Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomei

Vladimir Chelomei. He was called a tough pragmatist, and a mad dreamer. In the Galaxy of Soviet rocket and space designers Chelomei was the youngest, most ambitious and most known. Only some today know that he created the legendary rocket-carrier "Proton. Some still talk about the war of designers of space technology in which took part Chelomei, and then at the level of rumors. The uniqueness of Vladimir Nikolayevich as a designer lies in the fact that he and his OKB-52, as a fact, were the only ones who successfully combined work in three directions at once: cruise missiles, intercontinental missiles and missile carriers, satellites and satellite systems.

Quite often in the press and in documentary films there are conversations that Chelomey achieved such success due to the fact that N.A.Khrushchev had a son in his design bureau, Sergei Nikitich Khrushchev. There is an opinion that "Chelomei immediately took to his KB a young specialist S.N.Khrushchev ». This is a very one-sided view. V.N.Chelomey did absolutely nothing to find such a "successful" employee. In fact, S.N. Khrushchev was a famous developer of gyroscopes, used in guidance systems, orientation and stabilization of aircraft. One might not say that Vladimir Nikolayevich did not understand what the presence of such an employee might mean for the KB, and in the emerging tough conditions of competition between the Design Bureau, dealing with similar problems, he took the opportunity. Although, according to the memories of his daughter, Chelomeya Yevgenia Talyzina, Vladimir Nikolayevich repeatedly complained at home that he did not know what more was brought to the work of the son of the leader of the party - the benefits or hassle.

There were no irreconcilable conflicts between Chelomey and Yangel, or Chelomey and Korolev. Between Korolev and Yangel or Korolev and Glushko, the designer of rocket engines, there was competition, criticism, defending, lobbying, sometimes tough, of their interests, but there was no open hostility or hatred, disrespect. Irreconcilable hostility arose where the conflict affected personal relationships. Glushko and Korolev were originally friends who quarreled on the basis of opposing views on fuel for missiles. And the refusal to work on the lunar N-1 rocket. And the creation of Glushko engines for the Chelomey and Yangel missiles was perceived by Korolev as treachery. Yangel and Korolev also quarreled on personal grounds. Just as Ustinov hated Chelomey, and Chelomey apparently felt no less "warm" feelings for Ustinov, because they both touched everyone's personal ambitions. This is a paradoxical situation, when initially people probably did not feel negative towards each other, they were both clever, educated people, but because of a lot of facts they became irreconcilable enemies.

General Designer of aviation, missile and rocket and space technology, twice Hero of Socialist Labor (1959 and 1963), laureate of Lenin (1959) and three State Prizes (1967, 1974, 1982). Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1958), Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1962), Head of the Department "Cruise Missiles and Spacecraft" MVTU. NE Bauman (1960-1984), Full member of the International Academy of Astronautics (1974), Doctor of Technical Sciences (1951), Professor (1952).

Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomei (30.06.1914 - 8.12.1984), was born in the town of Sedlec, Privislyanski Krai (now Siedlce in Poland) in the family of teachers Nikolai Mikhailovich Chelomey and Eugenia Fominichna (Klochko). Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, the family moved to Poltava (Ukraine), in 1926 to Kiev.

Life in Poltava is one of the key moments in the life of a young VN. Man, for at that moment his outlook, education, primarily cultural and spiritual, was formed in a certain way, which had a great impact on his entire future life. The fact is that in Poltava the family settled in a house built in the end of the 19th century by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's sister, Anna Vasilievna Gogol. After the October Revolution in this house lived the granddaughter of A.S. Pushkin, Maria Aleksandrovna Bykova, who, in turn, was the wife of nephew N.V. Gogol, N.V. Bykov. In consequence, here came the daughter of Maria Bykova, Sofya Danilevskaya. She became, along with her parents, a kind and sensitive spiritual and cultural mentor Volodya Chelomey. She was able to instill in him a love of literature, music, painting, reading to him the works of Russian classics, instilled in him a love of the classical, correct Russian language.

From 1937 he worked at the Institute of Mathematical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR) and simultaneously taught at the Kiev Aviation Institute (in 1939-40 - deputy head of the department of theoretical mechanics and aircraft engines of the Institute).

