Academician Mikulin biography. Mikulin Alexander Alexandrovich. Biographical note. Mikulin about harmful foods

At the very end of Volodarsky Gory Street. Vladimir stood a particularly unremarkable one-story wooden house with seven windows along the facade. In the 90s of the XIX century, a mechanical engineer, factory inspector Mikulin lived here. On February 2, 1895, his son Alexander was born. He graduated from a real school in Kyiv. Seeing demonstration flights of one of the first Russian aviators S.I. Utochkin, Mikulin became interested in aviation. In 1912, he entered the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, where he listened to lectures by the outstanding scientist "father of Russian aviation", to whom Mikulin was a maternal nephew. There he independently builds his first single-cylinder piston engine. Due to lack of funds, Mikulin was unable to complete his studies. Then he moved to Riga and entered the Russian-Baltic Plant in Riga, where at that time they tried to make the first domestic aircraft engines, and worked first as a fitter, shaper, and then as an assistant to the head of the assembly department.
In 1914, Mikulin moved to Moscow, where he entered the Moscow Higher Technical School (MVTU), which he graduated in 1921, but at the same time, a number of publications indicate that the first and only diploma of graduation from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy was awarded on his 55th birthday in 1950 alone in recognition of scientific achievement.
In 1915, together with Zhukovsky, he took part in the development of the Tsar Tank.
During his studies, Mikulin participated in the creation of the country's first aerodynamic laboratory, his colleagues at work and study were A.N. Tupolev, V.P. Vetchinkin, B.S. Stechkin, B.N. Yuriev, A.A. Arkhangelsk. While studying, Mikulin and Stechkin created a 300 horsepower two-stroke engine in which fuel was to be supplied directly to the cylinders. This principle of fuel supply was subsequently applied to all piston engines.
Since 1923 - a draftsman-designer at the Scientific Automotive Institute, since 1925 - chief designer this institute. The first design work was the NAMI-100 automobile engine. And then Mikulin began to create the first domestic aircraft engines, one of which - a 12-cylinder V-shaped engine, created in 1928, in 1933 received the name AM-34 and was put into serial production.
The creation of the AM-34 was a breakthrough for the Soviet aircraft engine industry. This engine was made at the world level. AM-34s were installed on the ANT-25 aircraft by A.N. Tupolev, who flew over the North Pole 8 United States of America, on the giant aircraft "Maxim Gorky", as well as on the TB-3 and TB-7 bombers. The successful design of the AM-34 made it possible to make it the base engine for modifications installed in various types of aircraft.
In 1930-1936 A.A. Mikulin worked at the P.I. Baranov, at that time the only organization where the scientific and design forces of aviation engine building were concentrated. Since 1936 - chief designer of the Moscow Aircraft Engine Plant named after M.V. Frunze.
In 1935-1955, simultaneously with a huge employment in design and production work, he taught at the Moscow Higher Technical School named after N.E. Bauman and at the Air Force Engineering Academy of the Red Army.
In 1939 A.A. Mikulin created the AM-35A engine, which at an altitude of 6000 m developed a power of about 880 kW (1200 horsepower). It was installed on fighters designed by A.I. Mikoyan and Pe-8 bombers.
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 28, 1940 for outstanding achievements in the field of creating new types of weapons that increase defense power Soviet Union, Alexander Alexandrovich Mikulin was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.

Mikulin Alexander Alexandrovich

During the Great Patriotic War A.A. Mikulin supervised the creation of powerful AM-38, AM-38F and AM-42 engines for Il-2 and Il-10 attack aircraft, GAM-35F engines for torpedo boats and river armored boats.
Since 1943 A.A. Mikulin was appointed General Designer of Aircraft Engines and Chief Designer of Experimental Aircraft Engine Plant No. 300 in Moscow. He owns a number of new ideas in engine building: he introduced the regulation of superchargers with rotary blades, two-speed superchargers, high boost and air cooling in front of carburetors; developed the first Soviet turbocharger and variable pitch propeller.

The newspaper "Prizyv" September 28, 1945 published a photograph of the house number 12 on the street. Volodarsky and under it the signature: “In the picture: a house on the street. Volodarsky (Vladimir), where the Hero of Socialist Labor A. Mikulin lived. The father of Russian aviation N. Zhukovsky often came to this house.

In 1943 A.A. Mikulin was elected an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, bypassing the level of a corresponding member. Paradox - while Mikulin had only an average technical education. A diploma of graduation from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy was awarded to him only in 1950 in recognition of scientific achievements.

In the post-war period, under the leadership of A.A. Mikulin created the TKRD-1 engine (the first turbocompressor jet engine) with a thrust of 3780 kgf (1947), then engines were developed according to his scheme, which for a long time remained the most powerful in the heavy bomber and passenger jet aviation of the USSR.
Following him, powerful turbojet engines AM-1, AM-2, AM-3 were created (the latter successfully worked for many years on the Tu-104 aircraft), as well as turbojet engines for Mikoyan fighters and intelligence officers A.S. Yakovlev. In total, in 1943-1955, under the leadership of A.A. Mikulin created dozens of types of aircraft engines, of which 8 were put into mass production.
The outstanding activity of the largest Soviet designer of aircraft engines came to an abrupt end in 1955. After the removal from the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR G.M. Malenkov, who highly appreciated the activities of A.A. Mikulin, Minister of Aviation Industry P.V. Dementiev decided to get rid of him. Mikulin was not only removed from the post of chief designer, he was generally removed from work in the aviation industry. An old comrade and colleague of Mikulin, Academician B.S. Stechkin hired Mikulin as a researcher at the engine laboratory of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he worked until 1959.
In retirement, Mikulin remained the same restless and creative person that he always was. He took up the problems of maintaining health, proposed a number of new ideas, some of which were used in the sanatorium treatment of patients. When the Ministry of Health refused to publish Mikulin's book on medical topics, the academician entered a medical institute at the age of 76 and in 1975 passed the state exams "with excellent marks". The following year, he defended his Ph.D. thesis in medicine based on a book he had prepared. Then it was published under the title "Active Longevity". I experienced all my medical ideas on myself, and having in the middle of my life big problems with health, managed to strengthen his body and reach the 90-year milestone.
He died on May 13, 1985, at the age of 91. Buried in Moscow Novodevichy cemetery(section No. 7).

Awards and prizes:
- Hero of Socialist Labor (10/28/1940)
- Stalin Prize of the first degree (1941) - for the development of a new aircraft engine design
- Stalin Prize of the first degree (1942) - for the development of a new design of an aircraft engine
- Stalin Prize of the second degree (1943) - for the improvement of an aircraft engine
- Stalin Prize of the second degree (1946) - for the creation of a new model of an aircraft engine and for a radical improvement of an existing aircraft engine.
- three Orders of Lenin (10/28/1940; 07/02/1945; 01/24/1947)
- Order of Suvorov, I degree (09/16/1945)
- Order of Suvorov II degree (08/19/1944)
- three orders of the Red Banner of Labor (07/10/1943; 06/10/1945; 02/14/1975)
- Order of Friendship of Peoples (02/14/1985)
- Order of the Red Star (02/21/1933)
- Order of the Badge of Honor (08/13/1936)
- medal "For Military Merit" (11/05/1954)
- other medals.

Memory:
A memorial plaque was installed on the territory of the Open Joint Stock Company Aviamotor Scientific and Technical Complex Soyuz, on the facade of the former plant management.

In literature:
Mikulin (under the name "Aleksey Nikolaevich Berezhkov") became the main character of Alexander Beck's novel "Talent (Berezhkov's Life)" (1956), based on which a four-part series was released in 1977. Feature Film"Talent".
L. L. Lazarev’s fiction-documentary story “Rise” (M.: Profizdat, 1978) is dedicated to his life.

