Founder of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, the man behind the Su-7, Su-24, and Su-27
Walking home from the gymnasium in Gomel, the boy Pavel saw an airplane cross the sky and his breath caught. He climbed into the attic that same day and began building a model. "It was not a bird — a man was flying above us!"
A Soviet aircraft designer of Belarusian peasant stock who entered aviation as Tupolev's student at the Moscow Technical School. He founded the Sukhoi Design Bureau (OKB-51) in 1939 and delivered the Su-2 light bomber, only to see his bureau liquidated in 1949 after falling from Stalin's favor. Re-established in 1953 after Stalin's death, his OKB produced the backbone of Cold War Soviet tactical aviation: the Su-7 fighter-bomber (the main strike aircraft of the 1960s), the Su-9 and Su-15 interceptors, and the variable-sweep Su-17 and Su-24. Admired by peers for his technical foresight, Sukhoi launched the Su-27 program, which became one of the world's premier fighters. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor, winner of the Lenin and Stalin Prizes, he served as a Deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet from 1958 to 1974.
Career Timeline
- 1915–1920Entered Moscow Technical School; drafted, served as artillery warrant officer, demobilized
- 1921–1925Resumed studies at MVTU; graduated under Tupolev with fighter-aircraft thesis
- 1925–1938TsAGI / Tupolev KB — contributed to I-4, ANT-25, ANT-37bis; rose to design department deputy chief
- 1939–1949Founded Sukhoi OKB — Su-2 bomber, Su-6 (Stalin Prize), Su-9 early jet fighter
- 1949–1953OKB liquidated by Stalin; deputy chief designer at Tupolev KB
- 1953–1975OKB-51 re-established — Su-7, Su-9, Su-15, Su-17, Su-24; launched Su-27 program
- 1958–1974Deputy of the USSR Supreme Soviet
Related historical events
- 1928–1937The Five-Year Plans and the Soviet TransformationAircraft designer
- 1941–1945The Great Patriotic WarDesigner of the Su-2 light bomber and Su-6 ground-attack aircraftHis Su-2 equipped 13 regiments at the war's outbreak and saw action in the border battles, the defense of Kiev and Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk. In 1943 he received the Stalin Prize 1st class for the Su-6 and donated the entire award to the Defence Fund.