In 1940 he was admitted to a special doctorate of the USSR Academy of Sciences: he was among the fifty candidates nominated from the Union republics, with the appointment of a personal scholarship to them. Stalin. In June 1941, at the Institute of Mathematical Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, he defended his thesis of Doctor of Technical Sciences (theme: "Dynamic stability and strength of the elastic chain of an aircraft engine"). However, because of the Great Patriotic War, documents were lost and were not registered with the Higher Attestation Commission. He again defended his doctoral dissertation in 1951 at the Moscow Higher Technical School. N.E. Bauman (MVTU named after NE Bauman).

From June 1941 to 1944 he worked at the Central Institute of Aviation Motors. P.I. Baranova (Moscow) as a scientific adviser, head of the jet engine group (since July 1941), head of the department (since August 1944). In July 1941 Chelomey appointed chief of the department of jet movement in CIAM (Central Institute of Aviation Motors) imeni P.I. Baranova. At CIAM, Chelomei began work on a PWRM or pulsating jet engines. This is an interesting fact, as the press repeatedly appeared on the information that Chelomei had copied German V-1 rockets, as Sergei Pavlovich Korolev had copied the V-2. This is only partly true. The fact is that Chelomei's first trial launch of the engine occurred in the second half of 1942, while the first "V-1" fell into the hands of the Soviet army only at the very end of the war, when Blizna was liberated in Poland and later, when the main plant in Peenemünde was seized. Until 1944, in the USSR, the topic of rocket missiles with PWRMD was very skeptical and drew attention to them only then, when in 1944, Germany struck the first blows in London. Stalin appealed to the People's Commissar of Defense with the question of who is dealing with this issue and here they remembered about Chelomey. As early as 1943, Chelomei tested the first V-1.

On September 19, 1944 was appointed chief designer and director of the plant number 51 of the People's Commissariat of the aircraft industry of the USSR. The design bureau (KB) headed by Chelomey was entrusted with the task of creating a new type of weapon - an unmanned plane-projectile. In 1953 the design bureau was disbanded. The present Military-Industrial Corporation "Scientific and Production Association of Mechanical Engineering" (Reutov, Moscow Region) is leading its history.

His ideas were fully realized in the mid-1950s, when he headed the OKB-52, which in time became a powerful scientific and design organization. Competition with serious rivals Ilyushin, Beriev and Mikoyan (the latter had the highest support in the Kremlin from his brother) was won. In June 1954, he headed the Special Design Group (SCG) to create sea cruise missiles, which included former employees of the design bureau of plant No. 51. In July 1955, the SKG was reorganized into the experimental design bureau No. 52 (OKB-52) and Chelomey was appointed chief designer. Since 1959 - the general designer OKB-52. In March 1966 OKB-52 was renamed the Central Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering (TsKBM).

Since 1959 he is the General Designer of the aviation, missile and rocket and space equipment of the Ministry of General Mechanical Engineering of the USSR. In the years 1960-81. also managed the branch of its design office, which was in Fili (former OKB-23, now - KB Salyut of the MV Khrunichev State Space Research and Production Center).

V.N. Chelomey was not only a great scientist, but also an outstanding engineer. In the 1950s. he expressed the idea of a drop-down wing, which greatly increased the combat readiness of the missile and allowed it to be placed in the launch canister. This technical solution is now used throughout the world. This idea is implemented in the cruise missile P-5 (adopted in 1959), like his idea of a rocket flight at an altitude of about 100 m above the water and virtually inaccessible to radar. V.N.Chelomei led the work on the cruise missile "Amethyst", the first in the world to start from under the water. From this period, the Russian submarine and surface navy began to deploy cruise missiles of V.N.Chelomey, which then had no fleet in the world: P-5D, P-5 (land variant, for coastal defense), P-6, Amethyst and Granite.

He supervised the creation of PWRD - a pulsating air-jet engine; aircraft-shells (10Kh, 16Kh, 10Khh, 14Kh); complexes with cruise missiles: for firing at ground targets (C-5, Meteorite), anti-ship complexes (P-6, P-35, Progress, Malachite , Basalt, Vulcan); space systems and apparatuses; strategic missile complexes with ICBMs: UR-200, UR-100, UR-100K, UR-100U, UR-100N, UR-100N UTTKh; rocket-carriers UR-500 and UR-500K ("Proton").