Activities in alternative medicine: After a heart attack, A. A. Mikulin developed an original healing system, which he described in the book Active Longevity (my system for combating old age). In this system, engineering analogies are drawn between the structure of the human body and technical devices. Witty ways of air ionization, human grounding and vibro-gymnastics are proposed. Mikulin's system was criticized by representatives of classical medicine.
- On January 9, 1959, he made a report "On the role of ions in the life and longevity of people" at the House of Scientists of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Proceedings:
- Mikulin A. A. Active longevity (my system of dealing with old age) - M .: Physical culture and sport. 1977, (reissued in 2006).

Book A. A. Mikulin "Active longevity" close-up appears before the audience of the 1982 Soviet comedy "Magicians" at the 121st minute of the film. In this scene, a negative character, a researcher at the Scientific Universal Institute of Extraordinary Services (NUINU) Sataneev, is seriously concerned about the problem of rejuvenation, using all available means at hand, including this book.

Alexander Bolotin, Yakov Entis

A. A. Mikulin

In 1943, Alexander Alexandrovich Mikulin, an outstanding designer of domestic engines, who did not even have a diploma from a higher educational institution, was recognized by the most famous scientists of our Saran, who by secret ballot elected him a full member of the Academy of Sciences. General designers of aircraft and engines A. N. Tupolev and V. Ya. Klimov were awarded the same honor after 10 years, S. V. Ilyushin, A. I. Mikoyan and A. M. Lyulka - after 25 years, A. S. Yakovlev - after 33 years. And only in the summer of 1950, at the age of 55, A. A. Mikulin received a diploma of graduation from the Zhukovsky Academy - unity: the fifth official document confirming his profession and not a cancer engineer.

He was a designer by the grace of God, an outstanding organizer, one of the creators of the aviation power of our state. A. A. Mikulin made a huge contribution to equipping domestic aircraft with first-class aircraft engines. This work can hardly be overestimated.

Alexander Mikulin began to deal with engines from his youth: while studying at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, he made a motor with his own hands - then still a boat. Soon his uncle N. E. Zhukovsky helped him move to Moscow to study at the Moscow Higher Technical School. Here, the young student begins to work actively in the circle of Professor Zhukovsky, together with subsequently known designers and scientists, among whom were A. N. Tupolev, A. A. Arkhangelsky, B. N. Yuryev, B. S. Stech-KIN, by the way, also the nephew of Nikolai Yegorovich. Together with Stechkin, he designed and built in Moscow the original two-stroke engine AMBS-1, which was large for those times with a power of 300 hp. With, unusual scheme, without crankshaft, with direct fuel injection. The scheme turned out to be difficult to fine-tune, and work was stopped.

Mikulin tried his hand at various fields. In particular, he designed a tank. In 1917, he worked in the commission for the construction of the KOMPAS snowmobile at the newly created TsAGI. In 1921, Alexander Alexandrovich was invited as a designer to the newly organized department of aircraft engines of the Scientific Automotive Institute. He participated in the design of several engines and soon became NAMI's chief designer for aircraft engines. Here he actively participated in the creation of several projects. So, in 1925 - 1927. the design of a number of advanced aircraft TB-I, R-5, I-3 and others was launched, mainly for water-cooled engines. At that time, we did not have our own serial engines, and in order to free ourselves from import dependence, we decided to start producing the best foreign models under licenses. To study the experience of foreign engine building, purchase of technologies and equipment in the borders Western Europe sent a group of specialists. In Germany, a license was acquired from BMW for the production of V-shaped 12-cylinder, high-altitude (re-sized) BMW-VI engines, which we called M-17.

Mikulin visited England (Rolls-Royce factories), France (Ispapo-Suiza), Italy (Fiat) and some other factories. Upon his return, he began to develop a high-power aircraft engine of an original design, which later received the designation M-34.

M-17 engines in various modifications were installed on the TB-1 and TB-3 bombers, the best R-5 reconnaissance aircraft at that time, the I-3 fighter, the R-6 multi-purpose aircraft, passenger and transport aircraft, MDR-2 flying boats and many others. . The motors were in production from 1931 to 1934, they remained in operation until 1943.

Aircraft engine M-17

However, despite the successful development of the M-17 and M-22 engines in mass production, it was essential to create a more powerful domestic engine. Numerous developments of experimental powerful motors in NAMI, CIAM and at factories made it possible to accumulate invaluable experience, for a number of reasons they were not introduced into production. The only exception was the M-34 engine, on the project of which Mikulin continued to work after moving to

1930 at CIAM (Central Institute of Aviation Motors).

The dimensions of the cylinder of the designed motor were the same as those of the M-17 motor - the cylinder diameter was 160, the piston stroke was 190 mm, which was to a certain extent determined by the desire to use the machine park available in the production of the M-17 motor. The mounting locations of the new motor were made the same as those of the M-17, based on interchangeability when installing a plane.

In March 1931, the development of the drawings was completed. The production base of CIAM was still in the organization stage, and therefore the manufacture of the first two motors was entrusted to plant No. 26, taking into account the machine tools of which the motor was designed. In April 1931, the drawings were handed over to the plant, and already in September, the first motor was received by CIAM for finishing tests. Bench state tests were successfully completed in November

The water-cooled M-34 engine, 12-cylinder, V-shaped, was low-altitude and had a rated power of 750 hp. With. The design of the motor was subordinated to the idea of ​​rigidity, which was ensured by the block design of the cylinders of the original scheme with a compressed jacket and sleeves unloaded from axial forces and a power circuit for connecting the head blocks to the crankcase on long anchor studs. The motor had other design features, in particular, central connecting rods (this ensured equal piston strokes in both blocks), oil-cooled exhaust valves, and a four-valve cylinder head.

Many components and parts, of course, were buried by fine-tuning, but in the end the engine was successfully tested on TB-3 and R-5 aircraft and put into mass production at the Nb 24 plant named after. M. V. Frunze (now the Salyut plant). The fuel for the M-34, as well as for the engines M-17, M-22 and M-15, was a mixture of benzene with gasoline in different proportions.

A significant drawback of the M-34 engine was the lack of a gearbox, which, with its high power and high rotation frequency, led to a decrease in the efficiency of the propeller and a corresponding deterioration in some of the aircraft's flight characteristics. In TsIAM for the M-34, a gearbox designed by V. A. Dollezhal was developed, with which 9 motors were built in July 1932 for fine-tuning and testing. In May 1933, the geared motor, which received the designation M-34R, was tested and at the end of the same year it was put into series. Motors M-34 and M-34R in 1933 - 1935 installed on TB-3 aircraft, experimental ANT-42 (TB-7) aircraft, which were later called Pe-8, as well as on the record ANT-25 (RD) aircraft, on which in 1934 - 1937 gt. outstanding flights were made and a number of distance records were set by the crews of Gromov and Chkalov. On the basis of the M-34 engine, CIAM developed its marine version for torpedo boats designed by A. N. Tupolev. This motor was designated GM-34, had a reverb gear (transmission for forward and reverse) designed by V. M. Yakovlev. GM-34 passed state tests in 1934 and was successfully operated on the above-mentioned boats until the very Fatherland of the hi war and during it.

In 1935, further developments on motors of the M-34 type were transferred from CIAM to serial plant No. 24, and in 1936 A. A. Mikulin himself was appointed chief designer. KB was also created there.

Soon, in 1936 - 1937, a more powerful and high-altitude M-E4FRN motor with a gearbox and driven centrifugal injection was produced, which had a valet power of 1000 - 1100 hp. With. (in various modifications) and nominal 900 - 1000 l. With. at altitudes of 3 - 4 km.

M-34R engine

Based on the M-34FRN, AM-35 engines with a takeoff power of 1350 hp were developed. With. and an altitude of about 4.5 km and its variant AM-35A for Pe-8 with an altitude of 6 km. The engine has been significantly changed. In connection with the increase in power and speed, many components have been strengthened (crankshaft, gearbox, crankcase, oil system), the suction scheme has been changed - the carburetor is placed after the driven centrifugal supercharger (CSP), the supercharger itself has been radically redesigned. On the motors of the AM-35 series (and on the latest modifications of the M-34FRN), the design of the connecting rods was changed: instead of the forked (central) connecting rods used on the M-34, the main and trailing connecting rods were installed. Since, when using a trailed connecting rod, the stroke of the pistons in the series of piston rods with the trailed connecting rod is greater than in the series with the main connecting rods, the working volume of the cylinders has also changed somewhat - upwards. As a result, the right block had a piston stroke of not 190, but 196.77 mm, and the working volume increased from 45.8 liters to 46.66 liters. This required changes in the crankcase, blocks and some other nodes.

