Date: Born on November 10, 1888, in Pustomazovo, Russia; died on December 23,1972, in Moscow, Soviet Union
Definition: The foremost aircraft designer of the Soviet Union.
Significance: Tupolev was the first to design all-metal aircraft in the Soviet Union. During World War II, his team developed several medium and heavy bombers that contributed to the defeat of Germany. After the war, he developed Soviet jet engines and the world's first supersonic plane, the Tu-144.
Born in 1888 to a middle-class provincial family, Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev entered the Imperial Moscow Higher Technical School in 1908, where he studied under famed Russian aerodynamist Nikolai Zhukovsky. While a student there, Tupolev and a group of friends formed a small syndicate and built a series of gliders. In the 1917 Russian Revolution, Tupolev sided with the Bolsheviks, who seemed to embrace modernity and technological progress more than other political groups. In 1918, Tupolev graduated and, with his mentor Zhukovsky, set up the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (abbreviated TsAGI). From 1918 to 1935, Tupolev served as the assistant director of TsAGI and as its chief designer. His ANT-2, produced in 1924, was the first Soviet all-metal aircraft. In the 1920's, Tupolev was the main Sovietpropo-nent of heavy long-range aircraft and, during the 1930's, Tupolev's design bureau developed the long-range ANT-25, a plane that was used to set several long-distance aviation records. In 1936, Tupolev traveled to both Germany and the United States in order to study their aircraft industries.
On October 21, 1936, Tupolev was arrested as part of Stalin's purges. He was charged with selling blueprints to Germany for the Messerschmitt Bf-110 and, from 1939 to 1941, Tupolev worked in a special prison aviation workshop. The prison team developed several airplanes that eventually played a great role during World War II, such as the Pe-2 and the Tu-2 attack bomber. He was freed when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 and in 1943 his Tu-2 airplane was awarded a Stalin Prize.
After World War II, Tupolev was charged with develop-ingacopy of the AmericanB-29 Superfortress. The resulting Tu-4 was the first Soviet strategic bomber. In the 1950's, Tupolev designed a series of jet bombers as well as large civilian passenger aircraft for the Soviet airline, Aeroflot. He was also responsible for the Tu-144, the world's first supersonic transport.
Tupolev died on December 23, 1972, and in 1988 he was inducted into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame.