On July 22, 1895, in the town of Glubokoe (today it is a city in the Vitebsk region of Belarus), the future aircraft designer Pavel Sukhoi was born. His father was a local teacher who came from a peasant family. In 1900, the family moved to Gomel, where Sukhoi's father was offered the position of director of a school for children of railway workers. A creative atmosphere reigned in the family - the Sukhi loved music, published a handwritten magazine, they had an excellent library.

During his life in Gomel, an incident occurred with Pavel Sukhy that determined his entire future life - once he saw an airplane in the sky under the control of pilot Sergei Utochkin. “It was so unexpected and amazing that it was breathtaking. Not a bird, but a man is flying over us, ”he later recalled.

In 1914, Sukhoi graduated from the Gomel gymnasium with a silver medal, where he achieved significant success in the study of physics and mathematics, and therefore decided to continue his studies at the Imperial Higher Technical School in Moscow (now the Bauman Moscow State Technical University).

From ensigns to constructors

Sukhoye handed over the documents necessary for admission to relatives in Moscow, but they were afraid for the safety of the papers and made a copy of them for the selection committee. It turned out that only original documents were accepted at the school, which is why Pavel missed enrollment. However, Sukhoi did not give up. He entered the Faculty of Mathematics of Moscow University, and a year later he still became a student at the IVTU.

At the school, Sukhoi began to take the first steps towards the career of an aircraft designer. He attended lectures by Nikolai Zhukovsky and took part in the work of his aeronautics circle. However, the plans were disrupted by the First World War.

After studying at the IVTU for only a year, Pavel Sukhoi was mobilized into the army and after graduating from the school of warrant officers went to the front. He fought until the October Revolution of 1917, and then returned to Moscow. However, the technical school was closed at that time, and Sukhoi left for Gomel.

Upon returning to his homeland, he found a job as a mathematics teacher in the city of Luninets in Western Belarus, where he met his future wife Sophia, a French language teacher. After the Polish invasion, they fled to Gomel. There, Sukhoi fell ill with typhus, and then scarlet fever. Doctors saved him, but due to complications in his throat, he spoke in muffled words for the rest of his life.

In 1921, Pavel Sukhoi recovered at the IVTU, and in 1924, before completing his studies, he got a job as a draftsman in the experimental department of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI). After defending his diploma and obtaining the qualification of a mechanical engineer, he was transferred to the design department.

  • Pavel Sukhoi in his youth

"On the cutting edge of science"

TsAGI management immediately saw great potential in Sukhoi. He was appointed head of the brigade working on the first Soviet all-metal fighter I-4 (ANT-5). The aircraft created by the Sukhoi team became a breakthrough in the domestic aircraft industry and was in service until the mid-1930s.

At the same time, Sukhoi was engaged in a gliding circle. There he survived a hard landing, after which he came to the conclusion that it was worth learning to fly at a younger age. Since then, however, he has been very attentive to the issue of comfort and safety of pilots.

Soon Sukhoi headed a brigade to create light aircraft. One of his subordinates, Vladimir Baluev, recalled that his colleagues were bribed by the politeness, calmness and efficiency of Sukhoi. “Working under the leadership of Pavel Osipovich, we learned other traits of his character: he did not tolerate irresponsible attitude to the assigned work, empty talk, sycophancy, indiscipline, and deceit,” he noted.

Later, under the leadership of Sukhoi, the ANT-25 aircraft was created, on which the crew of Valery Chkalov made their record flights to the Far East and to the United States through the North Pole. His brigade also designed the DB-1 and DB-2 bombers. In the civilian version of the latter, the crew of Valentina Grizodubova carried out their record flight. In 1936-1939, Sukhoi was the head of the design department and deputy chief designer of the aircraft plant No. 156.

The Sukhoi project won the competition announced in 1936 to create a new bomber codenamed Ivanov. Work on it led to the creation of the Su-2 aircraft. In 1939, Sukhoi became the chief designer at the serial aircraft plant №135 in Kharkov, and in 1940 - at the aircraft plant №289, from which a design bureau named in his honor later grew. At the end of the same year, he simultaneously took the position of plant director.

  • September 24-25, 1938 Polina Osipenko, Valentina Grizodubova and Marina Raskova (left to right) made a record non-stop flight on a Rodina plane on the Moscow-Far East route
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  • © Ivan Shagin

The Su-2 and the Su-4 created on its basis took part in the Great Patriotic War, but in 1942 their production was curtailed due to a lack of components. During the war, Sukhoi also created the Su-6 armored attack aircraft, but its serial production was abandoned due to the lack of a stock of engines. Sukhoi donated the state prize received for this work to the defense fund.

In 1949, the Sukhoi design bureau was disbanded, and he himself was transferred to the office of Andrei Tupolev as deputy chief designer. During the Korean War, the captured American Saber fighter was captured and delivered to the USSR. The study of the trophy was entrusted to Pavel Sukhoi. For this, a design bureau was created, which in 1953 was headed by Sukhoi.

There, under the leadership of Sukhoi, the Su-7, Su-9, Su-11, Su-15 and Su-17 aircraft were developed.

“I am proud that I had a chance to fly in the cars of Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi. He was an outstanding person and designer. It happened that he made decisions that seemed to contradict generally accepted ideas, were incomprehensible even to specialists. But time passed, and everyone became convinced that the idea of ​​the constructor was correct. His ability to foresight was always amazing, "- this is how Air Marshal Ivan Pstygo evaluated the work of Sukhoi.

  • Fighter-bomber Su-7
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  • © Vladimir Perventsev

According to the aviation expert Evgeny Lebedev, the Su-24 front-line bomber became the "breakthrough machine" for the Sukhoi Design Bureau. It could bend around the terrain in automatic mode and was hardly vulnerable to air defense systems. The Su-25 attack aircraft, which made its first flight in 1975, but is still in service with the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Air Forces of many other countries of the world, is generally recognized as a particularly successful development of the Sukhoi team.

From 1958 to 1974, Pavel Sukhoi was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, twice awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

“Taking care of the defense of the Fatherland, having spent a whole long life in tireless work, Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi created samples of defense technology at the cutting edge of science, on the verge of science fiction. He was the first among other general designers to find solutions that determined the profile of modern aircraft, ”recalled aircraft engine designer Arkhip Lyulka.

  • Aircraft designers Artyom Mikoyan, Alexander Yakovlev and Pavel Sukhoi (from left to right)
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  • © Vasily Malyshev

Pavel Sukhoi died on September 15, 1975. His name was given to the Aviation Engineering Design Bureau, which today is considered one of the leading in the world.

"Sukhoi laid the foundation for a whole family of aircraft, the crown of which today is the unparalleled Su-57 in the world," military expert Alexei Leonkov told RT. 

In turn, Evgeny Lebedev called Pavel Sukhoi a bright representative of the Soviet design school. In his opinion, he surpassed the first Soviet aircraft designers from whom he studied.

"Sukhoi has always been at the forefront of progress, his aircraft were distinguished by a high level of novelty, new breakthrough solutions, and they almost always topped the tables of world records," the expert summed up.