Mozhaisky a f biography. Literary and historical notes of a young technician. member of the Russian People's Academy of Sciences

Seas Mozhaisky in 1849 received the rank of lieutenant.

From 1850 to 1852 Alexander Mozhaisky on the Baltic Sea. In 1853-1855 - on the frigate "Diana" he participated in the long-distance campaign Kronstadt-Japan. In 1855 he was assigned to the brig Antenor, which sailed the Baltic Sea and guarded the approaches to the Gulf of Finland from sabotage raids by Anglo-French ships.

In 1863, Mozhaisky resigned due to the forced reduction in the size of the fleet after the Crimean War. From 1869 to 1876 Mozhaisky lived in the village of Voronovitsa, Podolsk province, located 20 km from Vinnitsa.

In 1879, Mozhaisky was again enlisted in the real military service in the rank of captain of the 1st rank and sent to the Naval Cadet Corps, where he taught a course of naval practice.

In 1876, Alexander Mozhaisky began working on a project for a heavier-than-air aircraft he had long conceived. While serving in the Marine Corps, Mozhaisky, using the advice of the largest Russian scientists, continued to improve his project.

In July 1882, captain 1st rank Mozhaisky was promoted to major general with dismissal from service "due to domestic circumstances."

...Produced:

to Major General:

Captain 1st rank Mozhaisky 1st, with dismissal from service, due to domestic circumstances, with uniform and pension according to position.

Chief Commander of the Fleet and the Maritime Department

Adjutant General Alexei

TsGAVMF, department of scientific and reference literature, d. 820, l. 36

Mozhaisky was subsequently promoted to Rear Admiral.

On July 20, 1882, an aircraft of his design was tested, but many researchers consider the date and the very fact of the test to be fictitious by Soviet historians.

Construction of the first Russian aircraft

Mozhaisky's plane is the first in Russia and one of the first in the world aircraft designed to lift a person. It was designed and built by A.F. Mozhaisky at his own expense in the last quarter of the 19th century. Documents that directly recorded the course of testing of the Mozhaisky aircraft have not been preserved. In the later sources of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, it is indicated that he crashed while trying to take off. Some of them claim that the device took off from the ground for a short time. In the USSR, attempts were repeatedly made, based on scarce information about the technical appearance of the Mozhaisky aircraft, to establish (theoretically or experimentally) its probable flight performance and answer questions about the possibility of it making a steady flight and about the conditions under which it could take off. These studies gave different results. According to the latest research conducted at TsAGI, the power developed by the power plant of the Mozhaisky aircraft was insufficient for a steady level flight.

Awards

• In 1859, for participation in the Khiva expedition and a campaign in Bukhara, he was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree.
• During Crimean War Alexander Fedorovich commanded the Amur flotilla of small ships and the 10-gun transport "Dvina", for which he was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav II degree, as well as a bronze medal on the St. Andrew's ribbon "In memory of the war of 1853-1856."

Mozhaisky in culture

Memory of A. Mozhaysky

• Order NPO USSR No. 0812 announced the creation on the basis of Leningrad Institute engineers of the Civil Air Fleet of the Leningrad Air Force Academy of the Red Army (since 1955 - named after A. F. Mozhaisky). Now it is the A.F. Mozhaisky Military Space Academy in St. Petersburg.
• In the Vologda region, the Historical and Memorial House-Museum of A.F. Mozhaisky was opened in the village of Mozhaiskoye
• Museum of Pioneers of Aviation and Cosmonautics named after A. F. Mozhaisky (Krasnoe Selo, St. Petersburg)
• Monument to A. F. Mozhaisky installed in Krasnoye Selo

• streets in the cities of Vologda, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Stavropol, Tver, Ulyanovsk, Cherkassy, ​​Ussuriysk and a number of other cities of the former USSR are named after Mozhaisky.

• a passage and a square in the city of Kirov are named after Mozhaisky. An AN-8 memorial aircraft was installed on the square
• the name of A.F. Mozhaisky is named after the formula - Equation of the existence of an aircraft:

$m\_0=\; \backslash frac(m\_\backslash text(equipage)+m\_\backslash text(fuel)+m\_\backslash text(cargo)+m\_\backslash text(engines))(1-(\backslash xi\_\backslash text(fuselage)+\backslash xi\_\backslash text(\; wing)+\backslash xi\_\backslash text(tail)+\backslash xi\_\backslash text(cockpit)+\backslash xi\_\backslash text(fuel\; system)+\backslash xi\_\backslash text(chassis)+\backslash xi\_\backslash text(equipment)))$

In Ukraine, the International Youth Scientific and Technical Readings named after A.F. Mozhaisky, in which representatives of aviation industry enterprises take part.

Other aviation pioneers

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Notes

Literature

Links

• Shavrov V. B.− 3rd ed., corrected. - M .: Mashinostroenie, 1985.

