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Nikolai Polikarpov.

Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov (Russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Полика́рпов) (July 8, 1892 - July 30, 1944) was a Soviet aircraft designer, known as "King of Fighters". He designed the I-15 series of fighters, and the I-16 Ishak (Russian: ишак phonetically close to its Russian: И-16 designation) "Little Donkey" fighter.

Polikarpov was born in the village of Giorgievsk in Oryol Oblast. He was the son of a village priest in the Russian Orthodox Church. He initially also trained for the priesthood and studied at the Oryol Seminary before moving to Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University in 1911. Polikarpov graduated in 1916 and worked for Igor Sikorski at the Russian Baltic Carriage Factory as head of production.

Polikarpov stayed in Russia after the revolution and was technical head of the Duks Aircraft factory. Polikarpov was responsible for some of the first indigenous aircraft designs in the Soviet Union during the 1920s.

In 1928, under provisions of the Five Year Plan for experimental aircraft design, Polikarpov was assigned to develop the I-6 (primarily wooden) fighter for delivery by mid 1930. The plan was unrealistic and failed. As such, in October 1929, Polikarpov and around other 450 aircraft designers and engineers were arrested. Polikarpov was sentenced to death.^[1] In December, after two months of expectation for execution he was transferred to a Special Design Bureau of OGPU set at Butyrka prison and the sentence changed to 10 years of forced labor. Polikarpov and the others were moved to Design Bureau 39 (TsKB-39) to complete the I-5 project. Fortunately, after a successful demonstration, the sentence was changed to a conditional one, and in July 1931 he was granted amnesty together with a group of other convicts.

After the release Polikarpov resumed to be the designer of the I 15 and I 16 fighters. His construction bureau was disbanded in 1940 due to political intrigue, and one of his main designers Mikhail Gurevich went on to found the MIG bureau. Polikarpov was subsequently appointed professor at the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1943.

Polikarpov was a recipient of numerous awards, including the State Stalin Prize (1941, 1943) and Hero of Socialist Labor (1940).

He died on July 30, 1944 from Gallbladder cancer. He is buried in Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

Polikarpov Peak in Pamir was named after him.

[edit] See also

• Polikarpov design bureau

[edit] References

1. ^ Polikarpov

• This article incorporates translated material from Russian Wikipedia

• Russian "Holidays" site [1]
• Article of Polikarpov at Russian Ministry of Defence site [2]

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