A fundamental change was made to the monitoring station: at the exit, instead of a simple throttle valve Polikovsky's blades were supplied. When the motor was throttled at a height below the calculated one, flow stalls occurred at the inlet part of the impeller. The Polikovsky blades directed the flow at the impeller inlet in such a way that the stall losses decreased, the efficiency of the monitoring station increased and the air heating in the monitoring station decreased; The power consumed by the monitoring station also decreased. As a result, the power of the motor itself increased the more, the higher the altitude of the motor. So, for the AM-35A, this gain was about 80 hp. s, and for AM-38 with low altitude - about 50 liters. With.

The AM-35 engine was installed on the Il-2 prototype - the experimental attack aircraft S V. Ilyushin BSh-2 (1938 -

1939), and the AM-35A engine with an altitude of 6000 m - on A.I. Mikoyan's fighters MiG-I and MiG-3. At the end

1940 AM-35A launched in a large series and well mastered. Recall that before the removal of the MiG-3 from production at the end of 1941, about 3,500 MiG-1 and MiG-3 aircraft were delivered.

However, the use of AM-35 on Il-2 attack aircraft showed that its power at low altitudes (at which attack aircraft operate) is insufficient, and high altitude is not needed at all. Based on the AM-35, Toshcha created a special AM-38 engine for the Il-2 with a lower altitude to 1650 m and increased to 1600 hp. With. takeoff and up to 1500 l. With. rated power.

Engine AM-38F

The use of AM-38 on the Il-2 made it possible to increase speed, maneuverability and combat load. The aircraft was put into production in the summer of 1941. It was necessary to significantly increase the production of motors. It was incredibly difficult to do this due to the evacuation of the aviation industry enterprises (including the plant that made the AM-35A and AM-38). And the stormtroopers were needed by the bleeding army like air, like bread. To provide Il-2 engines, a difficult decision was made - to remove the MiG-3, AM-35A from production and concentrate the efforts of the serial plant and Mikulin Design Bureau on the M-38 and its development.

The AM-38 motor differed from the AM-35A:

His crankcase was reinforced due to increased loads;

Another gearbox was supplied with a gear ratio of 0.732 (instead of 0.902 for AM-35A) to ensure optimal operation of the propeller for IL-2;

Slightly reduced compression ratio (6.8 instead of 7.0);

A new monitoring station was created with a transmission to the impeller of 11.05 instead of 14.6 for the AM-35, the oil system and cooling system were improved to ensure reliable operation of the motor with some insufficiency of oil and water radiators located in armored compartments

The AM-37 and AM-39 engines launched into the series and their modifications were removed, and the aircraft with them were ordered to be converted to other engines or discontinued. In the design bureau, work was continuously carried out to improve the AM-38 engine. Exploratory research remained the main task. For the two-seat version of the Il-2, at the beginning of 1942, the AM-38F engine (forced) was made, which, with less power at altitudes than that of the AM-38, had an increase of 100 hp. With. takeoff power and the ability to work for a long time in takeoff mode in the altitude range of 0-1.5 km. In order not to increase the octane number of tonyaiva (the supply of high-octane fuel was a problem at that time), the compression ratio was reduced (6.0 instead of 6.8), the speed was increased in takeoff mode (2350 instead of 2150) and the boost was slightly increased at lower altitude. The monitoring station was different - with a reduced impeller diameter.

It was with these engines that the famous “flying tanks” Il-2 flew throughout the war - unique aircraft of the Great Patriotic War, which inscribed many glorious pages in its annals. To a large extent, AM motors contributed to this.

Still in 1940, A. A. Mikulin, together with the chief designers V. Ya. Klimov and S. K. Tumansky, took the initiative to develop design bureaus at serial plants into independent structures. The most persistent was A. A. Mikulin.

Blizzard February 1943. The Battle of Stalingrad has just died down. On the deserted bank of the Moskva River, not far from the Luzhniki gardens, near the cold and almost empty buildings of the former Orgavia-prom plant, a group of young people appeared - the first employees of the newly created plant N ° 300, which was entrusted with the development of aircraft engines. Treasurer A. A. Mikulin was appointed the responsible manager of the plant and its chief (later general) designer. Nssmotrya on hard times, the idea began to materialize; in a short time, production was established, an experimental base was created, and a room for a design bureau was found.

Alexander Alexandrovich was an excellent organizer, he was well versed in people and knew how to find the workers needed for the business, while showing courage and determination. So, he made sure that the outstanding scientist B.S. Stechkin became the deputy chief designer for the scientific, theoretical and experimental part, and the future academician was transferred to the plant from prison - the famous Kazan "sharaga".

Since February 1943, the Design Bureau has created many engines, including several modifications of the AM-39 engine (1870 hp), which in 1942-1945. was put on experimental versions of the Tu-2 aircraft, MiG-7, I-220 fighters, etc.

By 1944, with V. Ilyushin, the Il-10 attack aircraft was designed, which had almost 100 km / h more speed than the Il-2 at altitudes and near the ground. This aircraft was powered by an AM-42 engine with a take-off power of 2000 hp. With. and nominal 1770 l. With. at an altitude of 1600 m. It was the last serial Mikulinsky piston engine. In the end of the war and after it, several more experimental engines were made: AM-43, AM-44, AM-47, a turbocharger for the AM-44TK engine was developed for the Tu-2DB aircraft; on some engines, direct injection equipment (AM-39FNV) was installed, but they did not go into the series. The time of jet aviation began.

Mikulin's piston engines were the world's largest gasoline engines in terms of cylinder size, and although this created objective difficulties in fine-tuning and forcing, the power of serial engines 38/10-12 years old increased 3 times.

There were no similar engines abroad. Only at the end of the war did the Germans make the Daimler-Beni DB-603 engine with a cylinder size of 162x180 mm and a take-off power of 1800 hp. With.

Speaking about how highly appreciated and encouraged the activities of Alexander Alexandrovich Mikulin, it should be recalled that back in 1940 he was awarded the highest rank- Hero of Socialist Labor (eighth in the country), awarded among other numerous awards - thundering orders of Lenin and, most significantly, two orders of Suvorov. (The status of the order says: "The Order of Suvorov is awarded to military leaders for outstanding success in command and control, excellent organization of military operations and the determination shown at the same time, as a result of which victory was achieved in the battles for the Motherland in the Patriotic War.")

And A. Mikulin was the winner of four Stalin (Government) Prizes. In August 1944, he - a purely civilian person - was awarded the rank of major general of the aviation service.

Shortly before his death in February 1985, Alexander Alexandrovich summed up his activities as follows: “I managed to do something in aviation. But years have passed, and many of my engines, and the aircraft on which they were installed, have become monuments AND museum exhibits. And I consider the pilot plant, which I organized 42 years ago, to be my main brainchild.

At the height of the war and in the post-war years, it was extremely difficult to build an actually new, advanced plant for that time. However, already in February 1946, Mikulin began work on the design and production of jet gas turbine engines, which are fundamentally different from piston engines.

Jet engine RD-ZM

OKB-300 engines have always been distinguished by their originality. This was also the first gas turbine AMTKRD-01, which had an original scheme: an eight-stage axial compressor, although at that time centrifugal, countercurrent combustion chamber with 22 individual sleeves located in a common casing dominated everywhere to reduce the length of the engine - above the compressor, single-stage turbine and electrically adjustable jet nozzle. The launch was carried out from an air turbo starter.