An excerpt characterizing Mozhaisky, Alexander Fedorovich

Suddenly everything stirred, the crowd began to speak, moved, parted again, and between the two parted rows, at the sound of music playing, the sovereign entered. Behind him were the owner and mistress. The emperor walked quickly, bowing to the right and left, as if trying to get rid of this first minute of the meeting as soon as possible. The musicians played Polish, known then for the words composed on it. These words began: “Alexander, Elizabeth, you delight us ...” The sovereign went into the living room, the crowd rushed to the doors; several faces with changed expressions hurried back and forth. The crowd again retreated from the doors of the drawing room, in which the sovereign appeared, talking with the hostess. Some young man with a confused look was advancing on the ladies, asking them to step aside. Some ladies with faces expressing complete forgetfulness of all the conditions of the world, spoiling their toilets, crowded forward. Men began to approach the ladies and line up in Polish pairs.
Everything parted, and the emperor, smiling and out of time leading the mistress of the house by the hand, went out of the doors of the drawing room. He was followed by the owner with M.A. Naryshkina, then envoys, ministers, various generals, whom Peronskaya called incessantly. More than half of the ladies had cavaliers and were walking or preparing to go to Polskaya. Natasha felt that she remained with her mother and Sonya among the smaller part of the ladies pushed back to the wall and not taken in Polskaya. She stood with her slender arms lowered, and with a measuredly rising, slightly defined chest, holding her breath, with shining, frightened eyes, she looked ahead of her, with an expression of readiness for the greatest joy and the greatest grief. She was not interested in either the sovereign or all the important persons that Peronskaya pointed out - she had one thought: “is it really that no one will come up to me, really I won’t dance between the first, really all these men who now, it seems that they don’t see me, but if they look at me, they look with such an expression, as if they say: Ah! it's not her, so there's nothing to see. No, it can't be!" she thought. “They must know how I want to dance, how well I dance, and how fun it will be for them to dance with me.”
The sounds of Polish, which had gone on for quite some time, were already beginning to sound sad, a memory in Natasha's ears. She wanted to cry. Peronskaya moved away from them. The count was at the other end of the hall, the countess, Sonya and she stood alone as if in a forest in this alien crowd, uninteresting and unnecessary to anyone. Prince Andrei walked past them with some lady, apparently not recognizing them. The handsome Anatole, smiling, said something to the lady he was leading, and looked at Natasha's face with the look with which they look at the walls. Boris walked past them twice and each time turned away. Berg and his wife, who were not dancing, approached them.
This family rapprochement here, at the ball, seemed insulting to Natasha, as if there was no other place for family conversations except at the ball. She did not listen and did not look at Vera, who was saying something to her about her green dress.
Finally, the sovereign stopped beside his last lady (he was dancing with three), the music stopped; the preoccupied adjutant ran up to the Rostovs, asking them to move somewhere else, although they were standing against the wall, and the distinct, cautious and fascinatingly measured sounds of a waltz rang out from the choir. The emperor looked at the hall with a smile. A minute passed and no one started yet. The adjutant manager approached Countess Bezukhova and invited her. She raised her hand, smiling, and laid it, without looking at him, on the adjutant's shoulder. The adjutant steward, a master of his craft, confidently, leisurely and measuredly, tightly embracing his lady, set off with her first glidepath, along the edge of the circle, at the corner of the hall picked her up left hand, turned it, and because of the ever-accelerating sounds of music, only the measured clicks of the spurs of the adjutant's quick and dexterous legs were heard, and every three measures at the turn, his lady's velvet dress fluttered, as it were. Natasha looked at them and was ready to cry that it was not she who was dancing this first round of the waltz.
Prince Andrei, in his colonel's white (for cavalry) uniform, in stockings and boots, lively and cheerful, stood in the forefront of the circle, not far from the Rostovs. Baron Firgof spoke to him about tomorrow, the proposed first meeting of the State Council. Prince Andrei, as a person close to Speransky and participating in the work of the legislative commission, could give correct information about the meeting of tomorrow, about which there were various rumors. But he did not listen to what Firgof told him, and looked first at the sovereign, then at the gentlemen who were about to dance, who did not dare to enter the circle.
Prince Andrei watched these cavaliers and ladies, timid in the presence of the sovereign, dying from the desire to be invited.
Pierre went up to Prince Andrei and grabbed his hand.
- You always dance. Here is my protegee [favorite], young Rostova, invite her, - he said.
- Where? Bolkonsky asked. “I’m sorry,” he said, turning to the baron, “we will finish this conversation in another place, but at the ball we have to dance.” - He stepped forward, in the direction that Pierre indicated to him. Natasha's desperate, fading face caught Prince Andrei's eyes. He recognized her, guessed her feelings, realized that she was a beginner, remembered her conversation at the window, and with a cheerful expression approached Countess Rostova.
“Let me introduce you to my daughter,” said the countess, blushing.
“I have the pleasure of being acquainted, if the countess remembers me,” said Prince Andrei with a courteous and low bow, completely contradicting Peronskaya’s remarks about his rudeness, going up to Natasha, and raising his hand to hug her waist even before he finished the invitation to dance. He suggested a waltz tour. That fading expression on Natasha's face, ready for despair and delight, suddenly lit up with a happy, grateful, childlike smile.
“I have been waiting for you for a long time,” as if this frightened and happy girl said, with her smile that appeared because of ready tears, raising her hand on the shoulder of Prince Andrei. They were the second couple to enter the circle. Prince Andrei was one of the best dancers of his time. Natasha danced superbly. Her feet in ballroom satin shoes quickly, easily and independently of her did their job, and her face shone with the delight of happiness. Her bare neck and arms were thin and ugly. Compared to Helen's shoulders, her shoulders were thin, her chest indefinite, her arms thin; but Helen already seemed to have varnish from all the thousands of glances that glided over her body, and Natasha seemed like a girl who was naked for the first time, and who would be very ashamed of it if she had not been assured that it was so necessary.
Prince Andrei loved to dance, and wanting to quickly get rid of the political and intelligent conversations with which everyone turned to him, and wanting to quickly break this annoying circle of embarrassment formed by the presence of the sovereign, he went to dance and chose Natasha, because Pierre pointed her out to him. and because she was the first of the pretty women that caught his eye; but as soon as he embraced this thin, mobile body, and she stirred so close to him and smiled so close to him, the wine of her charms hit him in the head: he felt revived and rejuvenated when, catching his breath and leaving her, he stopped and began to look on the dancers.

After Prince Andrei, Boris approached Natasha, inviting her to dance, and that adjutant dancer who started the ball, and still young people, and Natasha, passing her excess gentlemen to Sonya, happy and flushed, did not stop dancing the whole evening. She did not notice and did not see anything that occupied everyone at this ball. She not only did not notice how the sovereign spoke for a long time with the French envoy, how he spoke especially graciously with such and such a lady, how the prince did such and such and said how Helen had great success and received special attention to such and such; she did not even see the sovereign and noticed that he left only because after his departure the ball became more lively. One of the merry cotillions, before supper, Prince Andrei again danced with Natasha. He reminded her of their first meeting in Otradnenskaya Alley and how she could not fall asleep on a moonlit night, and how he could not help hearing her. Natasha blushed at this reminder and tried to justify herself, as if there was something shameful in the feeling in which Prince Andrei involuntarily overheard her.
Prince Andrei, like all people who grew up in the world, loved to meet in the world that which did not have a common secular imprint. And such was Natasha, with her surprise, joy and timidity, and even mistakes in French. He spoke with her especially tenderly and carefully. Sitting beside her, talking to her about the simplest and most insignificant subjects, Prince Andrei admired the joyful gleam in her eyes and smile, which related not to spoken speeches, but to her inner happiness. While Natasha was chosen and she got up with a smile and danced around the hall, Prince Andrei admired in particular her timid grace. In the middle of the cotillion, Natasha, having finished the figure, still breathing heavily, approached her place. The new gentleman again invited her. She was tired and out of breath, and apparently thought of refusing, but immediately again cheerfully raised her hand on the cavalier's shoulder and smiled at Prince Andrei.
“I would be glad to rest and sit with you, I am tired; but you see how they choose me, and I'm glad about it, and I'm happy, and I love everyone, and you and I understand all this, ”and that smile said a lot more. When the gentleman left her, Natasha ran across the hall to take two ladies for the pieces.
“If she comes first to her cousin, and then to another lady, then she will be my wife,” Prince Andrei said quite unexpectedly to himself, looking at her. She went first to her cousin.
“What nonsense sometimes comes to mind! thought Prince Andrei; but it’s only true that this girl is so sweet, so special, that she won’t dance here for a month and get married ... This is a rarity here, ”he thought, when Natasha, straightening the rose that had fallen back from her corsage, sat down beside him.
At the end of the cotillion, the old count in his blue tailcoat approached the dancers. He invited Prince Andrei to his place and asked his daughter if she was having fun? Natasha did not answer and only smiled with such a smile that said reproachfully: "How could you ask about this?"
- So much fun, like never before in my life! - she said, and Prince Andrei noticed how quickly her thin hands rose to hug her father and immediately fell. Natasha was as happy as ever in her life. She was at that highest stage of happiness when a person becomes completely trusting and does not believe in the possibility of evil, misfortune and grief.

Pierre at this ball for the first time felt insulted by the position that his wife occupied in higher spheres. He was sullen and distracted. There was a wide crease across his forehead, and he, standing at the window, looked through his glasses, seeing no one.
Natasha, on her way to dinner, walked past him.
The gloomy, unhappy face of Pierre struck her. She stopped in front of him. She wanted to help him, to convey to him the surplus of her happiness.
“How fun, Count,” she said, “isn't it?
Pierre smiled absently, obviously not understanding what was being said to him.
“Yes, I am very glad,” he said.
“How can they be dissatisfied with something,” thought Natasha. Especially one as good as this Bezukhov?” In Natasha's eyes, all those who were at the ball were equally kind, sweet, wonderful people who loved each other: no one could offend each other, and therefore everyone should have been happy.

The next day, Prince Andrei remembered yesterday's ball, but did not dwell on it for a long time. “Yes, the ball was very brilliant. And yet ... yes, Rostova is very nice. There is something fresh, special, not Petersburg, which distinguishes her. That's all he thought about yesterday's ball, and after drinking tea, he sat down to work.

Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky - creator of the first Russian aircraft

The path to the realization of the dream of human flight in the air was extremely difficult. It was only thanks to the efforts of many outstanding scientists and engineers of the 19th and 20th centuries that the flight of a man in an aircraft heavier than air turned from a dream that worried minds for many centuries into a practical reality, and now even has become an everyday affair.

Our outstanding compatriot, a remarkable scientist and engineer Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky, built the first aircraft in Russia with steam engines and propellers specially made to his order. For more than 30 years, without the necessary material and moral support, A.F. Mozhaisky conducted research - he studied the aerodynamics and dynamics of models of the future aircraft using the test trolley he created, developed designs for the apparatus itself and propellers for it, and finally built, tested and continuously improved the first aircraft in Russia.

<Я желал быть полезным своему Отечеству>- wrote A.F. Mozhaisky in one of his memos. His life was a feat of a man of great courage and citizenship.

A. F. Mozhaisky was born on March 9 (21), 1825. After graduating from the Naval Cadet Corps from 1841 to 1862, he served in the navy, participated in a frigate circumnavigation<Диана>. In 1882 he retired with the rank of major general (since 1886 - rear admiral).

A.F. Mozhaisky died in 1890 in St. Petersburg. Having set himself the goal of creating an aircraft, A.F. Mozhaisky was forced to look for an answer to a number of problematic questions for science and technology in the middle of the 19th century, which form the basis of the layout and properties of an aircraft heavier than air: how should the lift force necessary to balance aircraft weight, how to optimally determine the wing area and choose its shape, how to provide the required propeller thrust and create an engine of acceptable weight, how to ensure the stability and controllability of the aircraft?

A few decades later, thanks to the work of outstanding mechanical scientists, the invention and vigorous improvement of the internal combustion engine, the creation of wind tunnels, which made it possible to accumulate extensive experimental materials, aircraft designers were able to obtain reliable answers to these and other questions, carrying out a huge amount of research together with scientists. A. F. Mozhaisky was deprived of all these opportunities; boundlessly enthusiastic and devoted to his idea, he independently carried out numerous experimental studies, designed and built the aircraft, propellers, and searched for suitable engines.

The wide erudition of A.F. Mozhaisky, his rich experience as a sailor sailing on sailing and propeller ships, observing the flight of birds, his many years of systematic experiments with flying models and models of propellers on a cart, experiments with a glider kite, as well as the study of research materials of his predecessors helped him create a rational layout of a monoplane aircraft with steam engines turning propellers.

<Привилегия, выданная из Департамента торговли и мануфактур капитану 1-го ранга А. Ф. Можайскому, на воздухолетательный снаряд>November 3, 1881 - the first Russian patent for an aircraft - this most complete of the documents that have come down to us indicates that Mozhaisky used the layout of a monoplane aircraft, the main elements of which remained traditional and widely used in the practice of aircraft construction for many decades.

The predecessors of A.F. Mozhaisky, primarily Cayley and Henson with Stringfellow, du Temple, Penot, made important contributions to the study of flying models, stability issues and the development of many aircraft layouts. However, the results of their research and development were mainly of a qualitative nature and could not be used by Mozhaisky as the basis for engineering calculations. Moreover, during these years, the very idea of ​​an aircraft, the principle of creating a lifting force, were still so far from general recognition that one of the commissions of the Military Engineering Directorate, which considered A.F. Mozhaisky’s project on June 15, 1878, even recommended that the inventor turn to<подвижным>wings, i.e., in principle, to redo the entire project.

Somewhat earlier, in January 1877, another commission, in which the outstanding scientists D. I. Mendeleev and N. P. Petrov took part, who positively assessed the work of A. F. Mozhaisky, wrote in its conclusion on his proposal:<... по неимению некоторых существенных данных, не выработанных еще наукою, комиссия не может утвердительно сказать, осуществим ли на деле или нет проект г. Можайского. В то же время комиссия находит, что г. Можайский в основание своего проекта принял положения, признаваемые ныне за наиболее верные и способные повести к благоприятным конечным результатам...>.

Deeply convinced of the correctness of the ideas put forward and the rationality of the project proposed by him, A.F. Mozhaisky in 1881-83. on the Krasnoselsky military field near St. Petersburg built his own aircraft. The aircraft had a fuselage with wooden ribs covered with fabric. Rectangular wings were attached to the sides of the fuselage, slightly curved with a bulge upwards. The entire wing and plumage were covered with a thin silk fabric impregnated with varnish. Wing bindings - wooden (pine). The device stood on racks with wheels (chassis). The aircraft was equipped with two steam engines with a capacity of 20 and 10 liters. c, built in England by the firm<Арбекер>commissioned by A.F. Mozhaisky. From a comparison of the totality of available archival documents and evidence of contemporaries, we can conclude that in 1883-85. the designer was engaged in fine-tuning his apparatus during ground tests, and in the second half of July 1885 he attempted flight tests, which ended in an accident. In the future, considering that the power of his steam engines is insufficient for<определившегося веса самолета>, A.F. Mozhaisky ordered two duplicates of his 20-horsepower steam engine at the Obukhov plant, intending to increase the power power plant up to 60 l. with.

Fate personal archive, calculations, drawings and other design materials of A.F. Mozhaisky is still unknown.

A.F. Mozhaisky, a selfless, outstanding scientist and engineer devoted to his idea, having built the first monoplane aircraft in Russia with a steam engine and propellers, in his plans was far ahead of the possibilities of technology and science.

At the turn of the 20th century, many mechanical scientists turned to the study of leading issues put forward by the creation of a new type of aircraft.

In 1893-96. the well-known scientist-engineer O. Lilienthal successfully flew on gliders designed and built by him.

In 1897, N. E. Zhukovsky presented the work<О наивыгоднейшем угле наклона аэроплана>, in which he showed how to determine the optimal angle of attack of the aircraft for the most economical flight.

In 1905, N. E. Zhukovsky revealed the mechanism of the origin of the lifting force and derived a theorem that quantitatively determines it, in his famous work<О присоединенных вихрях>.

Of decisive importance for the entire subsequent development of aviation science and technology were the works of N. E. Zhukovsky, S. A. Chaplygin, L. Prandtl and many other mechanical scientists on the theories of the wing, propeller, boundary layer (1904, 1905, 1910). ). These studies laid the foundations of aerodynamics as a science.

Of great importance for aviation science and practice was the creation of wind tunnels - this most important device now used throughout the world to experimentally determine the main aerodynamic characteristics of future aircraft by testing their models.

Only 20 years after the feat of A.F. Mozhaisky, the minimum necessary scientific data on aerodynamics, flight dynamics and stability were accumulated. Thanks to the progress of technology, light internal combustion engines, which are so necessary for aircraft construction, have been created. On December 17, 1903, in the USA, the Wright brothers accomplished their feat - an airplane with a person on board was lifted into the air.

Russian designers, continuing the work to which A.F. Mozhaisky gave more than 30 years of his life, worked hard on the creation of domestic aircraft designs.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the first Russian original designs of aircraft with sufficiently high flight characteristics appeared in Russia:<бимонопланы>Ya. M. Gakkel (1911-12); fighters of I. I. Sikorsky (1911-13); the first-born of heavy aviation - four-engine bombers of the Russian-Baltic Plant<Русский витязь>(1913),<Илья Муромец>(1913-1914);<летающие лодки>designs by D. P. Grigorovich (1915). However, only the victory of the Great October socialist revolution opened up truly broad opportunities for the development of aviation in our country.

Significant and historically important is the contribution of A.F. Mozhaisky, the first designer of the domestic aircraft industry.

For the first time in the world, a man managed to take to the air on a planning projectile heavier than air. The great Russian inventor was aware that this was not only his personal, but also the national championship.

The great Russian inventor Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky (1825-1890) wrote about himself: "... I wanted to be useful to my Fatherland ..."

At first, he had a white envy of ... birds. Russian naval officer Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky observed their flight as a naturalist and artist, sketched, studied, calculated ... But he did not stop at "academically dispassionate natural science observations." On the "simplest flyer" (a giant kite, or a controlled towed glider), Mozhaisky repeatedly took to the air in 1873-1876 and, according to many contemporary eyewitnesses, flew quickly and ... "with great comfort."

For the first time in the world, a man managed to take to the air on a planning projectile heavier than air. The great Russian inventor was aware that this was not only his personal, but also the national championship. Only many years after the calculations and drawings of Alexander Fedorovich, stolen by foreign spies, and Russian newspapers with descriptions of his flights fell into the hands of experienced engineers abroad, similar experiments began to be carried out in foreign countries(in France - Mayo in 1886, in England - Baden Pauls in 1888, even later - Hargrave in Australia and Otto Lilienthal in Germany). A lot of "borrowed" from Mozhaisky and the French designer Tatin, and the British businessman Hiram Maxim, and the American self-taught brothers Wright.

Aircraft A.F. Mozhaisky "hatched" from his glider at first glance as naturally as a chicken from an egg. But the aviation "egg" had a shell armored with a great variety of all sorts of difficulties. After all, one hundred and twenty years ago there was neither aerodynamics, developed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries by the father of Russian aviation, Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky, nor gas dynamics, created at the same time by Sergei Alekseevich Chaplygin. Mozhaisky alone had to do the work of many scientists, engineers and even workers. And Alexander Fedorovich brilliantly coped with this truly titanic work, having accomplished an unparalleled scientific and technical feat.

The airplane of Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky, the constructive development of which the inventor completed in 1877, had all five main parts of a modern aircraft. It was an amphibious monoplane with a watertight boat hull, landing gear, tail and movable roll and turn rudders to control flight in the air. The Wright brothers' aircraft, built in 1903 by people using Mozhaisky's aerodynamic calculations, was a truss (lattice) biplane copied from the gliders of the Russian engineer S.S. Nezhdanovsky. It had neither a hull, nor a take-off and landing device (the take-off was carried out using a primitive catapult), nor steering (except for the tail). And finally, the Mozhaisky plane had - along with two pushers - the main pulling propeller located in front, while on the Wright brothers' airplane there were only two pushing propellers located behind the wings. The vast majority of modern propeller-driven aircraft have precisely pulling propellers.

The genius of Mozhaisky was decades ahead of his era. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that the commission chaired by Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, when considering the project of Alexander Fedorovich in January 1877, recognized: “... Mr. Mozhaisky, as the basis of his project, adopted the provisions that are now recognized as the most correct and capable of leading to favorable final results .. .". (Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky, creator of the first aircraft. Collection of documents. - M., Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1955, p. 22.)

But after such a favorable conclusion of the competent expert commission of the Main Engineering Directorate of the Military Ministry, as was often the case in pre-revolutionary Russia, hired agents of foreign intelligence intervened, warmed under the wing of the royal court, “stuffed” with German barons and other foreign adventurers. Inspired by her behind-the-scenes efforts, the second commission, led by a certain Herman Pauker, not without reason suspected of pro-German espionage, rejected Mozhaisky’s project under the most ridiculous pretext of “clear disagreement of his views with the opinions of foreign authorities, who recommend blindly imitating nature ... and rely only on devices with fluttering wings... Alexander Fedorovich's hopes for material assistance from the tsarist government (even the most modest!) collapsed like a house of cards.

Not wanting to give up on realizing his cherished dream, he sold or pawned everything that was of value (even watches, wedding rings, tablespoons and a uniform coat!). By the summer of 1881, all parts and instruments of his aircraft and the steam engines designed by him were ready, "amazing with their strength and lightness." It remained to assemble the airplane and test it in the air, but Mozhaisky had no more money. Then Alexander Fedorovich, reluctantly, again turned to persons in power, in particular, to the Minister of the Imperial Court, Count I.I. Vorontsov-Dashkov. In a memorandum addressed to the latter, Mozhaisky (speaking of himself in the third person according to the then clerical rules) indicated that he, “wholly devoting himself to resolving the issue of aeronautics, spent all his means on this and at the present time, when it remains only to assemble the apparatus and make final trials, he does not have any money for this, why, in view of the enormous importance that the apparatus can have in military affairs if successful, Mozhaisky dares to ask Your Excellency to request 5,000 rubles from the government for assembling the apparatus and experiments on it. (Ibid., p. 80.)

Vorontsov-Dashkov presented a memorandum from Captain 1st Rank A.F. Mozhaisky "for the good view" of Alexander III. The autocrat requested a certificate and documents. He was immediately sent a copy of Mozhaisky's letter to Lieutenant General K.Ya. Zverev dated July 8, 1878 with a protest against the wrong decision of the Pauker commission.

And Adjutant General von Kaufmann and Major General Wahlberg presented the emperor with a rigged “report on the Main Engineering Directorate” dated July 4, 1881, in which Mozhaisky’s project was rejected for the second time on the basis of the decision of the Pauker Commission, already refuted by the inventor, and “verbally reported”:

It is dangerous, Your Majesty, to build an aircraft heavier than air in Russia using public funds. What if some evil revolutionary takes advantage of it, encroaches on your sacred person from heaven?!

The last "loyal words", flatteringly and cunningly spoken by the court barons, finally convinced the tsar of the uselessness of the daring sailor's airplane, and the adjutant general Bankovsky wrote down under his dictation: "the highest command is to reject the requests of the captain of the 1st rank of Mozhaisky."

Nevertheless, A.F. Mozhaisky on November 3, 1881, who received from the Department of Trade and Manufactory a privilege (patent) "for an airborne projectile", nevertheless assembled and tested his aircraft, which he called the "Firebird". The famous hero helped him financially Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878 and the Central Asian campaigns of M.D. Skobelev, soon after the construction of the Mozhaisky airplane was poisoned for freethinking and great love for Russia on the orders of the German Chancellor Bismarck and the leader of the counter-revolutionary "Holy Squad" banker Gunzburg.

In the summer of 1882 (apparently July 20), the Firebird took off. It was the world's first human flight in an airplane. And although the plane, flying several hundred meters, crashed, stumbling upon a high pole, and although Mozhaisky himself, who died in poverty on the night of March 20, 1890, did not see his offspring in the second flight, the flaming feathers of his "Firebird" and now they are burning like guiding beacons on the creative path of every domestic aircraft designer, every driver of winged cars!

Only when Soviet power the historical truth was finally restored, the Russian national and Russian state championship was proved and confirmed not only in the invention of the airplane (airplane), but also in the creation of the world's first aircraft that took to the air. In 1955, a collection of documents "Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky, creator of the first aircraft" was published, prepared for publication by the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In the same 1955, the second, corrected and supplemented edition of the monograph by N. Cheremnykh and I. Shipilov “A.F. Mozhaisky is the creator of the world's first aircraft", in which the memories of an old-timer of the city of Krasnoe Selo Peter Vasilyevich Naumov saw the light of day: "I saw the first takeoff of Mozhaisky's aircraft." For the first time this memoir sketch was published on April 3, 1949 in No. 40 (649) of the Iskra newspaper, the organ of the Krasnoselsky District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Executive Committee of the Krasnoselsky District Council of Workers' Deputies Leningrad region, but N. Cheremnykh and I. Shipilov, reprinting it in their book, made the precious evidence of the world's first aircraft flight the property of hundreds of thousands of readers: “Many years have passed since I was a boy and frolicked through the streets with my fellow peers showing a keen interest in everything.

