Artem Mikoyan (aircraft designer): biography, photo

Soviet MiG fighters are known all over the world. Why are they so called and who is the aircraft designer who invented these planes? Artem Mikoyan (1905-1970) - Soviet aircraft designer, brother of the famous political figure of the USSR Anastas Mikoyan, - and engineer-aircraft designer Mikhail Gurevich are the creators of these fighters. And their name came from the merging of the first letters of the authors' surnames with the "I" union. In the article we will tell about the life and activity of the first of them. Readers will be interested to learn how the aircraft designer Artem Mikoyan became an aircraft designer.

History of life: childhood

In 1905 a boy was born in the remote mountain village of Sanahin, which was in the Borchalinsky district of the Tiflis province, part of the Russian Empire (today Sanahin is a district of the city of Alaverdi, Armenia), who was named Anushavan. His family was a large family: he was the youngest child of carpenter Hovhannes Nersesovich Mikoyan, who worked at a local copper smelter, and Talida Otarovny - housewives. In the child's upbringing, older children, in particular Brother Anastas, also participated in the future - a well-known political, party and statesman of the USSR. So, Mikoyan Artem Ivanovich - aircraft designer - spent his childhood in the mountains, where he liked to observe the flight of eagles that soared high in the sky. Somewhere at the age of 5 he helped the elder to herd goats and accompanied the herd to the mountains.

Education

Artem Mikoyan received his primary education at the village school of Sanain, which was located in the homonymous ancient Christian monastery, the center of Armenian culture in the region. After the sudden death of the father of the family, Talida Otarovna decided to identify the youngest son in a parish Armenian school in the city of Tiflis. He graduated in 1918. After that, he returned to his native village and, like his elder brother, was carried away by revolutionary activity, joined the ranks of the Komsomol and even was appointed head of the local Komsomol cell. A few years later, Anastas Mikoyan received the post of secretary of the Southeast Bureau of the Central Committee of the KP. Immediately after his appointment, he calls his younger brother to Rostov.

Work experience

Having moved to Russia, Artem Mikoyan entered the factory factory "Red Aksai", where he began to study as a turner, and then got a job at a local factory. Then he got into the railway workshops. For a while he perfected his skills, but realized that this could not be his vocation.

In short, Artem Mikoyan, whose biography is presented in this article, craved knowledge and, in order to receive them, decided to go to Moscow. Here he got a job at the Dynamo plant, the very first electrotechnical enterprise in the USSR. It was here that he changed his name Anushavan to Artem, and his patronymic Ovanesovich - to Ivanovich.

He was so carried away by his work that he did not even have time to enter any university. But at the plant he received a different, life-long education and gained valuable experience in all respects. In Moscow, Artem took a corner at the janitor and slept literally under the sink.

And at this time his older brother Anastas already held a high post in the government of the country, but the younger did not allow himself to apply to him with a request to provide him with housing. In their family it was not accepted: everyone aspired to independence and did not annoy requests to another. Artem only wrote to Anastas that he was in Moscow, got a job and everything was in order.

Military service

At the end of 1928 A. Mikoyan was drafted into the Red Army and sent to the city of Livny, and then, to his own pleasure, was sent to the Military Ivanovo-Voznesensk school in the city of Orel. After the end of his service, he was offered to stay at the school and get a military education, but he refused and returned to his previous studies. But this time already at the factory "Compressor".

Vocation

From this plant, he was already able to enter the Air Force Academy, named after N. Zhukovsky. At last he approached the dream of his childhood. During World War I, his French village made an emergency landing of a French aircraft. Village boys, including Anushavan, ran to look at the giant bird-car. Little Anush (as he was shortly called close) was fascinated to watch the French mechanic dig into the flying car, and even ventured to get close. And he, seeing the boy's burning eyes, called him closer and allowed him to look at the "insides" of the wonder bird.

Until he got to the Air Force Academy, the dream of airplanes did not leave him. And now he is already a student of the only educational institution in the country where you can learn the profession of aviation engineers. Being a third-year student of the academy, Artem Mikoyan was once again confirmed in his desire: the aircraft designer is that specialty that he wants to do all his life. In 1935, he passed industrial practice at the University of Kharkov. Here he was first included in the design bureau, and he was able to take part in the process of designing the aircraft, and the experimental model of KhAI-1.

