20.05.2020

The 95th anniversary of Aleksey Tupolev’s birth

The 95th anniversary of Aleksey Tupolev’s birth

May 20, 2020 marks the 95th anniversary of the birth of the Soviet aircraft designer, Hero of Socialist Labor, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Aleksey Tupolev.

Aleksey A. Tupolev was born in the family of Andrey Tupolev, an outstanding scientist and aircraft designer. At the age of 17 he came to work for the Tupolev experimental design bureau. In 1949 he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute and continued to work in the design bureau. He took part in the design work for the creation of the Tu-16, Tu-95 and other strategically important Tupolev aircraft.

In the second half of the 1950s, unit "K" was formed in the Tupolev experimental design bureau, where Alexey Tupolev was in charge of the fundamentally new development of a family of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for various applications. Owing to his systematic engineering thinking, the supersonic Tu-123 “Yastreb” UAV, fully recoverable reusable Tu-141, Tu-143 UAVs and reconnaissance systems based on them were brought to the series and adopted.
One of Aleksey’s significant projects was his participation in the building of the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft Tu-144.
On December 31, 1968 the aircraft performed its maiden flight.

In 1973, Aleksey A. Tupolev became the general designer of the experimental design bureau. He supervised works for the military projects Tu-22M2, Tu-22M3, Tu-142M, Tu-95MC, solved the issues of putting the passenger Tu-154 into operation, and organized works for its further development.
Of particular note is the outstanding organization of work for creating the strategic aircraft system Tu-160, which has no equals anywhere in the world even now, by the Tupolev experimental design bureau team led by Aleksey Tupolev, for launching the aircraft in mass production and for transferring it to service with the Russian Air Force.

In the 1980s-1990s, Aleksey Tupolev successfully implemented the technical experience gained by the Tupolev design bureau in creating advanced passenger aviation for the Tu-204/214 aircraft family. The Tu-214 aircraft is manufactured at the present time as well. Under Aleksey’s leadership, design work for hypersonic applications and experimental work for the introduction of alternative fuel sources into aviation were conducted. The Tu-155 prototypes operating with liquid hydrogen and liquefied natural gas were constructed on the basis of the Tu-154 aircraft.

In addition to his work for the experimental design bureau, Aleksey A. Tupolev was largely involved in teaching and research activity; he was a professor and head of the Moscow Aviation Technology Institute department.

Aleksey A. Tupolev was a talented aircraft engineer and designer, made an invaluable contribution to the development of national passenger aviation and military aircraft systems of long-range aviation.