My father came home from work and said that near the camps, not far from Krasnoye Selo, some kind of wonderful machine was making noise.

And so I ran with a group of boys to the military field. There we saw many people gathered. There were military and civilians. A wonderful machine with large wings, resembling a bird, stood on a wooden deck. Around her bustled people in marine clothes. Everyone was waiting for something unusual to happen.

An outlandish bird with huge wings suddenly made a great noise, some crosses spun in front of it, and it moved, ran along the wooden flooring, and then took off from the ground and rose into the air.

There was no end to the surprise. Everyone shouted enthusiastically, but most of all the boys. Later, when I grew up, my father told me what kind of car it was that flew like a bird, and who made it. This wonderful machine was the first aircraft in the world; it was invented by the Russian sailor A.F. Mozhaisky. He was engaged in the construction of an airplane for a long time, but he was not supported by the tsarist government. He was forced to sell half of the dacha and use his own money to finish the job he had begun.

In the 42nd year of my life, I was drafted into the ranks of the tsarist army. Participating in battles with the Germans in the First World War, I saw how the ideas of the Russian inventor were brought to life. Russian planes made a raid on the positions of the Germans, bringing panic among the enemies with their appearance.

I heard the Americans claim they were the first aircraft in the world. Sheer lies! American inventors became known at least twenty years later, when Mozhaisky's plane was built. It is evident that this is not the first time for gentlemen from America to assign the championship of Russian inventors. (A.F. Mozhaisky - the creator of the world's first aircraft. Second edition, corrected and supplemented. - M., Military Publishing House of the USSR Ministry of Defense, 1955, p. 150).

V.N. PRISHCHEPENKO,

member of the Russian People's Academy of Sciences

Russian researcher and inventor in the field of aeronautics A.F. Mozhaisky was born March 9 (21), 1825 in Rochensalm (now Kotka) in Finland. His father, Fyodor Timofeevich Mozhaisky, was a hereditary sailor, admiral of the Russian fleet. In 1823, then still a lieutenant, Fedor Mozhaisky was appointed assistant pilot-captain in the 24th naval crew, which was based in the town of Rochensalm in the Vyborg province. Alexander became the first-born in the Mozhaisky family. A year later, in May 1826, another boy was born to the Mozhaiskys, who was named Nikolai. And four years later, the wife of Fyodor Timofeevich gave birth to a third son, who was named Timofey in honor of his grandfather. In 1831, Fyodor Timofeevich was promoted to lieutenant commander and appointed captain of the Arkhangelsk port. From the Baltic, the entire Mozhaisky family moved to the White Sea. By that time, Alexander, in addition to two brothers, also had sisters: Ekaterina and Yulia. Maritime business was the father's profession, and Fyodor Timofeevich predicted maritime service for his sons. When the eldest son was ten years old, his parents brought him to St. Petersburg and sent him to study at the Marine cadet corps, whose director at that time was Admiral Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern.

January 19, 1841 Alexander Mozhaisky graduated and was promoted to midshipman. Moreover, he graduated from the corps not only as a navigator, but also as a ship designer. Two more years of practical sailing on sailing warships were ahead Baltic Fleet. During these two years, Mozhaisky sailed on the frigates "Melpomene", "Olga", "Alexander Nevsky". Thus began the naval service of Alexander Mozhaisky, to which he devoted most of his life. He met the year 1843 as a midshipman, and soon the young officer was sent to Arkhangelsk, where his father, mother, and sisters lived. In 1844, Mozhaisky made the transition on the 74-gun ship "Ingermanland" from the White Sea to the Baltic Sea; a year later he again cruised the White Sea on the schooner "Rainbow"; in 1846, on the same schooner, he made his second crossing from the White Sea to the Baltic. Years of sea service, 7 years of voyages in the White, Barents, Norwegian, North and Baltic seas tempered the young sailor's will, increased his knowledge and practical experience.

In 1849, when Alexander Mozhaisky was not yet 25 years old, he was promoted to lieutenant.. During his service on the Baltic Sea, in 1850-1852, Mozhaisky had occasion to sail on various sailing warships. First, on a small 16-gun schooner Meteor, the same as the Raduga, then on the large 84-gun ship Vola, whose hull length was 60 m; finally, on the ship "Memory of Azov" - the brother of "Ingermanland" - a new one, just arrived from Arkhangelsk. Those were last years the existence of a military sailing fleet, new steam ships were replacing sailing ships. Already in the first years of his naval service, Mozhaisky drew attention to himself as a technically educated, disciplined officer, demanding of himself and of his subordinates. Probably, in 1852, these circumstances influenced his appointment to the crew of one of the first Russian military steamships, Zealous. During the year-long voyage on the Zealous, Mozhaisky got acquainted with the engine, which influenced the entire development of industry, transport and military shipbuilding in the 19th century and until the end of the century remained the only type of engine on the basis of which it was possible to solve the problem of flying through the air.

In 1853-1854, Lieutenant Mozhaisky on the frigate "Diana" under the command of S.S. Lesovsky passed from Kronstadt around Cape Horn to Japan. The frigate was wrecked during an earthquake in Shimoda Bay off the island of Honshu, after which the Diana personnel, according to the drawings and under the leadership of Mozhaisky, jointly built the Kheda schooner, on which part of the team returned to their homeland. Until now, Japan remembers the Russian officer, thanks to whom the Japanese got an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcreating large European courts. Mozhaisky himself in 1855 switched to American merchant ship to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and from there to the Amur Estuary. Through Siberia, he returned to Kronstadt, thus completing his round-the-world trip. The Crimean War was going on, and at the end of 1855 Mozhaisky was assigned to the Antenor brig, which was cruising in the Baltic Sea, guarding the approaches to the Gulf of Finland from sabotage raids by Anglo-French ships.

And in 1858 A.F. Mozhaisky was sent to Central Asia, where he took part in the Khiva expedition, organizing its movement on water on ships specially built for this purpose. He made a trip to Bukhara and compiled the first description of the water basin of the Aral Sea and the Amu Darya River. Upon his return from the expedition, on September 8, 1859, Mozhaisky received the next rank of lieutenant commander and was appointed senior officer of the 84-gun propeller ship "Eagle". On this ship, Mozhaisky sailed for 2 years in the Baltic Sea, and in 1860-1861 he supervised the equipment and installation of a steam engine on the Vsadnik screw clipper, which was being built in Pori (Finland). After the launch of the clipper "Rider" Mozhaisky was appointed its commander and sailed on it in the Baltic Sea until 1863.

In 1860 A.F. Mozhaisky was temporarily seconded from the fleet and appointed to the post of candidate mediator of the Gryazovetsky district of the Vologda province. There, the officer was to carry out work on the implementation of the "Regulations on the Peasant Reform of 1861." With the energy inherent in Mozhaisky, he adequately coped with the assigned task. Then another important event happened in his life. At one of the balls in the Noble Assembly, he met his future bride and wife, Lyubov Dmitrievna Kuzmina. After the wedding in the Church of St. Catherine in Vologda, the young people settled in the village of Kotelnikovo (now Mozhayskoye) in a house received as a dowry by the wife of A.F. Mozhaisky. The officer was at the center of everything important events. He attended the meetings of the Vologda Statistical Committee for the preparation and participation in the first ethnographic exhibition in Moscow. But the main thing for Mozhaisky was scientific developments in aeronautics. He equipped an office and a carpentry workshop, watched the flight of birds on Lake Kubenskoye and the Toshna River, and conducted experiments with kites. The scientist himself later called the years spent in Kotelnikovo "years of fruitful work on aeronautics."

