On this day in aviation history, February 7, 1906, aircraft designer Oleg Antonov was born. Beginning as a humble glider enthusiast, Antonov would go on to head the Antonov Design Burau, which built some of the largest transport aircraft in the world and transitioned from a Soviet Design Bureau in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic to one of the largest industries of an independent Ukraine.
Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov was born on February 7, 1906, in the village of Troitsa, some 56 kilometers (34 miles) southwest of Moscow. His father was a civil engineer, and the family was ethnically Russian. In 1912, the Antonov family moved to Saratov in southern Russia, where the young Oleg would graduate from secondary school. As a youth, Oleg Antonov was fascinated by aviation, especially gliders. In 1923, 17-year-old Antonov was active in the Saratov chapter of the Air Fleet Friends Society, which sought to inspire the youths of the newly founded Soviet Union to pursue careers in aviation, namely for the defense of the USSR. In 1924, Oleg Antonov built his first glider, the OKA-1 Golub (Dove), which he took to compete in the Second All-Union Gliding Tests in Crimea while studying at Saratov State University.
As he completed his studies, Antonov designed, built, and flew more gliders, which were reflective of the worldwide trend of sports gliders designed to introduce people worldwide to aviation. By 1930, he had graduated from Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (now Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University in St. Petersburg, Russia), one of the premier institutions for higher education in the USSR. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Antonov developed over 40 different gliders as chief designer of the Central Bureau of Glider Structures in Tushino, Moscow, such as the Antonov A-1 training glider. By 1938, Oleg Antonov had become chief designer of an aircraft bureau in Leningrad run by Alexander Yakovlev. Among the projects Antonov worked on for Yakovlev was the Antonov OKA-38 Aist, a Soviet copy of the German Fieseler Fi 156 Storch liaison aircraft, powered by a Voronezh MV-6, a licensed-built Renault 6P engine, but although two aircraft would be completed, further development was halted with the German invasion of the Soviet Union War in June 1941.
The disastrous start of what the Soviets would call the Great Patriotic War would see them forced back to the gates of Moscow before they began pushing the Germans back west. Antonov’s most successful glider design during WWII was the Antonov A-7 combat glider, which could carry 8 fully equipped troops or 910 kg (2,000 lb) worth of cargo, being towed into the air by Tupolev TB-3s, Tupolev SBs, and Ilyushin DB-3 bombers. The A-7s were incredibly successful in silently landing behind German lines to deliver supplies to Soviet partisans in occupied territory. Such was the value of the An-7 to partisan operations that Oleg Antonov was awarded the Medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War” 1st class.
However, one less than successful design by Oleg Antonov was the Antonov A-40, which paired a T-60 light tank with a disposable set of biplane wings and a twin-boom tail to be towed into the air and glide to the battlefield. The only towing plane available for the first test flight on September 2, 1942, was the four-engine TB-3, and even when the A-40 flying tank was stripped of its ammunition, the TB-3 had to fly at full power while fighting the weight and drag of the A-40. As the TB-3’s engines began overheating, the aircraft was forced to release the A-40 early in the flight, and test pilot Sergei Anokhin managed to land the A-40 and drive back to base after detaching the wings and tail. Although the Antonov A-40 proved it could glide, and land, a lack of suitable towing planes and advancements in conventional tanks led to the cancellation of the A-40, but it would be far from the last time Antonov was involved in airborne tanks.
After the war, Oleg Antonov sought to leave the Yakovlev Design Bureau to lead his own. On May 31, 1946, he was appointed as Head of the Antonov Design Bureau in Novosibirsk in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR). One year later, in 1947, the first aircraft designed and built by the bureau, the Antonov An-2 (NATO reporting name “Colt”), made its first flight under the designation SKh-1. This design was developed to replace the Polikarpov Po-2 for use as an agricultural and utility biplane, but its ability to operate from short, undeveloped regions and its rugged design would see the aircraft remain in use throughout the Cold War for civilian and military purposes despite its anachronistic looks, and even today, many of these biplanes continue to be in service.
In 1952, the Antonov Design Bureau was sent to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR) to establish itself in Kyiv (now referred to by the Ukrainian-language spelling Kyiv) as part of the efforts to revitalize the local aviation industry in the wake of the Second World War. As the Bureau relocated its equipment and workers to Kyiv, Oleg Antonov resettled in the capital of the Ukrainian SSR as well and would live there for the rest of his life. It would be in Kiev that the Antonov Design Bureau would begin building some of the largest and most widely used turboprop transports of the Soviet Air Force, from the An-12 (NATO reporting name “Cub”) to the An-22 “Antei” (NATO reporting name: “Cock”). Under Oleg Antonov, the Design Bureau also produced transports that also served as airliners, such as the An-24 (NATO reporting name: Coke), and produced the An-124 Ruslan strategic airlifter (NATO reporting name: “Condor”), the world’s largest military transport, and the basis for the creation of the An-225 Mriya (Dream) (NATO reporting name: “Cossack”)), which was originally designed to carry the Soviet space shuttle Buran before becoming the world’s largest commercial airlifter, drawing attention wherever it flew until its destruction at the hands of Russian military forces during the opening days of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Even though he oversaw the development of transports of immense size and carrying capacity, Oleg Antonov continued his lifelong passion for building gliders, which included the A-11, A-13, and A-15 gliders used for sport flying across the Soviet Union. In his personal life, Oleg was married three times and fathered four children. He also enjoyed amateur painting and was reported to have said, “If not for designing, I would like to become a painter.”
On April 4, 1984, Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov died in Kyiv at 78. He is currently buried in Baikove Cemetery alongside many prominent figures of Soviet and Ukrainian history. Following Ukraine’s declaration of independence on August 24, 1991, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991, the Antonov Design Bureau became the state-owned Antonov Company. In the years since Ukraine’s independence was announced, Antonov, alongside its cargo airline division, Antonov Airlines, became one of Ukraine’s largest companies, with aircraft production continuing in Kyiv and seeing the export of its products worldwide. Antonov Airlines also provided the use of its massive transport aircraft, such as the An-124s and the now-destroyed singular An-225, to fly bulk cargo that would be otherwise impossible to ship using any other commercial aircraft. With the Russo-Ukrainian War still raging on as of this writing, it remains unclear how the company will continue domestic and international business, as that remains to be determined by any potential outcome of the war in which Antonov transports are being used by both the Ukrainian and Russian air forces.
In life and in death, Oleg Antonov has received numerous awards for his contributions to aviation. In 1952, he received the Stalin Prize (later renamed the USSR State Prize) for the development of the An-2 biplane transport, the Lenin Prize in 1962, three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, and was made an Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (now the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). In 1999, he was posthumously inducted into the International Air and Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air and Space Museum and has been honored by both Ukraine and the Russian Federation by naming city streets for him, placing him on postage stamps, and in 2006, the National Bank of Ukraine and the Bank of Russia both issued their own commemorative coins on the 100th anniversary of Antonov’s birth. However, perhaps the most lasting tribute to Oleg Antonov’s legacy are the many planes of his company that have been preserved in museums or currently remain in active service around the world to this death, some 119 years after his birth.
Today in Aviation History is a series highlighting the achievements, innovations, and milestones that have shaped the skies. All the previous anniversaries are available HERE
