Genrikh Novozhilov

Genrikh Vasilyevich Novozhilov (Ге́нрих Васи́льевич Новожи́лов; 27 October 1925 – 28 April 2019) was a Soviet and Russian aircraft designer.

He was a key designer of multiple Ilyushin passenger aircraft including the Il-18, Il-62, Il-76, and Il-96.

Novozhilov was born on 27 October 1925 in Moscow, Soviet Union, the son of military engineer Vasily Vasilyevich Sokolov, and his wife Iraida Ivanova Novozhilova, a servicewoman.

The family lived near Clean Ponds, where one of his neighbours in the communal apartment worked in civil aviation.

His parents divorced in 1937, with Novozhilov raised by his mother and attending School No. 233 V.R. Menzhinsky.

The young Novozhilov aspired to be a pilot, but in September 1939 he suffered a severe leg injury, having to undergo several operations at the Botkin Hospital.

He later recalled that "They plowed up the leg from the knee to the foot," ending his dreams of being a pilot.

He was also keen on photography, with some of his work exhibited at the 1st All-Union Children's Photo Exhibition in 1939.

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Novozhilov and his mother were temporarily evacuated to Penza.

They returned to Moscow in August 1942, where Novozhilov began work at the physics department of the Moscow Aviation Institute, and a year later became a student in the aircraft-construction department.

Here he first met Sergey Ilyushin when Ilyushin attended the faculty's graduation banquet.

Novozhilov would later recall Ilyushin's spontaneity, and his skill at dancing and singing.

Novozhilov then began an internship at OKB-240, the design bureau overseen by Sergey Ilyushin.

He was duly enrolled as a design engineer on 1 July 1948, with a salary of 900 rubles.

He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1949 and continued to work at the bureau.

He participated in the design of the Il-14 passenger aircraft, as well as military planes including the attack aircraft Il-40 and the bombers Il-46 and Il-54.

During his early years Novozhilov specialised in fuselage design, under the tutelage of Valery Bogor.

The Ilyushin design bureau was often in competition with the designs produced by Tupolev design bureau.

Ilyushin designs that Novozhilov helped to work on at this time included the Il-14 passenger aircraft, the two-seater attack jet Il-40 and the bomber Il-46.

Eventually Tupolev's rival offering, the Tu-14, was adopted for the Soviet Air Forces instead of the Il-46.

Novozhilov instead worked as lead engineer on the Il-54.

The Il-54 was also cancelled by the Soviet government in the mid-1950s with only two prototypes built.

By the late 1950s, with Soviet interests fixed on the Space Race, the Ilyushin design bureau faced closure.

In 1956 Novozhilov was elected secretary of the bureau's party committee, but returned to engineering in September 1958, being tasked as appointed deputy chief designer of the passenger aircraft Il-18, and their operation with Aeroflot.

Novozhilov attempted to avoid the appointment, arguing that he had not been involved with building the aircraft, nor was he very familiar with their operation.

Ilyushin was unconvinced.

Novozhilov therefore had to travel widely in his new capacity, as well as working with emergency commissions after accidents to determine their causes, and develop preventative measures.

Novozhilov would later admit that this proved particularly useful experience for him, and was necessary for developing his design interests.

In 1964 Novozhilov was appointed first deputy general designer and tasked with overseeing the development and mass production of the Il-62.

Since 1969 the design bureau had been developing the first Russian wide-body passenger aircraft, the Il-86.

There was now great demand for long distance high capacity civil aviation, and the government had stipulated a nominal range of 2,400 kilometres.

As Novozhilov was returning from Sochi with Aviation Industry Minister Pyotr Dementyev and the Minister of Civil Aviation Boris Bugayev, he noted that the bureau was investigating potentially doubling the range of the Il-86.

The ministers promptly made him sign to commit the new aircraft to a new stipulated range of 5,000 kilometres.

After considering developments of the IL-62 and IL-76 designs, Novozhilov and his team produced a completely new design capable of such range while carrying 350 passengers.

His success at this led to the award of the Lenin Prize in early 1970 to members of the Ilyushin bureau, including Novozhilov.

In mid 1970 Sergey Ilyushin, then aged 77, announced his retirement and on 28 July, in the presence of Aviation Industry Minister Pyotr Vasilyevich Dementyev, Novozhilov was named as his successor and general designer of the Moscow bureau of the "Strela" works.

On 25 March the following year the Il-76, a military transport aircraft, began its test flights at Khodynka Aerodrome, overseen by Novozhilov with Sergei Ilyushin in attendance.

It became the most popular passenger and military transport aircraft of the Soviet Union.

On 26 April 1971 Novozhilov was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labour after the completion of the state's eighth five-year plan.

The first testflight of the new IL-86 took place on 22 December 1976.