Nikolay Kamov Aviation designer biography

From the legendary “floor” to modern helicopters to the birthday of the creator of the first domestic helicopters on September 14, Nikolai Kamov was born in Irkutsk, who became one of the creators of domestic helicopter construction. It is believed that the word "helicopter" itself is its invention. Nikolai Kamov consistently defended the importance of helicopter construction for the state and the viability of the proper scheme of the screws, which became the hallmark of its design bureau.

Today, the devices of Kamov JSC Helpers “Helicopters of Russia” are the only helicopters in the world with a coaxial scheme produced in series. The beginning of the path as a student of the Tomsk Technological Institute, the young Nikolai Kamov first saw an airplane in action and finally “fell ill” with aeronautics. He was not taken to the Red Army Aviation squad - the innate vice of his right hand affected him.

Therefore, the student began to collect all possible information on the aviation topic. At the institute, his desk neighbor was an outstanding pilot, aircraft pioneer, Khariton Slavosov, who was already famous for his records, who, of course, also fueled Kamov’s interest in the Aviateme. The father of Nikolai Ilyich was a teacher of literature from the merchant family, and his mother was a midwife of Polish origin.

An interesting fact: the childhood of the two founders of the Soviet helicopter construction, Kamov and Mile, it passed literally in the neighboring courtyards of Irkutsk with a difference of several years. As a child, Kolya Kamov was fond of medicine and chemistry, but after graduation, he firmly decided to become an engineer. The institute airplane helped him to replenish theoretical knowledge on aerodynamics, and starting with the third year of kami he himself purposefully studies aircraft industry.

It should be noted that Nikolai became the youngest graduate in the history of the Tomsk Technological Institute. After graduating from the university, the kams does not depart from the dream to create planes and goes to the mechanical engineer at the Moscow concession plant of Junkers. For three years, he passes all the stages of the production of aircraft machines, and in the evenings he studies works on aerodynamics.

After Kamov, he goes to work in the workshops of “Dobrolet”, where the same “Junkers” repairs the same engineer. Thanks to Kamov, on the “Dobroleus” they begin to independently produce parts of aircraft in return for expensive German. The young engineer not only repairs German cars, but also improves their design to reduce the run. Grigorovich, who was engaged in experimental sea aircraft.

Here, Kamov became interested in the idea of ​​a rotor -wing aircraft in which he saw many advantages. On grains, information about cars with a supporting screw is collected on initiative principles. Together with a colleague N. Skrzhinsky, Kamov creates the first Soviet auto -fat, aircraft, which uses a load -free screw, which uses to create lifting force, creates a aircraft - a aircraft.

The first flight of a rotor -winging machine became possible thanks to the enthusiasm of all participants in the work, support for Osawaiahim and a universal atmosphere of interest in aviation in the country. The creation of the first agricultural engine laid the foundations of helicopter construction in the USSR and formed the first specialists in this field.

In the year, Kamov goes to work at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute of TsAGI, where he is engaged exclusively with helicopters. In TsAGI, Kamov leads the brigade, which, on the instructions of the military, is developed by a double car fat, A-7, designed for exploration and adjustment of fire. In the year, the car rises for the first time. The A-7 was the first military animal in the world and the first serial rotor-winged aircraft in the USSR.

In the Great Patriotic War, a squadron of five A-7 vehicles took part in combat sorties. Due to their ability to take off almost vertically, were very useful for using Smolensk region in the forests. The first helicopter in the year in the country creates the first plant of rotor rooms, the director and chief designer of which is Nikolai Kamov, and his deputy Mikhail Mil.

However, until the end it was not possible to rebuild the plant - the war forced the beginning to evacuate to the Urals. Here, work continues on a “jumping” carrier-corrective AK, for whom there was no run. However, they did not manage to finish it - the KB of helicopter construction was disbanded. In the year, Kamov returns from evacuation and organizes a group of new technology at the Bureau of New Technology, in which, on a public basis, the first helicopter of the coaxial scheme is designed - this scheme, which later became a branded difference between Kamovsky machines, was known for a long time.

Even Mikhailo Lomonosov in the year showed a model of an aerodynamic machine with two screws on the same axis. Many designers experimented with a similar scheme, recognizing its advantages: compactness and maneuverability. And again, almost at the full enthusiasm of kami with colleagues and students from scratch, is developing the first active helicopter-a single light Ka-8, or, as it was called, a "flying motorcycle." Ka-8 takes part in the parade in honor of the day of the air fleet of the year.

Then the obsolete name "Helicopter" was officially replaced for the first time with a "helicopter".According to one version, the word “helicopter” itself was invented by Kamov together N. The Ka-8 demonstration was a great success, and Kamov was proposed to lead a specialized design bureau with his own production base. Simple in design, small -sized and maneuverable, it became a direct continuation of the KAMA Kamov’s next brainchild of Kamov, which was supposed to be used to combat submarines, intelligence and as a coherent.

Since the year, Ka was seriously produced at the Ulan-Ude aircraft factory. In addition to use in the military fleet, which was successfully used in agriculture and in fishing fishing. After it was a passenger KA, who developed the theme of the “air taxi”, who had long interested Kamov. The helicopter turned out to be light, elegant and comfortable, could transport up to three passengers or one lying patient with a doctor in the sanitary version.

Despite the fact that Ka was released more than more, he did not become a staging helicopter in the history of the design bureaus, since a similar to his ideas Nikolai Ilyich Kamov had always been adopted for public operation, they were always original. The spinning rifle, built on the basis of the Li-2 aircraft, with two giant load-bearing screws with a diameter of 22.5 m and the ability to lift more than 15 tons of cargo, set eight world records in the year.

But a series of disasters and great difficulties in managing the original machine forced to abandon its use. The first combat helicopter and the “flying chassis” developing the theme of the KA as an anti -submarine helicopter, Kamova OKB releases a more powerful KA, capable of lifting more special radar equipment for searching for submarines. It became the first Soviet helicopter created specifically for combat use, and served in the fleet for about 30 years.

Later, on its basis, a helicopter was created as capable of transporting a load weighing up to 2 tons on an external suspension, and inside the fuselage up to 1.5 tons. For the creation of an anti-submarine helicopter, Nikolai Ilyich Kamov was awarded the state prize.

And in the year, on the day of the seventh anniversary, the main designer was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Kamov always tried to think about the prospect of the design team entrusted to him. So the idea of ​​a new machine arose that could replace low-lifting KA and Mi-1 in agriculture, where the helicopter is especially convenient due to the frequent absence of airfields and a complex relief.

In this case, the device must be multi -purpose, so as not to idle between the seasons. Such a helicopter was a double -engine KA, which worked on the principle of a “flying chassis”: a different suspension could be installed behind the cabin of pilots - a passenger block, tank, a winch or other equipment. In the year, Ka first rose to the sky. The flight continues with the last machine, which Nikolai Ilyich managed to work on, became a multi -purpose ship -vehicle helicopter, which absorbed all the best from previous models.

In the year, already in the hospital, the general designer congratulated the plant’s team on the fly, and after a week he was gone. In the year of the KB and the Helicopter Plant, the name N. Nikolai Kamov was assigned an outstanding personality, combining the talents of the engineer and organizer. He created the strongest team of designers in the country, who from a student bench burned with a desire to make helicopters.

The important achievement of Kamov was that he was able in practice to prove the prospects of the coaxial scheme, by establishing it by establishing it as the main one for his design bureaus. The top of the development of the design heritage of Kamov became the shock helicopters “Black Shark” and KA “Alligator” created after his departure.