It is hardly a secret that a large part of the country's scientific and technical potential, and in particular the country's defense complex, is concentrated in Siberia and the Urals. Today's attention to the enterprises and institutions of the "defense industry", previously tightly closed from outside attention, is caused not so much by the fruits of glasnost, but by the plight of the once powerful pillars of the domestic economy. One of them is the S. A. Chaplygin Siberian Research Institute of Aviation (SibNIA).

From the Orientir dossier

The Institute was established by the decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR of August 19, 1941 as a branch of TSAGI (Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after N.E. Zhukovsky).

Since 1946, SibNIA has been operating independently and is a research and testing base for fundamental and applied research in the field of aviation and space.

The" track record " of SibNIA includes the creation of the AN-2 aircraft in 1946, where the layouts of a number of stage aircraft were worked out: A-57, VVA-14, Su-26, Su-27 families; statistical and fatigue tests were carried out on more than 200 modifications of aircraft and helicopters, including Tu-144, VKS Buran Tu-204, etc.

On the basis of the institute, the first studies of the aerodynamics of variable sweep wings were conducted, and aerodynamic layouts of the first VVA-14 vertical take-off and landing aircraft in the USSR, almost all domestic ekranoplanes, were developed.

SibNIA has a highly qualified scientific staff, including 9 doctors of sciences, more than 50 candidates of sciences. A number of the Institute's works were submitted for State Prizes of the USSR and the Russian Federation.

Our lives are made up of amazing paradoxes. Scientific developments in the military field give an impetus to technological progress. This is especially true for the invention, development and implementation of equipment that is used not only for conducting combat operations, but also for performing numerous peaceful functions.

Circumstances have developed so that during the Great Patriotic War, a significant part of the aviation scientific and technical potential, along with factories, migrated to the east of the country. In the future, cities where up to ninety percent of defense enterprises are concentrated will become a kind of hostage to military factories and institutions.

The Chaplygin Siberian Research Institute of Aviation also changed its original geography.

In October-November 1941, about 500 TsAGI scientists, engineers and workers were evacuated from Moscow to Novosibirsk, and some of the dismantled equipment and technical documentation for priority developments were delivered. The group of scientists of the Institute was then headed by one of the founders of aerodynamics, Hero of Socialist Labor Sergey Chaplygin. Unfortunately, he was not able to see the final results of his work. On October 8, 1942, Academician Chaplygin died and was buried on the territory of the aerodynamic laboratory under construction. But his work was continued by doctors of Sciences D. Y. Panov, G. N. Musinyants, G. A. Ushakov, V. P. Vetchinkin, F. I. Frankl.

Despite the fact that at this time the institute was mostly being built, its employees were able to provide assistance to front-line aviators. This concerned developments to improve the reliability of propeller-driven installations on combat aircraft, improve the technology for repairing propellers, and use aircraft based on the ice of reservoirs.

After the war, the institute was headed by the famous designer O. K. Antonov. By the way, here his famous "Annushka", the long-lived record holder AN-2, and "Bee" - AN-14 found wings. In different years, SibNIA was headed by M. P. Tsapenko, E. V. Kiyaev, B. V. Belyanin, V. G. Suvernev, and A. N. Seresnov. Generations have changed, the defense enterprise has expanded and grown, but TsAGI's indomitable creative spirit, fanatical devotion to aviation, and desire to bring maximum benefit to the Fatherland have always remained in it.

Each of the former TSAGI employees who formed the backbone of SibNIA was a person with a capital letter, who made a fundamental contribution to the development of domestic aviation science. For example, M. P. Tsapenko, Doctor of Technical Sciences, developed and created devices for measuring non-electrical quantities by electrical methods. Professor L. E. Bruckner participated in the creation and launch of the world's first rocket projectile (1930). He was the first in the USSR to obtain an accurate solution to the problem of bending three-layer anisotropic quantities, developed an effective method for engineering calculations of three-layer (honeycomb) panels and shells.

This is what you can say about almost every SibNIA employee. The fates of many of them are worthy of imitation for young men who are beginning to live. The Institute considers the aircraft designer Roberto Ludvigovich Bartini as such. The son of an Italian aristocrat, Oros di Bartini, who later became an anti-fascist, swore in his youth that " red planes will fly better than black ones." After moving to the Soviet Union, he became an aircraft designer. His planes "Steel-6" and "Steel-7", DAR (Far Arctic Scout) were at one time examples of the embodiment of a brilliant idea in the field of aircraft construction. They showed an incredible range and speed of flight for that time...

Like many talented figures of the tragic thirties, Roperto Bartini was repressed and worked in the special prison of the Central Design Bureau-29 of the NKVD together with Tupolev and other designers. But he got there only when the "father of nations ""remembered" him. The fate of Bartini is tragic and in some ways incomprehensible. He was placed in torture chambers and offered the leadership of major factories. He was sitting as "a wrecker in the aviation industry, unable to create anything worthwhile for the Soviet state", and at this time in August of the forty-first (!) aircraft of his design DB-240 bombed Berlin.

Bartini served ten years. Day in and day out - until 1948, and even with the loss of rights for 5 years until 1953, the year of Stalin's death.

What would he have created if he had been free for all these years?! His calculations of aircraft were ahead of time: T-117-wide-fuselage aircraft; transonic fighter R; R-114-prototype of the TU-144. These daring projects were conceived and developed at the very beginning of the war...

By the way, we note that people who are not knowledgeable usually represent aviation research institutes in the form of such testing grounds, over which cars fly intensively in the sky, and then they are brought to the ground. This is true... and not like that. In fact, aircraft and their components-components, assemblies, in general, everything down to the skin and rivets - are tested on the ground. When you visit SibNIA laboratories and stands, you rarely hear the typical industrial noises. But the work is underway. It is simply invisible to the unprofessional eye. There the aileron continuously sways, from which about fifty sensors depart, here a specially designed coper presses on the chassis with a monstrous force, here the mystery of testing strength in a special vacuum chamber is performed. And only near the wind tunnels is a smooth, powerful hum-there is a blowing of models of aircraft with transonic speeds...