In connection with the forced reduction in the size of the fleet after the Crimean War in 1863, after serving in the Navy for 22 years, Mozhaisky was fired retired and served for the next 16 years in various civilian departments to conduct peasant reform. Nevertheless, during these years of civil service, Mozhaisky received a promotion in military rank - in 1866 he was promoted to captain of the 2nd rank, and in 1869 to captain of the 1st rank. In 1873 he was elected an honorary magistrate of the Bratslav district of the Podolsk province; during the same period he made attempts to carry out the ascent with the help of a kite. The idea of ​​creating an aircraft heavier than air came to Mozhaisky back in 1855, when he began to observe the flights of birds and kites. In 1872, after a series of studies and experiments, Mozhaisky established the relationship between lift and drag at various angles of attack and thoroughly elucidated the issue of bird flight. In 1876, he began working on a design for a heavier-than-air aircraft he had conceived. German explorer and glider pilot Lilienthal did similar work 17 years later than Mozhaisky.

In 1876, Mozhaisky, according to the testimony of engineer P.A. Bogoslovsky, "twice took to the air and flew comfortably" on a kite. Thus, he was the first in the world to fly kites, 10 years ahead of the French tester Mayo (1886), 18 years of the Englishman Baden-Powell (1894) and 20 years of the Australian Hargrave (1896). In addition to experiments with kites, A.F. Mozhaisky worked on the creation of flying models of his future aircraft. Mozhaisky made a large number of calculations, studies and experiments, as a result of which in September 1876 he built the first flying model of an aircraft. This model, which he called "fly", consisted of a small fuselage boat, to which one rectangular bearing surface was attached at an angle. The thrust of the model was created by three propellers, one of which was located in the bow of the boat, and the other two - in specially made slots in the wing. The screws were driven by a twisted rubber band or clock spring. For takeoff and landing, the model had four wheels located under the fuselage. The model made steady flights at speeds over 5 m/sec. Well-known shipbuilding engineer, member of the Marine Technical Committee, Colonel P.A. Bogoslovsky wrote about this: "The inventor very correctly decided long ago worthwhile question aeronautics. The device, with the help of its propulsion projectiles, not only flies, runs on the ground, but can also swim. The flight speed of the apparatus is amazing; he is not afraid of gravity or wind and is able to fly in any direction ... Experience has shown that the obstacles to swimming in the air that have existed so far have been brilliantly defeated by our gifted compatriot.

After the flights of the model showed that the path that the inventor was following was correct, he began to develop a full-size aircraft project. However, if Mozhaisky could carry out the previous work at his own expense, then the construction of a full-scale aircraft required significant sums of money, which he did not have. Therefore, at the beginning of 1877, he decided "to subject his invention to the court of scientific criticism, inviting the Ministry of War to use his project for military purposes in the upcoming war with Turkey." Mozhaisky turned to the chairman of the aeronautical commission of the military ministry, Count Totleben, with a request to request him the necessary funds "for further research and experiments both on the movement of the designed projectile, and to determine the various data necessary for the rational and correct arrangement of all the components of such a projectile."

On January 20, 1877, by order of the Minister of War, Count Milyutin, a special commission was formed to consider the Mozhaisky project. The composition of this commission included the largest representatives of Russian science and technology: D.I. Mendeleev, N.P. Petrov (the author of the world famous hydrodynamic theory of friction), Lieutenant General Zverev, Colonel P.A. Theological and military engineer Struve. After two meetings, the commission submitted a detailed report on the Mozhaisky project to the Main Engineering Directorate. The report stated that the inventor "as the basis of his project adopted the provisions now recognized as the most correct and capable of leading to favorable final results." Thanks to the support of D.I. Mendeleev, it was decided to release 3,000 rubles to the inventor for further work.

On February 14, 1877, Mozhaisky presented his program of experiments on aircraft models to the Main Engineering Directorate. It included the study of propellers, determining the size and shape of the control and bearing surfaces, the specific load on the wing, resolving the issue of controllability and strength of the aircraft. Mozhaisky's experiments on a large propeller driven by a steam engine were the first experiments of this kind in the world. Having received only a part of the promised amount (2192 rubles), the inventor set about implementing his program. He had to work in difficult conditions. His financial situation was extremely difficult. Despite the difficulties and extreme need, Mozhaisky built a new model of an airplane. This model, according to contemporaries, "flyed completely freely and descended very smoothly."

Deciding to proceed to the construction of a life-size aircraft, on March 23, 1878, Mozhaisky turned to the Main engineering management with a memorandum in which he indicated that "the data required to resolve the issue can only be obtained on an apparatus of such dimensions, on which a person could control the power of the machine and the direction of the apparatus" and asked for the release of funds for the construction of an airplane, the cost of which he determined at 18,895 rubles. This proposal was already considered by another commission, General Herman Pauker, and on June 15, 1878 it was rejected. According to some reports, foreign intelligence agencies operating at the royal court were also involved in the rejection of the Mozhaisky aircraft project. In particular, the head of the commission, General Pauker, was not without reason suspected of pro-German espionage. The commission rejected Mozhaisky's project under the most absurd pretext of "clear disagreement of his views with the opinions of foreign authorities, who recommend blindly imitating nature and relying only on devices with flapping wings ...". Alexander Fedorovich's hopes for material assistance from the tsarist government collapsed like a house of cards.

Mozhaisky's proposal was accompanied by detailed drawings of the aircraft, calculations and an explanatory note containing a description of the device. The description said that the plane consists of: a boat that serves to accommodate the car and people; of two fixed wings; from a tail that can rise and fall and serve to change the direction of flight up and down; from a large front screw; of two small screws on the back of the apparatus; from a trolley on wheels under the boat, which serves to ensure that the apparatus, placed at an angle, about 4 degrees to the horizon, with its front part up, can first scatter along the ground against the air and obtain the speed that is necessary for its soaring; of two masts, which serve to strengthen its wings and connect the entire apparatus along its length and to raise the tail. As engines, it was planned to install two steam engines with a total power of 30 hp. One of the machines was supposed to work on the nose pulling propeller, and the other - through the transmission on the two rear pushing propellers. The device, as conceived by the inventor, could also land on water, for which the fuselage was shaped like a boat. Having first developed a fuselage type of aircraft, Mozhaisky was more than 30 years ahead of Western European and American designers, who only in 1909-1910 began to build such aircraft. The idea to use a fuselage-boat for landing on water was first put into practice in 1913 by another Russian designer and inventor D.P. Grigorovich - the creator of the first boat hydroaeroplane. In addition to developing the project, Mozhaisky described in detail the take-off technique of his aircraft and provided for the installation of air navigation equipment on it: a compass, a speed meter, a barometer-altimeter, two thermometers and a sight for bombing. The plane, according to the plan of Mozhaisky, was intended for bombing and reconnaissance purposes.

At the end of the explanatory note, Mozhaisky pointed out that "the construction of the apparatus from the technical side presents neither difficulties nor impossibilities." The expert commission, which this time included General Pauker, General Gerya and Colonel Wahlberg, at its first meeting, which took place on April 12, 1878, doubted that the device would be able to soar in the air with propellers, and invited the author of the project to provide new data and calculations on this issue. To satisfy the commission's demand, Mozhaisky, after consulting with Academician Chebyshev, drew up an additional note in which he gave detailed analysis the operation of the propellers in the air and backed them up with sound calculations. Having examined the explanatory note at the second meeting, the commission issued a decision, striking in its ignorance, in which it was said that it "does not find any guarantee that the experiments on the projectile of Mr. Mozhaisky, even after various possible changes in it, could lead to useful practical results, if he does not arrange a projectile on completely different grounds, with movable wings that can change not only their position relative to the gondola, but also their shape during the flight. “The amount currently requested by Mr. Mozhaisky is so significant,” the experts wrote in their decision, “that the commission does not dare to welcome its appropriations ...”