For the entire time of testing Chelomei products, there was never a disaster. There were unsuccessful launches, there were breakdowns, refusals, but people never died. The fact is that UR-100 rockets are still in the arsenal of strategic nuclear forces, in that all of our submarines that are armed with cruise missiles to fight aircraft carriers are armed with missiles made by V.N.Chelomei or his followers. It was he who first proposed the idea of separating warheads, but only realized it first by the US. His missiles are armed with almost all the large surface ships of the Russian Navy and coastal anti-ship complexes. The fact is that the Proton carrier rocket remains one of the most powerful and popular missiles in the world, and the international space station (ISS) contains the module "Zvezda".

Chelomei persuasively and colorfully stated and justified his proposals. Even critics gave him due, he always clearly, convincingly and easily expressed his thoughts, and with great skill and ability to adapt the speech to the understanding of the surrounding audience.

For the first time in the world, just 4 years after Gagarin's flight, Chelomei created a maneuvering satellite of the Polet type, on the basis of which a system for the destruction of satellites of the "IS", which was not deployed, was later created, but, nevertheless, 1993, after the death of Vladimir Nikolayevich. On his initiative, an early warning system for missile launches, "US-K," was developed, and a system of television global reconnaissance (TGR) was developed. All Soviet manned orbital stations, and later the international ISS, are based on the manned reconnaissance station Almaz, developed in OKB-52, which was launched as a result under the name "Salyut". Until the end of the 1980s, the USSR Navy had a unique system of global surveillance and targeting for the Granit cruise missiles - the MKRC "Legend". Works were also carried out on multiple-use ships "TKS", "MP-1", "M-12", "R-1" and "R-2" "LKS". The ideas that were laid down in the 1960s by Chelomey were reflected in the newest American unmanned spacecraft X-37 reusable.

After the transformation in January 1983, MKBM in the Scientific and Production Association of Mechanical Engineering (NPO of mechanical engineering) Chelomey was appointed its general designer and supervisor.

Vladimir Chelomei died on December 8, 1984, was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Vladimir Nikolayevich had to work in difficult conditions, if Malenkov and Khrushchev favored him, then the Minister of Defense Dmitri Ustinov repaired all sorts of obstacles, and even was satisfied when he learned of the death of the brilliant scientist. The failure of the manned lunar program of the USSR had only intensified the bad relations between Ustinov and Chelomey. Ustinov supported Korolev, and Korolev and Mishin were unable to implement their plans.

V.N. Chelomey was awarded orders: Lenin (1945, 1959, 1964, 1974, 1984), the October Revolution (1971), and medals of the USSR. In 1964. awarded the Gold Medal Zhukovsky for the best work on the theory of aviation, and in 1977. - Gold medal to them. A.M. Lyapunov - the highest award of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR for outstanding work in the field of mathematics and mechanics.

He was the author of 87 scientific works and inventions on a special subject. Member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the 9th, 10th and 11th convocations. He was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. His name is given to streets and squares in Moscow and Reutov (Moscow region), as well as a small planet of the solar system, registered in the international catalog under the number 8608. In Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, monuments to academician Chelomey have been erected and memorial plaques, on the territory of the NPO of mechanical engineering a memorial cabinet-museum was created.

For a long time his name and activities were classified. He became widely known only a few years after his death. At the end of May 2014, the publishing house Molodaya Gvardiya published the book "Chelomey" in the famous series "The Life of Remarkable People" (author - Nikolai Bodrichin). The wife is Ninel Vasilievna. Daughter - Evgenia Talyzina. His son Sergei (1952-99) continued his father's business: he worked in the NPO of mechanical engineering as a test engineer, in charge of the department "Spacecraft and aerospace systems" MSTU. N.E. Bauman. "Today, June 25, 1974, the Soviet Union launched the launch vehicle Proton, which brought into orbit the Soviet scientific space station Salut-3". This message of TASS was published in all the newspapers, transmitted on radio and television. Only specialists, the general Staff of the armed forces and the Pentagon knew the truth about what had been launched into orbit. The heavy strategic intercontinental missile has brought into space a military reconnaissance orbital station "Almaz " to carry out test firing from the airborne cannon. That sounds fantastic today. But the designer of this station and this rocket, twice the hero of Socialist Labor, the laureate of Lenin and state awards academician Vladimir Nikolaevich Chelomei was able to surprise both his country and the world.