The work of a designer of machines and mechanisms is akin to creativity. Natural ability is required to create a car or aircraft. Such abilities were possessed by Mikhail Mil, a Soviet helicopter designer.
Starting conditions
It is no longer possible to imagine modern life without airplanes and helicopters. At a certain stage of development, the youth of the Soviet country with enthusiasm and ardor sang a song that the mind gave us steel arms-wings, and instead of the heart, a fiery motor. The aircraft designer Mikhail Leontyevich Mil was directly involved in the creation of the "iron birds". The future creator of aircraft was born on November 22, 1909 in the family of a railway engineer. Parents lived in the famous city of Irkutsk. My father served on the railroad. The mother worked as a dentist. An older sister and brother were already growing up in the house.
Irkutsk had all the conditions for the harmonious development of children from wealthy families. From an early age, Mikhail began to master not only his native, but also foreign languages. As soon as the child was able to pick up a pencil, it became clear that an artist would grow out of him. The boy did well at school. During that chronological period, young people began to get involved in aviation. Aircraft modeling circles and clubs were created at schools. Mil also worked in such a club and was able to make a working model of the aircraft.
Professional activity
After school, Mikhail decided to get a higher technical education at the Tomsk Technological Institute. But after the first year he was expelled as a representative of the bourgeois class. Mil survived this trouble and a year later became a student of the aircraft engineering faculty at the Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute. Here he received information about a new type of aircraft gyroplane. And immediately he began to study the theory of the flight of this rotorcraft. After some time, he performed basic calculations and even tested the layout in a wind tunnel.
Active behavior and creativity allowed Mikhail to promote his ideas and plans to implementation in metal. The prototypes of the helicopters showed good flight characteristics, but this was not enough. It was necessary to optimize the design of certain components and assemblies again and again. Before the start of the war, construction began on the country's first helicopter manufacturing plant. When hostilities began, Mil's design bureau was evacuated to the Urals. But all the same, he often traveled to the front line to personally observe the testing of aircraft in combat conditions.
Recognition and privacy
Currently, helicopters designed by Mikhail Leontyevich Mil are known all over the world. According to competent experts, the Mi car is recognized as the best in its class. The Motherland appreciated the designer's contribution to the development of aviation. He was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. The work of Mikhail Leontyevich was awarded the Lenin and State Prizes.
In Mil's personal life, everything was stable. He married a girl from a parallel group during his student years. The husband and wife raised and raised three daughters. Mikhail Mil died in January 1970.
