovative designs. We suspect that another part of this is related to why Soviet industry proved so inefficient in comparison to Western industry. Another factor was Stalin's purges which decimated the leadership of the Red Air Force. This meant that the Red Air Force was poorly led when the Luftwaffe attacked.
The Soviet Union unlike the democracies came to the aid if the Reoublic in the Spnaish Civil War. Mist of the Republic's aircraft came from the Soviet Union. Soviet fighter for the first time appear outside the Soviet Union. Stalin rushed fighters to Spain. Some 475 were poromised although oinly 276 were delivered. Stalin demnded and got payment in gold. The I-16 was a ingle-engine single-seat fighter aircraft of revolutionary design. It was the world's first low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear to become operational. It was the poroduct of one of the Soviet Union's prison aircraft factories--State Aircraft Factory No. 39 near Moscow. The dsesigners were two of the Soviet Unions's most talented aeronautical engineers. Dmitri Grigorovich had created the flying boats used by the Tsar's Navy in World War I. Mikolai Polikarpov had succeeded Igor Sikorsky after he fled the Bolsheviks. He led the prodyctioin of Ilya Muromets bombers at the Russo-Baltic Railcar Factory. Polikarpov had designed Polivarpov Po-2 biplane. Stalin demanded a superior Soviet fighter for the Air Force (1927). After 2-years with no fighetr in sight, both designers were arrested and ordered to develop a fighter from their new prison factoiry under NKVD supervision (1929). The result was faster than any other fighter and scored some early victories, but was soon overwhealmed by the German Me-109 in performance. The purges and arrest of Red Army officers may also have been a factor. There were also mome structural issues which were corrected. An improved version of the I-26 wa close to the Me-109 in performnce, but it arrived in small munbers and air superiority had been lost to the Germans and Italians. [Dwyer] We are mot sure to what degree pilot training and tactical doctrine were factors.
At the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union had the world's largest air force. The Luftwaffe, however, dominated the skies over the great battles of Operation Barbarossa. Much of the Red Air Force was caught on the ground because Stalin was afraid of provoing Hitler (june 1941). The huge Air Force as a result was largely destroyed and for nearly 2 years the Red rmy fought the Germans with little or no ait support. Sovits cities, like Stalingrad, were heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe. The one saving grace was that becuse the Red Air Force was largelkty destoyed on the ground, most of the pilots survived the German onslaught. Aircraft factories were among the industrial plants evacuated east.
As a result, modern aircraft was high on the list of needs requested through Lend Lease. The Soviets produced planes from American designs using American-furnished tooling in factories evacuated to the east of the Ural Mountains. The Soviets had many competent designers and as a result of the War they were allowed greater freedom to innovate. Fighters from the Yakovlev and Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) design bureaus proved to be highly effective and were reaching the front in large numbers (1944). A major problem for the Soviets was the limited prodyction of aluminum. They were mass-produced in part because of large quantities of aluminum supplied by America through Lend Lease. American Lend Lease also provided instrumentation dor Soviet aircfraft. Soviet intrumentatioin s both primitive and unrelaiable.
Dwyer, Larry. "Polikarpov I-16," The Aviation History On-Line Museum. (January 20, 1998).
Harrison, Mark. "The Soviet Market for inventions: The case of jet propulsion, 1932 to 1944," Warwick Economic Reserch Papers No 605 (2001).
Kerevan, George, In "Secret Russian Aircraft of WW II" (2005).
Patterson, Dan. "Russian aviators' accidental 1937 landing in Washington State," BBC Workd Srvice (January 31, 2014). The flight wsas not accidental, it was apprived by Stalin. The landing n Wagingto state was accidental.
Shavrov, V.B. History of Aircraft Construction in the USSR Vol. 1.
Singh, Sumit. "The early history of the Soviet aviation industry," Simple Flying webite (July 8, 2021).
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr. First Circle (1968). A more complete version of the book was published in English in 2009.
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