Talking about his beloved and, it seems, completely forgotten by the state brainchild, the director of SibNIA, Doctor of Technical Sciences A. N. Seresnov explains::

- The direction of our institute's work shows what an important place it recently occupied in the structure of the aviation industry. In our laboratories and stands, we explore not only the aerodynamics and flight dynamics of aircraft. Our field of activity also includes the calculation of statistical strength and structural life of aircraft and missiles at normal and high temperatures. In addition, our scientists and engineers have created unique stands that allow us to test the dynamic structural strength of aircraft and missiles, test the operational load of aircraft, calculate the resource properties of the chassis, the reliability of avionics, electromagnetic compatibility, etc.

I understand that for a person who is far from aviation, all this sounds dry and scientific. I will put it simply: each part of the aircraft needs to be tested for thousands of parameters: heat resistance, fatigue, low temperatures, vibration, breakage, stretching, etc. So we create first what we test, and then we test ourselves. It is clear that the more complex the technique, the more "sophisticated" and comprehensive its "examination" should be. Here, for example, is a stand for heat-strength testing of full-scale rocket-space, aviation and machine-building structures. It includes a whole complex of testing facilities and vacuum chambers, which can simultaneously test several products for strength and service life under combined effects of mechanical and thermal loads, and study the thermophysical properties of protective and facing coatings. The stand allows you to simulate temperature fields on the object's surface in the temperature range from -200? up to + 200? C, create a pressure from 0.005 mm Hg to 20 atm. Many of our complexes and stands have no analogues either in Russia or in the world...

It should be noted that despite the fact that the institute is extremely poorly funded, it continues to conduct research and thus create a kind of reserve for the future. Alas, all this is still a dead weight. It turns out that in our country, no one needs developments on vertical and shortened take-off and landing aircraft, on ekranoplanes and ekranoplanes, on supersonic passenger aircraft. In addition, SibNIA's "portfolio" contains " groundwork for supersonic business aircraft, light multi-purpose aircraft, development of agricultural aviation equipment, aerospace systems, and maneuverable combat aircraft.

But what can we say about this, when in recent years the unique works of scientists have been noticed by organizations that only indirectly relate to aviation. So, for example, in 1988, the State Prize of Russia was awarded to the Deputy Director of the Institute, Candidate of Technical Sciences S. T. Kashafutdinov. He was nominated for the award by the Union of Designers of Russia.

At the same time, NASA and the FAA (the main aviation administrations of the United States) have prepared a program to improve civil aviation and space technology. Its grandiosity convinces: aviation America will fly into the XXI century on good technology. Among the numerous projects of this program are such as ensuring the annual production of 10,000 general-purpose aircraft units by 2007 and 20,000 by 2022.

Against the background of such progress, our "dynamics" look depressing. In 1992, 282 aircraft were produced, in 1993-179, in 1994 - 47, in 1995 - 31, in 1996 - 4 aircraft...

There are very few new Russian passenger aircraft on the air routes: two Il-114s in Uzbekistan, ten Tu-204s and nine Il-96s in Russia, and two Tu-204s in Egypt. Meanwhile, there is a write-off for the development of the resource of old civil aircraft. How will they be replaced? Maybe we don't produce airplanes because we have become cramped in the international market? In fact, it has a huge capacity. According to various estimates, over 26,000 aircraft and helicopters of various types will be built in the next ten years. This forecast, compiled by the American company "Teal Group", also takes into account the needs for the main types of aircraft, the number of military personnel is about a quarter of the total (6000 - 6500 units). This means that our aviation industry must find its niches and use its potential to make up for the decline in domestic aviation and export aviation products. It is clear that scientific and research aviation institutions should be given their proper place here, because what is happening now is the destruction of the foundations of aircraft construction in our country.

Siberian scientists rightly believe that the excessively large-scale conversion of our defense enterprises was carried out with the clear interest and practical participation of Western firms. The West has sought and is still striving to eliminate Russia's defense potential, turning the great aviation power into a market for Western aviation products and permanently getting rid of Russian competition in the global aviation market.

As for reasonable conversion rates, SibNIA's management is actively developing ties with non-aviation sectors of the national economy of the West Siberian region, mainly in the field of diagnostics of various structures (railway rolling stock, mining and metallurgical complex, power engineering, etc.). However, unexpected orders are also received. Recently, Novosibirsk residents witnessed how the legendary fighters of the late 30s-early 40s - I-16 and I - 153 ("Chaika") took to the sky. They were commissioned for the museum by a private New Zealand firm. The order was executed perfectly. However, this is also mixed with the bitterness of bewilderment: why do foreigners need our aviation rarities, but we don't?

Conversion programs at the Institute allow only partial use of the existing potential and provide some, although completely insufficient, cash receipts. In general, the institute lives by financing state orders under contracts for testing military equipment. No orders - SibNIA's life freezes. And if, for example, the volume of orders in 1995 was 5,432 thousand rubles, and in fact 3,840 thousand rubles were received, then in 1998 the volume of orders was 5,799 thousand rubles. We received 2,999 thousand rubles. Tests of military products are currently not funded at all. Cash credits and tax exemptions mean almost nothing for SibNIA, because they do not allow you to pay even a salary...

At one time, the Siberian Research Institute of Aviation named after S. A. Chaplygin managed, figuratively speaking, to fly high. Will it be able to land in the 21st century? The answer to this question should probably be found in Moscow.

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