I must say that this engine, like the AM-3 that followed it, was the largest for that time, and there was no suitable aircraft for it right away. However, an event soon occurred, about which we have so far little reported: a large group of German aviation specialists was taken out of Germany. Those of them who had previously worked at the Junkers company, headed by Deputy Chief Designer Brunold Baade, brought the EF-131 aircraft in disassembled form - a long-range bomber with a reverse sweep wing, with six YuMO-004 engines (two bundles of three engines ). Naturally, the replacement of six engines with two Mikulin ones was very tempting: the total thrust was greater, the aerodynamics improved significantly, the whole layout of the machine and especially its power plant became simpler. In fact, it turned out to be a new, very promising EF-140 aircraft, or simply "140".

The creation of AMTKRD-01 was fraught with many difficulties due to the novelty of the whole business: we had not made gas turbine engines before.

Among many others, I remember the episode with the creation of a new heat-resistant alloy in the country. At the end of the 1940s, at the time when we had just begun to deal with jet technology, Mikulin called the chief metallurgist of the plant and one of the authors of these memoirs and put a small metal bar with a cross section of about 10x10 mm and a length of about 60 mm on the table. At the same time, he said that Klimov, whom Stalin instructed to design an engine based on the English Nin engine, had brought two such models from England, and this one was one of them. The British made turbine blades from such a heat-resistant alloy. (One could only guess how these samples got to Klimov.) It was clear: there would be no similar foreign alloy in the Soviet Union - there would be no domestic turbojet engine either. We advise Alexander Alexandrovich to call the "count" right there on the "Kremlin". In the jargon that was then common among the leaders of the military-industrial complex and leaders of the metallurgical industry, the first deputy minister of ferrous metallurgy, who was directly in charge of the Glavspetsstal plants, A. G. Sheremetyev (hence the “count”), was so called behind his back. We are scheduled to meet on the same day, or rather, on the same night, at one o'clock in the morning (in those years - and this came from Stalin - the leaders of the state and their subordinates worked until the morning). We arrive at Nogin Square in Minchermet, Alexander Alexandrovich informs Sheremetyev about Stalin's assignment and says that it is impossible to create a turbojet engine without a new heat-resistant alloy. At the same night, Sheremetyev by telephone gives a firm instruction to the director of the famous metallurgical plant Elektrostal, a well-known metallurgist M.E. Koreshkov.

Early in the morning we leave for Elektrostal, which is 20 km from Noginsk. Here in Koreshkov's office, with the participation of the technical management of the plant, detailed plan creating a new snapshot. Only metallurgists can imagine how daunting a task this is - using a small (about 60 grams) bar, having determined its chemical composition, create a new technological process, including “unraveling”, or rather, using numerous experiments to determine a system of complex heat treatment .

A very intense meeting was already coming to an end; Mikulin raised the question of when the first batch of such an alloy would be created. The chief engineer of the plant, a major specialist in the development of special alloys, M. I. Zuev, named a very short time - three months. And the leaders of Elektrostal, who previously knew about Mikulin’s temperament only by hearsay, immediately experienced it to the full. There is no need to retell what kind of dressing he does to Zuev. Having laid out his entire "arsenal" of arguments (no, no, he did not resort to foul language - by the way, Alexander Alexandrovich never, even in terrible anger, resorted to such a technique), Mikulin demanded that our order be completed in a month. Considering that the director of Elektrostal, Koreshkov, was a member of the Central Committee of the party, a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and in general, as they say, a man of no timidity, who, as he said, "also did not order the road to the Kremlin to Comrade Stalin," one can imagine what this "discussion" resulted in.

Nevertheless, Mikulin achieved his goal. Immediately, an hourly round-the-clock schedule is drawn up, a number of processes are transferred to a parallel mode, all experimental and serial services of the plant are turned on. Exactly 30 days later, the first 600-kilogram batch of a special heat-resistant alloy, called Nimonic-80, was delivered to our plant.

During this time, dies and other necessary equipment were designed and manufactured at the plant at the same pace, new equipment was installed, and the technological process was worked out on ordinary steel. Therefore, the Nimonic-80 that arrived at the plant was immediately put into production. Under normal conditions, the creation of such alloys took long years.

In January 1948, AMTKRD-01 successfully passed state bench tests. Its main details:

Maximum thrust ... 3300 kgf

Specific fuel consumption… 1.2 kg/kgf

Air consumption through the compressor… 65 kg/s

Weight… 1720 kg

On September 30, 1948, the first flight of the EF-140 was carried out from the Teply Stan airfield (the same one where the residential microdistrict of Moscow is now). For the plant, this was a very important event: for the first time in the air there was the first turbojet engine created by a team led by A. A. Mikulin.

In February 1948, work began on the design of the AMRD-02 turbojet engine. He had the same circuit, but the compressor was nine-stage. In March 1949, he successfully passed state tests. Its main details:

Maximum thrust ... 4250 kgf

Specific fuel consumption… 1.05 kg/ps-h

Maximum air flow… 75 kg/s

Max gas temperature in front of the turbine. 1120 K

Weight… 1675 kg

Work on the first two turbojet engines gave Mikulin and his Design Bureau a lot. It was possible to move on.

During this period, engines with a thrust of about 5000 kgf began to appear abroad. We have projects for aircraft under gas turbine engines of the same thrust. But in OKB-300 they already understood the prospect, and in June 1949 they began designing the largest and most powerful turbojet engine in the world in those years with a thrust of 8700 kgf, which was named AM-3. It had an eight-stage axial compressor, fourteen individual direct-flow combustion chambers enclosed in a common casing, a two-stage turbine and an unregulated nozzle. For the first time in domestic practice, it used a belt bypass of air from the compressor to ensure stability of operation in transient conditions and a specially designed and originally built gas turbine starter driven through a fluid coupling.

AM-3 engine diagram

In April 1950, the first copy of the AM-3 engine was assembled and development tests began. His

Basic data:

Maximum thrust ... 8700 kgf

Specific fuel consumption in nominal mode (I = 7000 kg) ... 0.95 kg / kgf-h

Maximum air flow… 150 kg/s

The degree of increase in air pressure in the compressor

Weight… 3100 kg

Customers were immediately found for this engine - general designers A.N. Tupolev, who created the Tu-16 aircraft, and later the passenger Tu-104, and V. M. Myasishchev with his M-4 strategic bomber. It was the height of cold war”, work on these topics was of extreme importance, and therefore control over the progress of work was carried out at the very high level.

The deadlines - in a year the Tu-16 should start flying - required the creation of a wide front of work for all participants, and above all for engine engineers.

One must give Alexander Alexandrovich his due for his ability to create new, collective forms of labor in extreme situations. Then, when the release of drawings and the manufacture of critical components that determined the deadline for the creation of the entire engine seemed completely unrealistic, A. A. Mikulin introduced a form of organization of parallel labor that had not been practiced by anyone before him: temporary teams consisting of designers, technologists and production -nogo master. If necessary, they included metallurgists, toolmakers. The technologists who participated in these emergency works temporarily moved to the Design Bureau. Such a team, as a rule, achieved a large gain in time. The organization of the brigade was fixed by the corresponding order, and the work was generously rewarded.

Subsequently, our friends-rivals at other experimental enterprises of the aviation industry began to use this form of organizing urgent work. It is known from foreign periodicals that the British firm Rollas-Royce also introduced such a system, but much later.

It must be assumed that not without the influence of Mikulin, during urgent work, all the technical managers of the plant were constantly in the design teams: the chief engineer, the head of production, the chief metallurgist, the chief inspector, and even the heads of the main production shops. This helped to carry out work with a significant lead time. There were also leaders, as they are now called, of the commercial service: about the right materials, forgings, stampings, units, bearings, they recognized in advance, without waiting for technologies and specifications, directly from a Whatman sheet.

It was necessary to expand production - a month later, almost all factory shops were working in a green shift. Experimental services were the busiest section, since it was necessary to create a lot of different installations, consoles, and lay many kilometers of communications. Finally, it was necessary to urgently put into operation a flying laboratory, since without a certain program of work it was impossible to start flying the Tu-16.

