Konstantin Alekseevich Kalinin

M
ilitary pilot since 1916, K.A.Kalinin joined the Moscow Aviation Technicum (College) June 1, 1920.
October 1920 - passed to the second 'course' ahead of schedule. Unlike now in the USA, educational institutions in Russia/USSR have solid schedule of classes. To jump from one 'course' to another is possible only for the most determined, strong and lucky students.
March 1921 - head of scientific-technical section of the IVF;
In 1922 (first waves of purges, yet soft) was suspended for one year, as an intelligent (why not?) who participated in Ukrainian nationalistic Petlura movement (Petlurovschina) and did not prove himself as a Party (Communist one of course) activist.
June 1922 - S.V.Ilyushin submitted petition in his support. S.V.Ilyushin was a member of the IVF Party organization, so it was quite safe for him.
November 11 - expelled from the IVF for missing some tests;
Since 1925 - one of the most prominent Soviet aircraft designers. He worked mostly at Ukraina (Kharkiv), where he was able to pick the brightest graduates of the Kharkov Aviation Institute (KhAI), like I.G.Neman, Z.I.Itskovich, A.Ya.Scherbakov, V.Ya.Krylov and others.
Airplanes of his design shared several common features:
  • they were monoplanes;
  • wing and tail plane - elliptical;
  • fuselage - wielded steel tubes frame;
  • wing structure - mostly wood;
  • cover - fabric;
    Taking into account historical period, those were materials of choice. Kalinin's passenger aircraft were cheap and very easy to maintain. Plus they were more economical than any other domestic and foreign civil aircraft. No wonder, that they were widely used.
    Military aircraft built by K.A.Kalinin were all of unique design. He had courage to get involved with advanced project, but had no chance to bring them to mass production. And it was not necessarily his fall.
    Modified September 4, 1997
    by Alexandre Savine;    		 Back to
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