Viktor Yakovlevich Litvinov

Виктор Яковлевич Литвинов

1910–1983 ○ Natural causes

The factory director who led Soviet aircraft and rocket mass production for 33 years

“In Kuybyshev we focused on organizing flow production, but we changed the conveyor principle: instead of moving the aircraft during stationary assembly, we decided to move the work stands themselves.” — Explaining the conveyor innovation at the Il-2 plant.

A pivotal organizer of the Soviet aircraft industry. Born in Taganrog, he graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI) and rose through Factory No. 1 from technician to director (1944). During the war he established the conveyor-belt mass production system for the Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik; after the war he successively put the MiG-9 and MiG-15 jet fighters, the Tu-16 bomber, and the Tu-104 airliner into series production. In the late 1950s he organized the manufacture of the world's first ICBM, the R-7, and the Vostok launch vehicle that carried Yuri Gagarin into space. From 1965 to 1973 he served as Deputy Minister of General Machine-Building of the USSR, overseeing missile and space industry administration. Twice Hero of Socialist Labor and twice winner of the Stalin Prize.