Nikolai Alekseevich Rynin (23 December 1887 – 28 July 1942) was a Russian civil engineer, teacher,

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astrona ...

researcher, author, historian, and promoter of space travel.

Career

Rynin began his career in civil engineering, working in the railway industry. However, in 1906 he developed an interest in aircraft and manned flight. During his career he performed research in

aeronautics Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifies ...

, became a balloonist and aircraft pilot, taught aerospace topics as a professor in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, and wrote various books and articles on airplanes and space travel. In the April 1918 issue of the ''

Byloye ''Byloye'' ( rus, Былое, ''The Past'') was a monthly historical magazine published in the Russian Empire by Nikolay Elpidiforovich Paramonov and edited by Vasily Y. Bogucharsky (1861–1915), Pavel E. Shchegolev (1877–1931) and Vladimir L ...

'' magazine, Rynin published

Nikolai Kibalchich Nikolai Ivanovich Kibalchich (russian: Николай Иванович Кибальчич, uk, Микола Іванович Кибальчич, sr, Никола Кибалчић, ''Mykola Ivanovych Kybalchych''; 19 October 1853 – April 3, 188 ...

's description of a manned,

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

-propelled ship. It had been detailed in Kibalchich's final letter, and had languished in police archives until Rynin heard rumors of the design and fished it out. Between 1928 and 1932 he published a nine-volume encyclopedia of space travel called the ''Mezhplanetnye Soobschniya'' ("Interplanetary Communications"). He is known to have corresponded with peers in the West, including

Robert H. Goddard Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first Liquid-propellant rocket, liquid-fueled rocket. ...

in 1926, concerning Russian rocketry activities. Rynin died from a combination of starvation and illness during the German

siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad (russian: links=no, translit=Blokada Leningrada, Блокада Ленинграда; german: links=no, Leningrader Blockade; ) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet city of L ...

, as did fellow spaceflight promoter

Yakov Perelman Yakov Isidorovich Perelman (russian: Яков Исидорович Перельман; – 16 March 1942) was a Russian and Soviet science writer and author of many popular science books, including ''Physics Can Be Fun'' and ''Mathematics Can B ...

. The crater Rynin on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

is named after him.

Interplanetary Communications

Rynin's encyclopedia contains the following nine volumes: * Dreams, Legends, and Early Fantasies * Spacecraft in Science Fiction * Radiant Energy: Science Fiction and Scientific Projects * Rockets * Theory of rocket propulsion * Superaviation and superartillery * K. E. Tsiolkoviskii; life, writings, and rockets * Theory of space flight *

Astronavigation Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is the practice of position fixing using stars and other celestial bodies that enables a navigator to accurately determine their actual current physical position in space (or on the surface o ...

; theory, annals, bibliography, index. They are available in English from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

as follows: * Rynin, N.A. ''Interplanetary Flight and Communication''. Washington, D.C.: NASA and NSF, 1970–71. (NASA TT F-640, TT F-642 through TT F-648) (Holdings: Vol. 1, Nos. 1 and 3; Vol. II, Nos. 4 and 6, Vol. III, Nos. 7, 8 and 9).

References

* B. F. Tarasov, ''Nikolai Rynin and Russia's Beginnings in Aerospace'', translated by John Decker, 2000.

External links

Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight entry

''Interplanetary Flight and Communication'' (NASA Documents)
1887 births 1942 deaths 20th-century Russian inventors Soviet engineers 20th-century Russian engineers Russian civil engineers Soviet inventors Soviet spaceflight pioneers Victims of the Siege of Leningrad Deaths by starvation {{Russia-engineer-stub