To resolve many issues, it was necessary to get "go-ahead" at the highest level, since Stalin personally followed everything related to aviation. It was difficult even for a minister to get to him. However, this did not apply to the general and chief designers, listening test pilots: Stalin liked to receive this information without intermediaries, first-hand. It was decided that Tupolev would go, who would represent the interests of all participants in the creation of the Tu-16. Call Poskrebyshev - Stalin's secretary, the time is set: tomorrow at 14 o'clock.

The next day at 11 o'clock Tupolev was at Mikulin's. It must be said that relations between these general constructors have always been difficult, but when it came down to it, all ambitions were thrown aside and the question of who would go to whom was decided on the basis of common interests.

The authors of the article had the privilege of being present at this very important meeting. There were few participants - except for Mikullinne, the deputy chairman of the military-industrial complex Istyagin, deputy ministers P.V. Dementiev (later the minister) and V.P. Balandin. Mikulin had the most questions, he actually led this small meeting. They outlined the order in which to put questions to Stalin, laid out the documents ...

Tupolev was absent for just over an hour; almost all issues were resolved, the necessary orders were given and the deadlines for their implementation were set. The commachine-administrative system was not so bad, now it would take several months to make a decision of this kind.

And on April 27, 1951, test pilot Nikolai Ryabko first took off the Tu-16 with two AM-3 engines. The life of this engine was long - about 30 years. It was one of the most reliable - due to engine failure, there were practically no accidents, let alone disasters, it had great resource. It is not superfluous to recall that 26 world records were set by the planes on which the Mikulin "oroyka" stood.

It would seem that having achieved the greatest achievements in the creation of the AM-3 engine, A. A. Mikulin could only be engaged in its further improvement, as other designers usually did. But it would not be Alexander Alexandrovich Mikulin.

At the end of the 40s, on the basis of a coherent theory similar to a gas turbine engine created at the Design Bureau, he developed the idea that reducing the dimension of a gas turbine engine to a certain limit leads to a decrease in its specific gravity. Already in 1951, engine drawings were issued in terms of dimensions (in terms of air consumption and thrust) 4 times less than AM-3. It is natural that the work of the Design Bureau on two such different topics caused large breasts, especially in production. Nevertheless, in March 1951, all working drawings of the AM-5 engine

AM-5A engine diagram

I axial eight-stage compressor: 2 - direct-flow annular combustion chamber; 3 - two-stage gas turbine: 4 - jet nozzle: 5 - front compressor housing with drive box: 6 - external communications system

were ready, and in May of the same year the first copy was already assembled and its bench tests began. Even now, or maybe right now, these terms seem fantastic.

The AM-5 engine in its design is very similar to its older brother AM-3: an eight-stage axial compressor, an annular direct-flow combustion chamber, a two-stage turbine, and an unregulated jet nozzle. Autonomous oil system with oil cooling in an oil cooler. For the first time in the practice of aircraft engine building, an electric starter-generator was used as a reversible electric machine.

Basic data of the AM-5 engine:

Maximum thrust ... 2000 kgf

Specific fuel consumption in nominal mode ... 0.88 kg / kgf-h

Maximum air flow… 37.5 kg/s

The degree of increase in air pressure in the compressor

Maximum gas temperature in front of the turbine IZO K

Weight… 445 kg

As planned by Mikulin, the engine had a record low specific gravity - 0.22, which was one and a half times less than that of other domestic and foreign turbojet engines created in those years. This engine was standard on the Yak-25 all-weather fighter-interceptor, which made its first flight on June 19, 1952.

Artem Mikoyan showed great interest in the new engine. On June 25, 1952, test pilot Grigory Sedov on a twin-engine Mikoyan CM-2 aircraft showed a record speed of 1220 km / h. However, in order to obtain supersonic speed, it was necessary to introduce a forage regime and obtain higher thrust values. Almost simultaneously with October 1952, the work of the Mikoyan Design Bureau began on the creation of the MiG-19 aircraft and the Mikulin Design Bureau on the AM-9 engine (later known in the series as the RD-9B). Even bearing in mind the big difference in complexity between the previous and currently created engines, one cannot fail to emphasize the truly fantastically short terms for designing, manufacturing the first engines, testing and debugging. Already 16 months after the start of design in January 1954, Grigory Sedov took to the air the first supersonic domestic fighter MiG-19 with two RD-9Bs.

The ability to produce a new engine so quickly was largely due to the fact that the AM-5 engine of the same dimension and design was taken as its basis. The first - "zero" stage of the compressor was attached to the eight stages of the "five" compressor, the blades of which (for the first time in the practice of domestic aircraft engine building) worked at transonic speeds. The combustion chamber is tubular-annular: ten direct-flow flame tubes in a common casing. The turbine is two-stage, but the main difference is the afterburner with a three-position nozzle.

Finishing work was intensively carried out at the plant, and in April 1955 state bench tests were successfully completed.

Basic data of the RD-9B engine:

Thrust in afterburner mode ... 3300 kgf

Thrust at nominal (maximum, non-afterburning mode) ... 2150 who

Specific fuel consumption in cruising mode

Maximum airflow…43.3 kg/s

The degree of increase in air pressure in the compressor is 7.5

Maximum gas temperature in front of the turbine 1150 K

Weight… 700 kg

Specific gravity… 0.212

MiG-19 was an outstanding machine of its time. The new design of the wing with a sweep of 55 ", afterburners and an all-moving stabilizer - these are the main features of this aircraft. It had excellent flight data. On March 19, 1954, test pilot G. A. Sedov received a record result: a maximum speed of 1450 km / h ( M 1.4).

The glory of the MiG-19 extended far beyond the borders of our country, it was put into service in many areas of the world, had numerous modifications.

Even earlier, at the beginning of 1953, Mikulin, realizing that the speeds of military aircraft would begin to increase rapidly, decided to create an engine for vehicles flying at supersonic speeds. Its design began in May 1953. It was the first domestic twin-shaft turbofan engine, originally called AM-11. It should be borne in mind that by the mid-1950s the Soviet Union had firmly taken the leading position in the world in the creation of supersonic aircraft. In such a situation, it was important and very prestigious not only to consolidate success, but also to develop it. For this purpose, the MiG-21 triangular wing aircraft is being created at the Design Bureau headed by A. I. Mikoyan. He needs

Scheme of the RD-96 engine

there was a fundamentally new engine that could work stably in all flight modes, have a small specific gravity and a fairly large afterburner thrust.

All these qualities were satisfied by the last engine, designed and built at plant 300 under the direction of Mikulin. On the AM-11 (PI 1-300) engine, a two-shaft eusonic compressor was used. Structurally, the two-shaft rotor of the compressor and turbine are made in an original way, without outriggers. The combustion chamber is rough-annular: ten direct-flow flame roughs in a common casing. Forage chamber with all-mode jet nozzle. For the first time, the principles of regulation of two-shaft turbofan engines were developed, including those with offsets at eu-sonic speeds.

The creation of such a fundamental new car was associated with large breasts. Revolutionary ideas (especially the eusonic compressor) aroused objections from the conservative part of scientists. Natural delays in such a matter irritated the bureaucratic army of the defense department of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Ministry of Aviation Industry. Unexpectedly for the entire staff of the Design Bureau and the plant, on January 20, 1955, A. A. Mikulin was relieved of the post of general designer and responsible head of plant N ° 300.

Considering the authority and merit of A. A. Mikulin, there is no doubt that the order was dictated at the very top of the pyramid of the party and the state. If we omit the insignificant and, by the way, unsubstantiated cavils, then in fact he was charged only with what was formulated in the order as follows: “Comrade. Mikulin makes mistakes in choosing the direction of development of aircraft engines, comes up with vicious ideas In terms of the use of supersonic compressors, high temperatures and a number of other issues that confuse and make the work of creating engines * difficult. What is more here - cynicism or technical illiteracy? In this tongue-tied accusation, every word is a shameless distortion of the essence of the issue. After all, even then the most far-sighted and experienced specialists, primarily Alexander Alexandrovich Mikulin and Boris Sergeevich Stechki.gu, it was quite obvious that the main road in the creation of highly efficient turbojet engines lies through the use of supersonic compressors and high lemneratures. Oshl already created in our country and widely implemented turbojet engines confirmed this. The following years, both with us, and we were the flagship in the creation of turbojet engines, and with others, including foreign firms, these principles found their indisputable confirmation. And what are the words: “The work on creating engines will be busy”? How and to whom will it be loaded? None other than to numerous clerks who sat in bureaucratic offices. He could not "load the work" of other creative organizations. And this is all after the creation of AM-3, AM-5, RD-9B and when the first samples P-l 1-300. His great service to the Fatherland in the creation of piston engines, which contributed to the glory of our state before and during the Great Patriotic War, was also forgotten.

As you know, it is natural for a person to retain in memory mainly positive and vivid events. In the case of dashyum, we are talking about almost constant brilliant successes. Of course, even then there were serious mistakes, miscalculations, and hence the scoldings, because Mikulin's keen eye rarely passed unnoticed by any violation. A very severe punishment immediately fell upon the head of the guilty.

For many years, designers and testers remembered the first launch of AMTKRD-01. Then the launches were made from a powerful electric motor. At the first attempt to start this turbojet engine, an unfortunate embarrassment occurred - the electric motor was selected without taking into account the direction of rotation of the turbocharger. The most severe punishments immediately fell upon the guilty. The deputy chief designer was immediately released from work, and other leaders involved in this were severely punished. It is not clear whether A. A. Mikulin knew the decree of Peter I: “All the ranks in the service should be remembered, all the projects should be in good order so as not to ruin the treasury in vain and not cause damage to the Fatherland. Whoever starts projecting anyhow, I will deprive him of that rank and order him to fight with a whip. Because of the temperament of our leader, sometimes these punishments were undeserved and, therefore, offensive. But, as a rule, almost everyone who worked at the plant at that time had these grievances quickly erased from their memory, because A. A. Mikulin was not vindictive and had a rare gift to encourage initiative and excellent work. He himself was an inexhaustible source of the most seemingly incredible ideas and designs. Everyone who communicated with him over the years was struck by his ability to continuously give out ideas "to the mountain". These were also design, often overturning all rapese adopted (including those proposed by him) fundamental decisions, and technical ideas, and innovations in the field of pile organization, and much more. Not all of them were indisputable, but a significant part of them struck with their unique originality, originality, and, most importantly, they often gave the only correct solution to a particular problem. In just 12 years (and they included the years of the establishment and formation of the plant) from February 1943 to January 1955, under the leadership of A. A. Mikulin, eight (!) State tests of engines were successfully completed.

To those who then worked alongside him, some of his actions seemed extravagant, sometimes leading to confusion, but after many years, discarding the alluvial husk, you are convinced that he was a divinely illumined designer and a wise organizer of an experienced aircraft engine building.

He never divided his co-workers into "ours" and "not ours", "whites", "blacks", communists and non-party people. The criteria were talent, hard work and commitment. In short, Mikulin adhered to the thesis, which much later, however, on a different occasion, was formulated by the leader of the Chinese state Deng Xiaoping: "It does not matter what color the cat is, as long as it catches mice."

His team was large, but he knew many people personally. And when, and this was almost daily, there was a need for very urgent and skilled work, for which he took literally hours (everyone knew him winged term- “Tomorrow by 10.00”), he usually said to the appropriate leader: “And you entrust this to the designer Yurov”, nyai “technologist Shcherbakov”, or “copper Petrov”, or “turner Filyutkin”, etc. About those who passed learning from A. A. Mikulin, it can be said with confidence that they retained for many years the ability and ability to work at the limit of their capabilities. And when a person says: “I worked under the leadership of Mikulin”, this is almost always evidence not only of high professionalism, but also of the fact that he is able to work with full dedication. Hence the results. One fact: six chief designers left the OKB-300 team and headed other design bureaus.

Last lifetime photograph of designer A. A. Mikulin

Alexander Alexandrovich lived to a ripe old age, died at the age of 91. He always kept fit, did not smoke, did not drink strong drinks, ate very moderately.

The range of his sports activities was very wide, but most of all he was fond of tennis and motorsport, his tennis partners were widely known people in the country, for example National artist Igor Ilyinsky. Until the age of 85, Alexander Mekeandrovich systematically played tennis. He owned the car to perfection. Back in 1933, Sergo Ordzhonikidze presented him with a gift - the firstborn of the Soviet passenger car industry GAZ-1. on which Mikulin squeezed the maximum speed for this car of 90 km / h. And in 1937, after the record flights of the crews of Chkalov and Gromov, in addition to the next order, by the decision of the Council of People's Commissars, he was awarded an American passenger car. According to Mikulin, it is known that he was given the opportunity to choose almost any car, and he, of course, chose the fastest - Pontiac. This dark graphite-colored machine served him faithfully before the war, throughout the war, and until the end of the 40s. He drove almost all domestic and many foreign cars, and in old age he was content with the battered Zhiguli. A small detail: in those distant years, when Mikulin was the head of the plant, ground transportation did not work in the best way, at the stops near the Park of Culture and at the plant, workers of the plant often crowded in anticipation of the transportation. Whether he was driving himself or driven by a driver, he would, as a rule, stop and put half a car in.

He drove cars not only very fast, but, it would be permissible to say, famously, confounding the traffic cops, who usually knew who was driving and behaved accordingly ... Even when Mikulin was already over 85 years old, he had to sit with him in car, to watch how the guards of the auto movement respectfully retreated, although the road was covered with ice, and the speed exceeded all conceivable limits. Knowing his excellent driving skills, literally two weeks before his ninetieth birthday (!) the traffic police issued him a new driving license.

A separate conversation is worthy of a separate conversation, designed by him at the end of the war between times (now it would be called the fashionable word “hobby”, there were a lot of such “hobbies” throughout his life) and the “health machine” manufactured at the factory, on which he literally maintained his athletic shape until the last days of life. A small batch of these machines (about 50) was manufactured at the plant by the mid-40s. And now in Moscow sports shops you can see imported, modernized models, in which the contours of the Mikulin “health machine” are easily guessed.

Excommunicated from his beloved work, to which he devoted long and best years of his life, Alexander Alexandrovich was looking for an outlet for his inexhaustible energy in other directions, for example, when creating an air ionizer, improving textile production.

Only when his ill-wishers passed away or left the leadership, the well-deserved fame began to return to Alexander Alexandrovich.

A. A. Mikulin died on May 13, 1985. There is no need to retell the contents of the obituary signed by the leaders of the state and outstanding scientists, but let us draw the attention of readers to the fact that Alexander Alexandrovich Mikulin is called “the founder of the Soviet aircraft engine building” in it. That says it all , however, after his death.

Mikulin Alexander Alexandrovich [R. 2 (14) 2.1895, Vladimir], Soviet designer of aircraft engines, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1943), major general of the engineering service (1943), Hero of Socialist Labor (1940). Member of the CPSU since 1954. In 1923 he began working as a designer at the Scientific Automotive Institute (since 1925 chief designer). In 1929, he developed a project for the AM-34 engine, which was successfully tested in 1931. The engine was installed on the ANT-25 aircraft, on which in 1937 V. P. Chkalov and M. M. Gromov made long-range non-stop flights over the North Pole to the United States. Built under the leadership of M. in 1939, the AM-35A engine was installed on MiG fighters. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, he supervised the creation of powerful AM-38 and AM-38f engines for Il-2 attack aircraft and GAM-35f for coastal defense boats. Since 1943 general designer of aircraft engines. M. introduced the regulation of superchargers by rotary blades, two-speed superchargers, high boost and air cooling in front of carburetors; developed the first domestic turbocharger and variable pitch propeller. In the postwar period, a team led by M. created a number of turbojet engines (the AM-3 engine, for example, was installed on the Tu-104 aircraft). USSR State Prize (1941, 1942, 1943, 1946). He was awarded 3 orders of Lenin, 6 other orders, as well as medals.
(Great Soviet Encyclopedia)

Little is known about him, although a whole novel has been written about his life. Unfortunately, the novel is written only "sort of" about his life, and not about his life "specifically". This is due to a number of subjective circumstances that have developed into objective difficulties. But more on that later, now let's summarize everything that we managed to learn about Mikulin specifically.

Immediately after the birth of Alexander Alexandrovich, it turned out that he was the younger cousin of RUSSIAN AVIATION itself and, accordingly, the nephew of the “father” of RUSSIAN AVIATION Zhukovsky Nikolai Yegorovich. The elder cousin of RUSSIAN AVIATION was Stechkin Boris Sergeevich, who was an intelligent person, unlike Mikulin ( what do you want from the smaller brothers) studied well, even graduated from a university and, if not for the bad influence of his younger brother, he would have become an academician, and not roamed through life as a corresponding member.

Another concrete fact was the successful flooding of the brothers (with active participation uncle) of a project approved by the Highest Command!!!
Remember, the wise captain Vrungel said: "Whatever you call a ship, that's how it will sail." Now we call it "Tsar-tank", but too late, too late...
Here is a statement of specific facts (without permission, the article by Maxim Morgunov "Tanks, forward!" in the magazine "Around the World" and materials from the Internet tank club are used [email protected])

In 1914, engineer N. Lebedenko, in his private laboratory, working on the order of the military department to create a device for dropping bombs, designed a combat vehicle weighing about 40 tons, in the form of an enlarged gun carriage, with a running wheel diameter of 9 m, a length of 18 m, 12 m wide with 10 people. crew, armed with two cannons and a machine gun.

N. Zhukovsky and his nephews, laboratory staff, B. Stechkin and A. Mikulin also took part in the work. In particular, Mikulin developed an original power transmission and brilliantly solved the problem of reducing a high-speed engine. The rim of the wheel designed by Zhukovsky had a T-section. A wooden overlay was attached to the shelf of the brand. Two automobile wheels were pressed against the overlays with the help of a railway spring. Rotating towards, they transmitted the moment from the motor shaft to the road wheel. In the event of an overload, the drive wheels slipped and protected the engine from damage. They planned to deliver the car to the front in parts and assemble it with bolts.

It was assumed that this machine (the designers called it "Batt") will easily overcome any obstacle or barrier, and the two Maybach engines, which were removed intact from the wrecked German Zeppelin (240 hp at 2500 rpm each ), one for each wheel, will provide speeds up to 17 km/h.

After all calculations were completed, a reduced wooden copy was made (wheel diameter - 30 cm) driven by a gramophone spring. Lebedenko presented this model to Tsar Nicholas II. Fascinated by the toy, which easily climbed over thick book volumes, the Sovereign ordered the opening of an account to finance the project. The total cost amounted to 210,000 rubles.

At the end of July 1915, having made the hull parts, they began to assemble. 60 kilometers from Moscow, the assembly began as it was planned to be done at the front. The mass of the machine was 1.5 times higher than the calculated one, which was caused by the use of thicker metal. In August, in the presence of a high commission, they began testing. Confidently moving on a hard platform, the car, having broken a tree, drove onto soft soil and, having got its rear wheel into a ditch, got stuck. The power of the engines was not enough to pull out the relatively small rear wheel. After unsuccessful tests, the emboldened opponents of the Tsar Tank began to declare its shortcomings: the specific pressure on the ground was unacceptably high, and the wheels and their hubs could easily be damaged by artillery fire. The iron giant was simply thrown into the forest, where it stood until 1923, until it was scrapped. Near Orudyev, even now you can see the remains of an earthen rampart - this is all that reminds of the implemented project of the largest wheeled combat vehicle in the history of world tank building.

Further specific biographical facts are quite fully reflected in a large Soviet Encyclopedia. Only separate touches to the biographical portrait are added by the reminiscences of colleagues (L. Berne and V. Perov) about the untimely dismissed boss and the recollections of Valery Burdakov about the recollections of Boris Stechkin.

Unlike the lowly educated Zeldovich, Mikulin still had a diploma of higher education. In the summer of 1950, on his 55th birthday, the command of the VVIA them. NOT. Zhukovsky gave Mikulin (an academician with many years of experience!) a diploma with honors from the academy, where he never studied, but sometimes lectured. This was his only diploma of higher education, which Mikulin highly valued.

In 1954 Mikulin joined the ranks of the CPSU. And I immediately felt what real party exactingness is. Before the new 1955, Alexander Alexandrovich, as before, managed to be accepted by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR G.M. Malenkov, who, as always, promised maximum support in all matters. But unexpectedly for Mikulin, at the beginning of 1955, the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU released Malenkov from his duties as chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Having learned that Mikulin had lost his highest blessing, on January 20, 1955, Minister of the Aviation Industry P.V. Dementiev with his order to release A.A. Mikulin from the duties of general designer and responsible head of plant No. 300. A.A. Mikulin was absent from the plant that day. As well as the next 18 years, the newly appointed director was given an instruction not to let Mikulin into the plant that he created under any pretext. Only when the director changed, and times became softer, Mikulin began to visit the factory again. True, then times became completely different - this unique plant, the brainchild of academicians Alexander Mikulin and Boris Stechkin, ceases to exist in 2001 (one businessman bought the territory of the plant for his own purposes).

Since the position and scientific title are held by different departments, Mikulin remained an academician, and according to the charter of the Academy of Sciences, its full member (if he wants and can) has the right to manage the laboratory in its depths. The Elder Brother (in the good sense of the word - Stechkin, director of the Institute of Engines of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR) by kindred and good memory (in 1943 Mikulin pulled him out of the camps), turning a blind eye to the wolf's ticket, took him to the modest position of senior researcher. main theme, which occupied Mikulin at this stage of activity, was a reciprocating gas generator running on a gas turbine.

In the post-war years, Mikulin was often sick and, perhaps, this is what made him invade a completely new area for himself - medicine. He began to study the influence of biocurrents on human life, studied the dynamics of blood circulation, the work of the muscular apparatus. His book "Active longevity" was published in our country and abroad.

Excommunicated from his beloved work, Alexander Alexandrovich was looking for an outlet for his inexhaustible energy in other directions.

For example, he was actively engaged in the creation of an air ionizer and a "health machine" - a small-sized simulator.

An excellent interlocutor, he drew his endless stories from the lives of major writers, artists, athletes, actors and especially actresses, he was briefly acquainted with many of them (the first three wives of Alexander Alexandrovich were actresses).

Among his close acquaintances were such prominent figures of Russian culture and art as the writer Alexei Tolstoy, the artists Ivan Kozlovsky and Mikhail Zharov, and the composer Dmitry Shostakovich.

An important place in Mikulin's life was occupied by Koktebel, where he had a dacha. Mikulin put forward the idea that for a real man, up to a certain age, the sum of his wife’s years and his age should correspond to a certain constant (thus, as the man’s age increases, the wife should become younger and younger).

I recalled my conversations with our Prime Minister Kosygin on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Academician Alexander Mikulin in 1965, who asked for a bonus of at least 100 rubles. It turned out that Kosygin has no such right! To award an academician with another Order of Lenin is welcome, but as far as "money" is concerned, this is very strict ...

Mikulin almost always - especially in the last decades of his life - was in excellent shape. He brilliantly owned a motorcycle, mastered the management of cars of dozens of brands.

