The brilliant aircraft designer Andrey Nikolayevich Tupolev was born in a small village in the Tver Governorate into a family of a provincial notary. He graduated from a gymnasium in Tver, then entered the Imperial Technical School, which under the Soviet regime became the Moscow Higher Technical School. There, he joined an aeronautical study group led by Professor Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky and fell in love with aviation for the rest of his life.
After the revolution, Tupolev was appointed head of the command accounting department of the control office of the Air Forces. He continued to collaborate with Zhukovsky and became his best student and assistant.
Tupolev headed the design bureau for all-metal aircraft construction and organized the production of the first Soviet aviation alloy — Duralumin-type alloy. He also developed his famous ANTs, which were used on all the great flights of the 1930s.
In 1934, the designer created the largest aircraft in the world at the time — the eight-engine ANT-20 Maxim Gorky.
In 1936, Chkalov, Baydukov, and Belyakov made a non-stop flight to the Far East on an ANT-25 aircraft. The photograph from the museum’s collection was taken shortly before they took off. A year later, the same crew performed another feat — the legendary non-stop flight through the North Pole to America, which lasted 63 hours and 16 minutes and made the Soviet pilots world-famous.
In 1937, despite everything that he had done for his homeland, Tupolev was accused of espionage and anti-Soviet agitation and arrested right in his office. In particular, the NKVD began to spread rumors that the new Messerschmitt fighter was made according to Tupolev’s design.
Fortunately, the aircraft designer was not executed, instead, he headed a secret Special Design Bureau set at Butyrka prison. There, Andrey Tupolev created the Tu-2 front-line bomber. Tupolev was released shortly after World War II started and was rehabilitated only 15 years later, in 1955.
That year, the first Soviet jet passenger aircraft Tu-104 had just been introduced. The next decade marked a new achievement: a demonstration flight of the Tu-144 supersonic passenger liner took place. It was the world’s first commercial supersonic transport aircraft.
After the revolution, Tupolev was appointed head of the command accounting department of the control office of the Air Forces. He continued to collaborate with Zhukovsky and became his best student and assistant.
Tupolev headed the design bureau for all-metal aircraft construction and organized the production of the first Soviet aviation alloy — Duralumin-type alloy. He also developed his famous ANTs, which were used on all the great flights of the 1930s.
In 1934, the designer created the largest aircraft in the world at the time — the eight-engine ANT-20 Maxim Gorky.
In 1936, Chkalov, Baydukov, and Belyakov made a non-stop flight to the Far East on an ANT-25 aircraft. The photograph from the museum’s collection was taken shortly before they took off. A year later, the same crew performed another feat — the legendary non-stop flight through the North Pole to America, which lasted 63 hours and 16 minutes and made the Soviet pilots world-famous.
In 1937, despite everything that he had done for his homeland, Tupolev was accused of espionage and anti-Soviet agitation and arrested right in his office. In particular, the NKVD began to spread rumors that the new Messerschmitt fighter was made according to Tupolev’s design.
Fortunately, the aircraft designer was not executed, instead, he headed a secret Special Design Bureau set at Butyrka prison. There, Andrey Tupolev created the Tu-2 front-line bomber. Tupolev was released shortly after World War II started and was rehabilitated only 15 years later, in 1955.
That year, the first Soviet jet passenger aircraft Tu-104 had just been introduced. The next decade marked a new achievement: a demonstration flight of the Tu-144 supersonic passenger liner took place. It was the world’s first commercial supersonic transport aircraft.