Mozhaisky, protesting against such a decision, turned to the Minister of War Vannovsky with a request to cancel it. However, Vannovsky, without even getting acquainted with the essence of the case, approved the decision of the commission. Then Mozhaisky wrote a letter to the head of the Main Engineering Directorate, General Zverev, in which he indicated: “The commission, discussing and conducting business in a clerical and private way, took away my opportunity to present to her my final conclusions about the size of the parts of the apparatus, the strength of its machine and other conditions, and from the very the beginning did everything to kill my confidence in the possibility of implementing my project. General Zverev did not respond to Mozhaisky's letter. Government organizations refused to finance the inventor. Only the advanced Russian intelligentsia and the simple workers who worked with him supported him and provided all possible assistance. Mozhaisky's closest assistants - Golubev, Yakovlev, Arsentiev - continued to work under his leadership.

In 1879, Captain 1st Rank Mozhaisky was again enrolled in active military service. and sent to the Naval Cadet Corps, where he taught a course of naval practice. In December 1879, the VI All-Russian Congress of Physicians and Naturalists took place in St. Petersburg. The work program of the physical section of the congress had a pronounced aeronautical bias. Famous scientists Mendeleev, Manevsky, Zhukovsky, Sokovnin, Ladygin, Rykachev, Kostovich, Mozhaisky, Klinder, Bertenson and others made presentations. On December 27, the famous report by D.I. Mendeleev "On the resistance of liquids and aeronautics". Interest in aeronautics, shown by Mendeleev, to a large extent contributed to a change in the opinion of the educated public about this phenomenon. Then aeronautics was perceived as acrobatics and circus. Mendeleev revealed the prospects of aeronautics and proved that the correct use of aircraft requires a variety of information, complex research and people with special training. Mendeleev's report evoked a lively response from aeronautics enthusiasts, among whom were army and navy officers and their civilian associates. After the report, at the apartment of Lieutenant of the Fleet V.D. Spitsyn, Mendeleev continued his speech: "Interest in aeronautics and aeronautics is growing in Russia every year and among different segments of the population. More and more new inventors appear in different cities. It is necessary that all patriots know about such people. Then every year there will be the number of imitators will increase, new projects will appear, the development of flying will go with great success ... "The prophetic words of Mendeleev predetermined the creation in October 1880 of the Russian Aeronautics Society.

A.F. Mozhaisky continued his troubles. Confident in the reality of his invention, having decided to complete the work he had begun, he turned to the Minister of the Sea S.S. Lesovsky (his former commander on the frigate "Diana") in order to obtain funds for the construction of steam engines. Lesovsky, knowing the inventor personally, petitioned the Minister of Finance for a leave of 5,000 rubles for Mozhaisky, but was refused. Then Mozhaisky turned to the military department to Adjutant General Greig and obtained from him a promise of support, provided that the Minister of Marine would also solicit this. Lesovsky, "in view of the militarily important results that can be expected from a successful solution of the issue of aeronautics," asked for 2,500 rubles for Mozhaisky (instead of the previously requested 5,000 rubles). This time the request of the Minister of the Sea was granted. With the money received, Mozhaisky managed to order two steam engines of 20 and 10 hp in England. with a water tube boiler and a refrigerator to them. The order was fulfilled and on May 21, 1881 Mozhaisky brought them to St. Petersburg. These were two-cylinder vertical compound steam engines of lightweight construction. The fuel was kerosene. Mozhaisky continued to work on his invention, and then decided to patent it. On November 3 (15), 1881 (according to an application dated June 4 (16), 1880), he received a "privilege" for the "aircraft projectile" (aircraft) invented by him, the first in Russia.

It remained to assemble the airplane and test it in the air, but Mozhaisky had no more money. For the production of some works, the inventor turned to the Baltic Shipyard for help. But the management of the plant, having learned that the inventor had no money, refused him. Then Alexander Fedorovich, reluctantly, turned to the Minister of the Imperial Court, Count I.I. Vorontsov-Dashkov. In a memorandum addressed to him, Mozhaisky indicated that he, “having devoted himself to resolving the issue of aeronautics, spent all his money on it, and at the present time, when it remains to assemble the apparatus and make final tests, he does not have any money for this, why, in view of of the enormous significance that, if successful, the apparatus in military affairs can render, he dares to ask for 5,000 rubles from the government for the assembly of the apparatus and experiments on it. Vorontsov-Dashkov presented a memorandum to A.F. Mozhaisky "for the good view" of Alexander III. The autocrat requested a certificate and documents. He was immediately sent a copy of Mozhaisky's letter to Lieutenant General K.Ya. Zverev dated July 8, 1878 with a protest against the wrong decision of the Pauker commission. And Adjutant General von Kaufmann and Major General Wahlberg "verbally reported": "It is dangerous, Your Majesty, to build an airborne vehicle in Russia at state funds. What if some revolutionary takes advantage of it, encroaches on your person from the sky ?!" As a result, under the dictation of the emperor, Adjutant General Bankovsky wrote down: "the highest command was to reject the requests of Captain 1st Rank Mozhaisky."

Perseverance A.F. Mozhaisky nevertheless crowned with success. The military department allocated a place for the construction of a "flying projectile" on the Military Field of Krasnoye Selo near St. Petersburg. Not wanting to give up on realizing his cherished dream, he sold or pawned everything that was of value (even watches, wedding rings, tablespoons and a uniform coat!). With the proceeds from the sale of personal belongings and borrowed from relatives and interested parties (the famous hero of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 and the Central Asian campaigns M.D. Skobelev provided solid financial assistance), Mozhaisky proceeded directly to the construction of the aircraft and in the spring of 1882 finished assembling it. In July 1882, Captain 1st Rank Mozhaisky was promoted to the rank of Major General with dismissal from service "due to domestic circumstances." In 1886, Mozhaisky was awarded the rank of Rear Admiral.

In the summer of 1882, the plane, which he called the "Firebird", was ready for testing. For the takeoff run of the aircraft, a special runway was built in the form of an inclined wooden flooring. Tests of the Mozhaisky aircraft were carried out in conditions of great secrecy. On July 20, 1882, representatives of the military department and the Russian Technical Society gathered at the Military Field in Krasnoe Selo. Mozhaisky himself was not allowed to fly, since he was already 57 years old. Testing the aircraft in the air was entrusted to the mechanic who helped Mozhaisky - I.N. Golubev. The plane, piloted by Golubev, took off and, after flying some distance in a straight line, sat down. The device weighing 57 pounds (about 934 kg) flew at a speed of 11 meters per second. The propellers were turned by 10 and 20 hp steam engines. During landing, the wing of the aircraft was damaged, and the mechanic was injured. Despite this, Mozhaisky was pleased with the results of the test, since for the first time the possibility of human flight on an apparatus heavier than air was practically proven. It seemed that universal recognition and support from the government was now ensured. However, in reality it turned out quite differently. The invention of A.F. Mozhaisky was declared a military secret, and it was strictly forbidden to write anything about the aircraft. Still no help was given to the inventor. Tsarist officials and foreigners in the Russian service did everything to ensure that not only the successes of the Russian inventor, but also his name were forgotten.

Mozhaisky, immediately after the tests, began to improve the design of the aircraft and designed new, more powerful machines for it. After the calculations were clarified and a new aircraft design was developed, Mozhaisky January 21, 1883 introduced him to the VII (aeronautical) department of the Russian Technical Society. At a specially convened meeting, chaired by M.A. Rykachev, Mozhaisky made a report about his new aircraft design and about all the work he had done. For a detailed review of the new work, a commission was created, which, in addition to representatives of the aeronautical department, included representatives of the II (mechanical) department of the Russian Technical Society. The commission, having familiarized itself with the results of the inventor's work, recognized it as desirable "that the VII department assist A.F. Mozhaisky - to complete his instrument and to carry out interesting experiments on an aircraft of such large dimensions." But the 7th department could not provide material assistance, and Mozhaisky was forced to turn again to the military ministry.

