The designer who delivered the intercontinental jet bomber Tupolev said was impossible: in 22 months
When Stalin wanted an intercontinental jet bomber, Tupolev said it was impossible. Myasishchev flew the M-4 in 22 months. Tupolev later conceded: "Without Myasishchev we would have had no such bomber."
The defining figure of Soviet heavy bomber design after Tupolev, he made the M-4 Molot (Bison), the world's first operational intercontinental turbojet strategic bomber, a reality in 22 months when Tupolev had told Stalin it could not be done. He began in Tupolev's KB on the TB-1, TB-3, and ANT-20 Maxim Gorky, then was arrested in 1938 and designed the Pe-2 alongside Petlyakov in the NKVD's TsKB-29 sharashka. In 1951 Stalin personally ordered OKB-23 revived; Myasishchev delivered the M-4, followed by the supersonic M-50 and the 3M that set 19 world records. He directed TsAGI from 1960 to 1967, steering the USSR's central aerospace research establishment, and his design bureau outlived him: its VM-T Atlant carried Buran shuttle components to Baikonur.
Career Timeline
- 1926–34Tupolev KB (AGOS TsAGI) — wing design for TB-1, TB-3, ANT-20
- 1934–37Head of experimental aircraft brigade (KB-6) at TsAGI; ANT-41 torpedo bomber
- 1937–38Chief designer at Plant No. 84 — adapted DC-3 into Li-2 (~14,000 built)
- 1938–40Arrested; designed Pe-2 under Petlyakov in NKVD TsKB-29 sharashka
- 1940–43Released, headed own OKB; DVB-102, USSR's first pressurized-cabin bomber
- 1943–46Chief designer at Plant No. 22 — Pe-2 variants, DIS escort fighter, DB-108
- 1946–51Dean & department chair at MAI; OKB dissolved for 'low output'
- 1951–60Chief/General Constructor OKB-23 — M-4 (1953), 3M (1956), M-50 (1959); 19 world records
- 1960–67Head of TsAGI — directed supersonic, variable-geometry, and VTOL research
- 1967–78General Constructor, EMZ — M-17 Stratosphera, M-18, M-20, VM-T Atlant