Mikhail Iosifovich
Gurevich
1893-1976
Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich was an aircraft designer, co–head of OKB-155 (Russian Aircraft Company MiG), Doctor of Technical Sciences, Hero of Socialist Labor, winner of the Lenin and six Stalin Prizes. He studied at Kharkov University at the Faculty of Mathematics, but was expelled for civic activity after graduation, so from 1912 he continued his education in France at the University of Montpellier, then at the National School of Aeronautics and Space in Toulouse (France), where his classmate was the famous French aircraft designer Marcel Block. In 1917 he entered Kharkov Polytechnic Institute at the Department of Mechanics, where he studied with long breaks, due to the Civil War, and graduated in 1925 with a diploma of mechanical engineer in aircraft construction. An active participant in the Society of Aviation and Aeronautics, where he designed and manufactured his first aircraft – the gliders “Boomerang” and “Stork”. After that, he worked as a design engineer in the Kharkov branch of the society “Heat and Power”, was engaged in the design and construction of gliders. Then he left for Moscow, in 1929 he started working in the design bureau at the “Decade of October” plant, then as a design engineer and group leader in the OPO–4 of the Aviacrest. In 1936-1937, he was seconded to the United States to the Douglas aircraft factories, he participated in the development of the Douglas DS-3 (Li-2) passenger aircraft in the USSR, which was built under license. From April to December 1938, he was the chief designer of OKB-1 plant No. 84. In March 1939, he was transferred to plant No. 1 in the Design Bureau of N.N. Polikarpov. M.I. Gurevich was one of the founders of the Special Design Department established in December 1939 and headed by A.I. Mikoyan, becoming his deputy. In 1940, A.I. Mikoyan and M.I. Gurevich created the MiG-1 fighter (“Mikoyan and Gurevich”), and then its modification, the MiG-3. In 1940-1941, the MiG-3 was built in large series and took part in the battles of the Great Patriotic War. In 1940-1957 he was the Deputy Chief Designer, in 1957-1964 – the Chief Designer of the Mikoyan Design Bureau. During the years of the war he participated in the creation of experimental aircraft, after the war – in the development of high-speed and supersonic fighters MiG-9, MiG-15, Mig-17, MiG-19, MiG-21, MiG-29, MiG-31, many of which were manufactured in large series for a long time and were in service with the USSR Air Force. The last aircraft designed and built under his leadership were the MiG-25R long-range high-speed reconnaissance aircraft and the MiG-25P interceptor. He was awarded 4 Orders of Lenin, 2 Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of the Red Star, and medals.
Address: Moscow, Begovaya str., 17, bldg. 1
