Boris Chertok, Soviet and Russian scientist-designer: biography, works

In the twentieth century Russia formed a whole galaxy of scientists, brilliant technicians, whose contribution to the conquest of the universe can not be overestimated. There is an opinion that the scientist-designer Boris Evseevich Chertok occupies a special place among them. His skate was the unique development of the "hearts" of missiles - management systems. He paid much attention to the development of satellite communications.

Substitute the twenty-ninth for the first

Born in 1912, long before the October Revolution, Chertok died very recently (in 2011). Live without a small age and keep a living, mobile mind - it's worth a lot! "It is necessary as long as possible to work for the good of society - this is the secret," Chertok asserted. Boris Yevseyevich, whose biography began in Lodz (now Polish, and formerly located on the lands of the Russian Empire), came to this world on the twenty-ninth of February. While issuing the certificate, the ancestors indicated the first of March.

1914 - the time when refugee flows flew from the horrors carried by the First World War. Running away from the terrible scenes of the battle for Lodz, carrying away a young son in his arms, the parents thought only of one thing: how to survive. Years will pass, and the boy will become an academician, a cosmic genius. The name of the Hero of Socialist Labor, winner of many awards, included not only the list of "The best aircraft designers in Russia", but also in the world ratings of the conquerors of the cosmic field.

Chertok's enthusiasm for technology was evident from the school's bench. The nine-year-old he graduated in 1929-m. However, a year earlier in the magazine "Radio to Everyone" came out the first development of a simple Soviet boy (universal tube radio receiver).

On the way to university diploma

In one thousand nine hundred and thirtieth year the young man came to the largest in the country aviation enterprise - plant number 22. MEI (power institute) graduated only in the fortieth, having received the specialty of an electrical engineer. By that time, the newly-minted specialist had in the asset not one author's certificate for important technical solutions (all of them super-serious, take at least an automatic bomb-dropper subordinated to smart electronics).

The trust of colleagues "outstripped" the university diploma. In one thousand nine hundred and thirty-fifth year, a talented external student (before graduating from university) was an engineer in the design bureau, where the king and god was Viktor Bolkhovitinov (since 1936 the design bureau was operating in the area of plant No. 84, in 1939 - on Enterprise No. 293 in Khimki).

Here Boris Chertok worked all the war years, beginning with one thousand nine hundred and fortieth. A rich track record also contains such information: he prepared for flight flying machines of future conquerors of the North Pole (leader of the "first-flyers" - Mikhail Vodopyanov), as well as the winged car of Sigismund Levanevsky, on which the brave man made a non-stop flight to the Soviet Union - America.

In the evacuation

In Bolkhovitinovsky KB Boris Evseevich created projects of unique electrical equipment. On their basis, the staff of the All-Union Electrotechnical Institute collected samples of devices subject to rigorous testing. Emerging novelties of military equipment, heavy bombers were required to be equipped with the most reliable aircraft generators and electric AC motors.

Many know the name of Academician Claudius Schoenfer. He headed the department of electrical machines of the electrotechnical institute and strongly supported the young specialist. Steps to introduce original aircraft systems promised success. But the clouds were gathering: a war broke out against the fascist invaders.

In one thousand nine hundred and forty-one, the most important defense enterprises were evacuated to a deep rear. Many employees and the main equipment of the plant No. 293 NII-1 NCAP temporarily settled in Bilimbae of the Sverdlovsk region. Boris Chertok recalled how much he worked physically at an air temperature of minus 50 degrees, starving (a very modest food ration did not save).

In the spring of 1945 a special group of scientists went to Germany with an official assignment. It was necessary to unobtrusively study the excellent missile technology of the Germans. The team headed Chertok. Boris Yevseyevich fulfilled his mission with honor until the beginning of 1947. He and Alexei Mikhailovich Isaev made a lot of efforts to open the enterprise "Raven" ("Rabe") in Thuringia, controlled by the troops of the state-winner of the USSR. The world lay in the post-war ruins, and in the nazi stronghold the Soviet-German missile institute increased its revolutions!

The Third Reich, back in 1944, made the rocket industry a branch of the newest industry. The tremendous developments of German scientists pushed for an increase in the activity of the searches of the USSR and the United States. Chertok and his colleagues worked hard to develop a device for igniting the fuel-air mixture. Difficult searches were crowned with an avant-garde system. The electrical ignition of liquid rocket engines (liquid or chemical rocket engines) was a breakthrough. The novelty was tested in one thousand nine hundred and forty-second, setting on the near fighter "BI-1" (fathers-creators - Bereznyak and Isayev). Nitric acid and kerosene were used as fuel.

A cherished meeting

NII-1 developed an important area: ground-to-surface missile control systems (long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles). In 1946 the Nordhausen Institute was launched on the basis of Rabe (it also included the Montana, where they produced Fau-22, and the base of Leestene), the name of the Chief Engineer of this enterprise was later recognized by the entire planet - SP Korolev (General Designer of the rocket and space industry of the USSR).