Independent work: debut as a designer

Upon his return from Kharkov, Artem Mikoyan became interested in his own project - the manufacture of a new aircraft using the old aircraft engine, which was handed to him by the engineer Shitikov. Together with his friends Pavlov and Samarin, Artem designed a model of a sports flying apparatus. However, they could not go further than this since there was neither money nor equipment. But they presented the drawings of this aircraft to the All-Union competition held by Osoaviakhim. To the delight of the children, their project was recognized as the best, and in this connection the jury members decided to give the opportunity for young designers to build demonstrative copies of this flying machine.

Personal life

The late 30's was successful for Mikoyan, not only in terms of career, but also on a personal front. He met a beautiful girl Zoya Lisitsina at a birthday party with her friend Gevorg Avetisyan. Between them a sympathy began, which later grew into love. After his choice was approved by the family, Artem Oganesovich married Zoya Ivanovna, and then the young family was allocated a room in a communal apartment on Kirov Street. There, Talida Otarovna moved to live with them. Later in her memoirs Anastas Mikoyan wrote about her daughter-in-law that she perfectly blended with their Armenian family, was very kind and flexible, respected Armenian traditions. By the way, she was a TASS employee.

Further activities

A. Mikoyan after graduating from the university was sent as a research fellow to the design bureau. Its head became the famous aircraft designer Nikolai Polikarpov. He was already familiar with the modeled Mikoyan aircraft, which by that time had already been built, was called "Oktyabrank" and was used for training purposes in Osoaviakhim. He viewed Artyom as a promising aircraft designer and included him in the I-15 fighter working on the fighter.

Polikarpov soon realized that Mikoyan can be trusted not only by the process of improving existing models, but also by developing new ones. It was in this group that Artem Ivanovich met Gurevich, who later became a co-author of the world-famous MiGs. However, work on them began only after A. Mikoyan was appointed head of the design bureau of plant No. 1 Osoaviakhima. It was here that he was able to fully work on the implementation of their plans.

Artem Mikoyan: MiG is the best of the best

What he managed to create, was a real breakthrough in the history of Soviet aviation. The MiG-1 was the first aircraft ever to be tested to life-sized in a wind tunnel. And this meant that the flight test time can be reduced much, and the dynamics of aircraft - significantly improved. And all this was ascertained during the first flight. All testers came to the general opinion that this aircraft in its performance is superior to all previously existing. However, Artem Mikoyan - an aircraft designer (you see his photo in the article) - did not confine himself to the already created one and soon developed a more perfect model, which was named MiG-3. It was he who became the most massive aircraft in Soviet aviation.

The Great Patriotic War

Nevertheless, during the war it turned out that our MiGs are in some ways inferior to German aircraft. And then Mikoyan began to improve the aircraft he invented. In 1942, he already offers a more powerful model aircraft with an AM-29 engine. Despite the fact that it was recognized as the best, Mikoyan himself realized that piston aircraft have no future and they need to come up with something completely new. And then he came to the conclusion that Soviet aircraft needed jet engines. However, he managed to carry out this plan only after the end of the war, although their designs were made on hard military days. In 1946, he built the MiG-9 was the first serial jet fighter of the USSR.

In peacetime

In 1947, Mikoyan created another model, the MiG-15. Her tests were carried out in Korea during the fighting in 1950-1953. He was recognized as the best fighter of the 40s. And it was not only an improved engine, but also an arrow-shaped wing. A clear advantage of this aircraft was also the catapulted pilot's seat. For a long time, the MiG-15 remained the main aircraft of the USSR Air Force. He began to be called a "plane-soldier".

As a conclusion

Later years A. Mikoyan developed new and more advanced aircraft models. His name has become known all over the world. The last model developed by him was the MiG-21, although the MiG-25, created on the basis of its developments, set a world record in 1975, which has not yet been beaten. Artem Mikoyan resigned as a colonel-general. Twice he was awarded the title Hero of Socialist Labor. An outstanding aircraft designer died in December 1970. On the wall of the house where he lived, a memorial plaque was installed .