RUSSIA'S TOP AIRCRAFT DESIGNERS

Semen A. Lavochkin, 51, rumpled, plodding builder of the LA series of Red fighters (the initials, as in all Russian planes, come from the designer's name). Son of a rabbi, he learned his trade for ten years, got his big chance after the late '30s purges, finally hit pay dirt in 1943 with his light, highly maneuverable LA5 ("The wooden savior of Stalingrad"). Now working on long-range, single-jet escort fighters (LA-17) and twin-jet night fighters (LA-15).

Artem I. Mikoyan, 52, Armenian-born brother of top Politburocrat Anastas I. Mikoyan and designer of Russia's famed MIG-15, which won him the 1947 Stalin Prize. Hot-tempered, limelight-hogging, he teamed up with Structural Specialist Mikhail Gurevich to produce World War II's MIG1 and MIG3 (the Russian Spitfire), after the war turned out a jet-propelled MIG-15, the first Russian jet to go into quantity production. He has twice been accused of using "capitalist tactics" to boost production of his own planes over others.

Alexander S. Yakovlev, 46, handsome, dashing, longtime wonderboy of Red aviation. At 21, he turned out his first plane, a light trainer, by the time he was 30, had built 18 different types, most famous of which was the Piper Cub-like UT-2. His YAK fighter series was rated by French pilots as the best short-range interceptors of World War II. A daredevil and woman-chaser, he likes to drive fast, test his own planes, has had so many narrow escapes that Stalin gave him a Zis (Packard) sedan and restraining motorcycle escort. Now working on advanced rocket (YAK-21) and swept-wing jet (YAK-25) interceptors.

Sergei V. Iliushin, 57, rags-to-riches designer of the legendary IL-2 (Stormovik). A poor peasant's son in Czarist days, he trekked 300 miles to Moscow at the age of 15 to get into aviation. Rose slowly through the ranks, first as mechanic then as chief mechanic. When orders came down for an attack plane, Iliushin's was the only design smaller than a B17. After the war, turned out twin-engine (IL-12) and four-engine (IL-18) transports that look something like U.S. Convairs and Boeing Stratocruisers. Now working on a fast, twin-jet light bomber (IL-26) to replace the old Stormovik. Curt, uneducated, vain, he boasts that all the digging by the MVD has never turned up a disloyal act.

Andrei N. Tupolev, 62, Russia's top heavy-bomber man and last of the "old guard" Red designers. Quiet, scholarly, he set up the first aerodynamics research center in 1918, together with Professor Zhukovsky four years later built his first airplane, a timber and plywood single-engine monoplane. Has turned out 30 major planes from light puddle-jumpers to 1934's lumbering, eight-engine Maxim Gorky (which crashed after a few flights). Exiled during the purges, he came back in 1942 to design attack bombers (TU-2) for the Red air force. Greatest engineering feat: copying the U.S. B29, getting it in limited production within a year. Reportedly working on a Russian turboprop version of the U.S. B-36.

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