Beginning in 1946 and up to the 1950s Boris Yevseyevich combined two posts: he was the deputy chief designer Sergei Pavlovich and the head of the management systems department of the Military Research Institute of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1951 he was the head of the Division of Control Systems of the first design bureau. Famous aircraft designers in Russia Chertok and Korolev closely cooperated with the date of acquaintance of one of them before the death (the last was not in 1966).

The second role of the first person

"Otpochkivanie" from NII-88 (1956) was a step towards a new independent enterprise called "Experimental Design Bureau No. 1". From 1957 to 1963. Boris Chertok is the right hand of Sergei Korolev, the head of this unique organization.

D. The so-called. Chertok in 1963 received the post of deputy first person of the enterprise for scientific research. Work and at the same time headed the branch No. 1, where the development of space vehicles and their control systems was in full swing. After the death of the Queen, Vasily Mishin became the Chief Designer. Experienced and clever Boris Chertok became his deputy, plus supervised the complex of the Central Design Bureau of Experimental Mechanical Engineering.

From 1974 to 1992 - Deputy Chief (and then General) designer of the research and production complex Energia for control systems (NPK - former OKB-1, then TsBKEM in different years headed V. Mishin, V. Glushko, Yu Semenov).

Irreplaceable are

From one thousand nine hundred and ninety-third and until his departure to another world (2011) as a potential "shooting in the universe" Boris Chertok regularly gave professional advice to the general designer of the SP Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (formerly OKB-1 ).

Following the stages of a long way, the conclusion suggests itself: all the activity of a scientist and an engineer is the realization of strategic plans aimed at equipping missiles and spacecraft with such levers of control that will make them capable of the longest flight.

The school, created by a brilliant scientist, is still proud of, guided by it when developing new scientific directions. It is judged on the level reached by domestic space technology piloted by man. Chertok developed a theory of the permanence of structures, the organization of production of steering machines and drive devices.

All are independent and single

The solution of basic questions stimulated the further development of the theory and technology of the rocket and space drive. It became possible to produce complex mechanisms for docking ships, there was hydraulics with digital control and much more. Man was able to stay in space for a long time.

Chertok Boris Yevseyevich and his colleagues developed the basics of designing autonomous devices as an integral part of a unified system of intercontinental missiles. Their titanic work made the reality of a rocket for bringing a payload (carriers).

In a close study of the regularities of the distribution of failure of technical devices and structures (reliability theory). The causes and models of the malfunctions become clear. A qualitative leap resulted in the appearance of an intercontinental R-7 missile. Further principles were honed on the modifications of this miracle of military equipment.

Remembered everyone, remembered everything

In 1999, a book was published, which consisted of four monographs. Since then and to the present time it is a bestseller, a "space encyclopedia", which specialists from different countries dreamed of getting, millions of ordinary readers. On an uncomplicated cover it is deduced: "BE Chertok" Rockets and people "". All ingenious is simple, but how difficult!

Designer's wife Ekaterina Golubkina (1910-2004) insisted that the husband, whose work biography for many years was hiding under the label "secret", told the descendants of those with whom he worked side by side. Outstanding scientists developed rocket and space science, created a previously unknown industry.

The inhabitants of the 21st century have received valuable memories of the development of the industry. Having read the first volume, one can study in detail the course of a tense battle of reason: Soviet scientists against British and American specialists.

In the book No. 2, the designer talks about the hot time preceding the launch of a spacecraft rotating around the Earth along a geocentric orbit (an artificial satellite), flights of fantastic vehicles aimed at the Moon, Venus, and Mars. A lot of pages are devoted to the history of the creation of the "East", on board which the unknown distance went Yuri Gagarin.

Message to descendants

In the third volume, Boris Chertok talks about how a Soviet man became a pioneer in the creation of orbital stations. In the West and in the USSR, many articles and books on the history of the space program of the country of victorious socialism were written. There is an opinion that the memoirs of Academician Boris Chertok have become the most informative, detailed. The book "Rocket and Man" was repeatedly reprinted in the country and abroad.

In the last, fourth monograph, the scientist conducts a fascinating story about the program, covering the period from 1968 to 1974, when one by one followed the victory of Americans in the study of the closest moon - the moon.

One of the distinguishing features of this volume is a detailed description of the origin of the Soviet project, which began to be realized in the 1970s with the construction of space stations Salyut and ended with the multi-module Mir complex (1980s).

The most memorable chapters are related to the tragedy of Soyuz-11, when cosmonauts Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsayev died. The book ends with the description of the end of the N-1 program and the birth of the ISS "Energia-Buran" under the leadership of Glushko. This is a fascinating view from the inside on political, technological and personal conflicts at a time when the Soviet space program was at its zenith.

In the two thousand and ninth year, the First Channel of Russian Television organized the premiere screening of the documentary film of Roskosmos television studio Boris Chertok. Shot in the Universe ". A great man, the owner of many awards, the conscience of all the engineers of the modern era, as always, spoke the truth, not offending anyone, not humiliating, thinking about what he had lived and experienced. In the last shots, he asked forgiveness from young scientists for the fact that his generation could not keep a great power - the USSR.