From the ministry he was told that "the continuation of the testing of the apparatus invented by him was taken over by the Imperial Russian Technical Society, to which the sum determined for this subject was assigned." The War Department decided not to allocate funds for dubious inventions, especially since such experiments were ridiculed abroad due to the myth that the American mathematician and astronomer Simon Newcomb scientifically proved in the 1870s that an apparatus heavier than air could not fly. However, neither the inventor nor the Russian Technical Society received any amount. As it has now become known, appropriations were not issued due to the intervention of the general staffs of foreign states, to which the tsarist government gave orders for the supply of weapons for the army and navy. In 1885, Mozhaisky submitted an application to the Main Engineering Directorate, in which he indicated that he had received new practical conclusions, "which represent an opportunity to make the presentation of the theory clearer and the calculations more definite," and asked not to refuse to release funds for his work. The commission, having considered the application of the inventor on June 29, 1885, noted that it "does not see any reason to apply for an allowance to Mr. Mozhaisky." Another seven years until the death of A.F. Mozhaisky continued to work on improving his apparatus, using his insignificant funds, without any help from the government. He was forced to sell not only his estates in the Vologda province and Ukraine, but also his personal belongings. But he did not have time to complete his work.

Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky died in poverty on the night of March 20 (April 1), 1890. He never saw his offspring in the second flight. Without honors, Rear Admiral was buried at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery in St. Petersburg. Already in our time, in 1977, by the forces of the Academy. A.F. Mozhaisky, a monument was erected on the grave outstanding person, which gave Russia priority in the creation of the aircraft.

After the death of the inventor, his aircraft stood in the open air in Krasnoe Selo for many years and, when the military department refused to buy it, was dismantled and transported to the Mozhaisky estate near Vologda, where it burned down in 1895. And if in France Ader's "Avion III" (an airplane with folding wings built in 1897) was preserved as a relic, then Russian officials did everything to ensure that there was no trace of Mozhaisky's invention. Even the name of the inventor turned out to be unrecognized in Tsarist Russia. After his death, no one took care to save the archive and models on which the inventor experimented, even Mozhaisky's grave turned out to be lost.

December 17, 2003 the whole world (Russia is no exception) celebrated 100 years since the flight of the world's first aircraft. The airplane, built by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, took off and flew 37 meters in 12 seconds in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It is believed that the history of aviation began from that day. However, the Brazilians consider their compatriot Alberto Santos-Dumont the first pilot. In Paris, on November 12, 1906, a Brazilian flew 220 meters on an apparatus of his own design. Although Santos-Dumont took his plane into the sky later than the Wright brothers, he, unlike the Americans, started without the help of a catapult and strong wind, which means, according to the Brazilians, it was his flight that should be considered the first. But we often forget that the world's first airplane was built in Russia 20 years earlier than the Wright brothers - in 1883, and its inventor - retired Major General Alexander Mozhaisky. Based on the experiments of Mozhaisky, Russian design engineers created in 1913 at the Baltic Plant in St. Petersburg a heavy aircraft "Russian Knight". Following him, in 1914, under the leadership of I. Sikorsky, a series of aircraft of the Ilya Muromets type was built. It was the world's first heavy multi-engine wing-mounted bomber. Exceptional in its qualities was the giant aircraft "Svyatogor", designed in 1915 by designer V.A. Slesarev.

Now that the history of the development of aviation has been well studied, one can appreciate the merit of the Russian sailor-inventor, who proposed in 1878 the design of an aircraft, all five of whose main elements are inherent in modern aircraft. Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky bore bold dreams on the creation of an aircraft heavier than air, was engaged in scientific research on aeronautics. For the sake of this dream, he left the service. The genius of Mozhaisky was decades ahead of his era. Receiving no help or funds from the state, he did not give up and continued his research in the field of aeronautics, and at the end of his life he wrote about himself: "I wanted to be useful to my Fatherland ..."

The American Wright brothers made their flight in December 1903. It is believed that the history of aviation began from that day. But the world's first aircraft was built and tested by the Russian designer A.F. Mozhaisky twenty years earlier. A.F. Mozhaisky was born on March 9, 1825 in the family of a hereditary sailor, graduated from the Naval Cadet Corps in 1841 and sailed the Baltic and White Seas. In 1863 he was dismissed due to the forced reduction in the size of the fleet after the Crimean War, but in 1879 he was again enrolled in military service with the rank of captain 1st rank and sent to the Naval Cadet Corps. In July 1882, Mozhaisky was awarded the rank of major general. Mozhaisky was later promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. Mozhaisky worked on the project of an aircraft heavier than air since 1876.
It all started with the fact that he began to carefully observe the flights of birds and kites. Having carried out a large number of calculations, studies and experiments, in September 1876 Mozhaisky built the first flying model of an aircraft. He was advised by leading Russian scientists. Mozhaisky discovered one of the laws of aerodynamics: for the possibility of flight "there is a certain relationship between gravity, speed and the size of the plane." Mathematically, this was later substantiated by N.E. Zhukovsky. After successful flights of the model, the inventor began to develop a full-size aircraft project. Working on a model aircraft, Mozhaisky used his own savings, but the construction of a life-size aircraft required significant amounts of money, which the designer did not have.
At the beginning of 1877, Mozhaisky turned to the aeronautical commission of the military ministry with a request to provide him with the necessary funds for further experiments. To consider the Mozhaisky project, a special commission was formed, which included the largest representatives of Russian science and technology. Thanks to the support of D.I. Mendeleev, it was decided to release 3,000 rubles to the inventor for further work. Mozhaisky received only part of the promised amount, but built a new model of the aircraft. In the spring of 1878, he turned to the Main Engineering Directorate with a request to allocate about 19 thousand rubles for the construction of an airplane. The commission was presented with detailed drawings of the aircraft, calculations and an explanatory note. The plane, according to the plan of Mozhaisky, was intended for bombing and reconnaissance flights. The commission included foreigners, the commission questioned the usefulness of Mozhaisky's project and refused to allocate money.

Mozhaisky continued to work on his apparatus with the money of private individuals who understood the significance of these experiments, and in 1881 he patented it. It was a patent (as it was called, a privilege) for the world's first aircraft. Several times Mozhaisky appealed to the government with a request for financial assistance, but he was refused. And yet, in the summer of 1882, the apparatus was ready for testing. Tests of the Mozhaisky aircraft were carried out in conditions of great secrecy in Krasnoe Selo near St. Petersburg on July 20, 1882. The aircraft, having gained the necessary speed, took off, flew for several seconds and sat down, while the wing was damaged. The possibility of human flight on an apparatus heavier than air was practically proved. The invention of A.F. Mozhaisky was declared a military secret, but the inventor still did not receive any help. Mozhaisky worked on improving his apparatus until his last days.
After the death of the inventor, his plane stood for many years, collapsing, in the open air in Krasnoe Selo, and then was transported to the Mozhaisky estate near Vologda. The shed in which the plane stood burned down, and the relic car perished in the fire. The name of Mozhaisky in tsarist Russia was forgotten, and only Soviet historians remembered him.
A.F. Mozhaisky was buried in St. Petersburg at the Smolensk cemetery (you need to walk along the Kazan path to its intersection with Blagoveshchenskaya and, standing with your back to the church, take 50 steps to the right).