The designer who opened the Soviet jet age without copying a single German engine
"Many people simply did not understand how a jet entering 'something' and coming out of 'something' could move an airplane." — the reaction Lyulka met in the late 1930s when he first explained his turbojet concept.
A Soviet aero-engine designer born in Ukraine. In 1941 he patented the world's first turbofan engine design, and, refusing to copy captured German equipment, completed the USSR's first indigenous turbojet, the TR-1, in 1947. As General Designer of OKB-165 (later NPO Saturn), his AL-series engines (AL-7, AL-21, AL-31F) powered generation-defining Sukhoi, MiG, and Tupolev aircraft; the AL-31F remains the heart of the Su-27 family to this day.
Career Timeline
- 1931Graduated Kyiv Polytechnic Institute; Kharkov turbogenerator plant
- 1933–39Lecturer at Kharkov Aviation Institute; gas turbine research
- 1939–41SKB-1 at Kirov Plant; RD-1 turbojet; world's first turbofan patent
- 1941–43Diesel engineer at Chelyabinsk tank plant during the war
- 1946–57Chief Designer of OKB-165; TR-1, the first Soviet turbojet, passes state tests (1947)
- 1957–81General Designer of OKB-165; AL-7, AL-21, AL-31F engine series
- 1968–84Full member, USSR Academy of Sciences; chair of Gas Turbine Commission
The AL Engine Series: From AL-7 to AL-31F
Lyulka's TR-1 was the starting point for indigenous Soviet jet propulsion, but his true legacy was the engine series bearing his initials AL (Arkhip Lyulka). The AL-7 axial-flow turbojet of the 1950s powered the Su-7 and Su-7B fighter-bombers; its AL-7PB variant set a world speed record for seaplanes, and the AL-7F drove the Su-17. The AL-21, developed in the late 1960s, became the heart of the Su-24 variable-geometry fighter-bomber and was also adopted for the MiG-23B. Aircraft equipped with AL engines set more than 50 world records.
In the 1970s, when Pavel Sukhoi requested an engine with unorthodox characteristics for the next-generation Su-27 air-superiority fighter, Lyulka took on his most challenging assignment. The AL-31F, designed from 1976–77, had to deliver 12,500 kg of thrust with a thrust-to-weight ratio exceeding 1, and the team continually refined it through repeated redesigns of the T-10 prototype. Completed in 1984, just before Lyulka's death, the AL-31F became the standard powerplant for the entire Su-27 family (including the Su-30, Su-33, and Su-34) and was adopted for China's Chengdu J-10 and license-produced by HAL in India. Civil derivatives followed: the AL-31ST for gas-pumping stations and the AL-31STE for power generation. In 2001, the Lyulka design bureau merged with Rybinsk Motors to form NPO Saturn, and the AL-31 family remains the backbone of Russian military aviation to this day.