That's the kind of life...
But still, despite the desperate resistance, his life became the basis for one of best books all times and peoples.
A.A. Beck "Talent"

The memoirs of Anatoly RYBAKOV and Sergey ANTONOV were used "Questions of Literature" 2001, No. 3

The prototype of this Berezhkov, A.A. Mikulin - a very interesting and remarkable person in his own way, who, after reading the manuscript, completely identified himself with the central character of "Talent" (an eternal tragicomic collision in the creative history of A. Beck's documentary fiction books!), fell upon edition. He then already had a secret laureate in military affairs. He said that if you printed this, I would break Beck's legs. And I will drive you away! Moreover, he talked on an equal footing with those who could not be reached. L. Beria himself imposed a veto on the publication of Berezhkov's Life. And in this environment, I was surprised by the behavior of Beck. We called him, and he immediately put on his five-year-old naivety. He says he can't break my legs! I say: let's think, because we are talking about serious things. Beck says: decide for yourself. I don't worry about anything. I wrote and you type. And don't worry about me... At first it seemed naive. And then it turned out that it was courage, courage. Yes, this is the courage of a great talent: print, I answer! He answers, but you can't print. Went to sit: one meeting, another. The first meeting was like this: let's make sure that this person is not a bit like Mikulin. And Alexander Alfredovich says: “But he doesn’t look like that anyway.” Simonov says: let's give an external sign. And Beck replies: he wanted to break my legs, let me break his leg too. And in the final version, the hero became lame. Can I print? Mikulin again: no, my whole life is there. By his "naivety" Beck could force a man to open up so that he revealed to him all the secrets of secrets. Somewhere Beck and Mikulin were in the hospital, and he pulled things out of Mikulin that he had never told anyone. And Mikulin did not like that he was too similar.
And then this: then you need to decide how to release this novel. And Simonov says: “And you write one more chapter. Write how the hero meets Mikulin and Mikulin teaches him how to work. Beck wrote. While Beck was writing, influential friends of this hero disappeared from the political scene, and the novel saw the light (in 1956, after 7 years of struggle). But still there was a scandal. The situation was tense to the limit both in the editorial office and in the Central Committee.

Mikulin Alexander Alexandrovich - Chief Designer of the Moscow Aircraft Engine Plant named after M.V. Frunze of the People's Commissariat of the Aviation Industry of the USSR.

Born on February 2 (14), 1895 in the city of Vladimir in the family of a mechanical engineer. He graduated from a real school in Kyiv. Having seen the demonstration flights of one of the first Russian aviators S.I. Utochkin, Mikulin became interested in aviation. He studied at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, where then a course of lectures was read by an outstanding scientist, the "father of Russian aviation" N.E. Zhukovsky, to whom Mikulin was a maternal nephew. Due to lack of funds, Mikulin was unable to complete his studies.

Then he moved to Riga and entered the Russian-Baltic Plant there, where at that time they mastered the production of the first aircraft engines. There Mikulin worked as a locksmith, shaper, assistant to the head of the assembly department. In 1914, Mikulin moved to Moscow, where he entered the Moscow Higher Technical School, graduating in 1922. During his studies, Mikulin participated in the creation of the country's first aerodynamic laboratory, his colleagues at work and study were A.N. Tupolev, V.P. Vetchinkin, B.S. Stechkin, B.N. Yuryev, A.A. Arkhangelsky . While studying, Mikulin and Stechkin created a 300 horsepower two-stroke engine in which fuel was to be supplied directly to the cylinders. This principle of fuel supply was subsequently applied to all piston engines.

Since 1923 - a draftsman-designer at the Scientific Automotive Institute, since 1925 - the chief designer of this institute. The first design work was the NAMI-100 automobile engine. And then Mikulin began to create the first domestic aircraft engines, one of which, a 12-cylinder V-engine, created in 1928, was named AM-34 in 1933 and put into mass production.

The creation of the AM-34 was a breakthrough for the Soviet aircraft engine industry. This engine was made at the world level. AM-34s were installed on the ANT-25 aircraft of A.N. Tupolev, who flew over the North Pole to the United States of America, on the giant aircraft Maxim Gorky, as well as on the TB-3 and TB-7 bombers. The successful design of the AM-34 made it possible to make it the base engine for modifications installed in various types of aircraft.

In 1930-1936, A.A. Mikulin worked at the Central Institute of Aviation Motors named after P.I. Baranov, at that time the only organization where the scientific and design forces of aircraft motors were concentrated. Since 1936 - chief designer of the Moscow aircraft engine plant named after M.V. Frunze.

In 1939, A.A. Mikulin created the AM-35A engine, which at an altitude of 6000 m developed a power of about 880 kW (1200 horsepower). It was installed on fighters designed by A.I. Mikoyan and Pe-8 bombers.

Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 28, 1940 for outstanding achievements in the field of creating new types of weapons that increase the defense power of the Soviet Union, Mikulin Alexander Alexandrovich He was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor with the Order of Lenin and the Hammer and Sickle gold medal.

During the Great Patriotic War, A.A. Mikulin supervised the creation of powerful AM-38, AM-38F and AM-42 engines for Il-2 and Il-10 attack aircraft, GAM-35F engines for torpedo boats and river armored boats.

Since 1943, A.A. Mikulin was appointed general designer of aircraft engines and chief designer of an experimental aircraft engine building plant No. 300 in Moscow. He owns a number of new ideas in engine building: he introduced the regulation of superchargers with rotary blades, two-speed superchargers, high boost and air cooling in front of carburetors; developed the first Soviet turbocharger and variable pitch propeller.

In 1943, A.A. Mikulin was elected an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, bypassing the level of a corresponding member. The paradox is that Mikulin had only a secondary technical education. A diploma of graduation from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy was awarded to him only in 1950 in recognition of scientific achievements.

In the post-war period, under the leadership of A.A. Mikulin, the TKRD-1 engine (the first turbocompressor jet engine) was created with a thrust of 3780 kgf (1947), then engines were developed according to his scheme, which for a long time remained the most powerful in heavy bomber and passenger jet aviation of the USSR . Following him, powerful turbojet engines AM-1, AM-2, AM-3 were created (the latter successfully worked for many years on the Tu-104 aircraft), as well as turbojet engines for Mikoyan fighters and intelligence officers A.S. Yakovlev. In total, in 1943-1955, under the leadership of A.A. Mikulin, dozens of types of aircraft engines were created, of which 8 were put into mass production. In the years 1935-1955, simultaneously with a huge employment in design and production work, he taught at the Moscow Higher Technical School named after N.E. Bauman and at the Air Force Engineering Academy of the Red Army.

The outstanding activity of the largest Soviet designer of aircraft engines came to an abrupt end in 1955. After the removal from the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR G.M. Malenkov, who highly appreciated the activities of A.A. Mikulin, the Minister of Aviation Industry P.V. Dementyev decided to get rid of him. Mikulin was not only removed from the post of chief designer, he was generally removed from work in the aviation industry.

An old comrade and colleague of Mikulin, Academician B.S. Stechkin, took Mikulin to work as a researcher in the laboratory of engines of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where he worked until 1959.

In retirement, Mikulin remained the same restless and creative person that he always was. He took up the problems of maintaining health, proposed a number of new ideas, some of which were used in the sanatorium treatment of patients. When the Ministry of Health refused to publish Mikulin's book on medical topics, the academician entered a medical institute at the age of 76 and in 1975 passed the state exams "with excellent marks". The following year, he defended his Ph.D. thesis in medicine based on a book he had prepared. Then it was published under the title "Active Longevity". He tested all his medical ideas on himself, and having big health problems in the middle of his life, he managed to strengthen his body and reach the 90-year milestone.

Laureate of the Stalin Prizes of the USSR (1941, 1942, 1943, 1946).

Major General of the Aviation Engineering Service (08/19/1944). He was awarded three orders of Lenin (10/28/1940, 07/2/1945, 01/24/1947), orders of Suvorov 1st (09/16/1945) and 2nd (08/19/1944) degrees, three orders of the Red Banner of Labor (07/10/1943, 06/10/1943 .1945, 02/14/1975), Orders of Friendship of Peoples (02/14/1985), Red Star (02/21/1933), "Badge of Honor" (08/13/1936), medals, including "For Military Merit" (11/05/1954) .