Viktor Tolmachev (11 August 1934 – 7 June 2018) was a Russian engineer. He was a member of the

Russian Academy of Natural Sciences The Russian Academy of Natural Sciences ( Russian: Российская академия естественных наук) is a Russian non-governmental organization founded on August 31 1990 in Moscow in the former Soviet Union, following a de ...

and chief designer of the

Antonov An-124 Ruslan The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (; russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, , Ruslan; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukrain ...

and An-225 Mriya transport aircraft.

Biography

Tolmachev was born in 1934 in

Kursk Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...

, Russia, USSR. After graduating from the Kharkiv Aviation Institute in 1959 he joined the

Antonov Antonov State Enterprise ( uk, Державне підприємство «Антонов»), formerly the Aeronautical Scientific-Technical Complex named after Antonov (Antonov ASTC) ( uk, Авіаційний науково-технічни� ...

Design Bureau in Kyiv, Ukraine. During his time there, he participated in the design, engineering and updating of almost every Antonov airplane, including the An-2,

An-8 The Antonov An-8 (NATO reporting name: Camp) is a Soviet-designed twin-turboprop, high-wing light military transport aircraft. Development In December 1951, OKB-153 initiated the design of a twin-engined assault transport aircraft, designated D ...

, An-10,

An-12 The Antonov An-12 ( Russian: Антонов Ан-12; NATO reporting name: Cub) is a four-engined turboprop transport aircraft designed in the Soviet Union. It is the military version of the Antonov An-10 and has many variants. For more than th ...

, An-14,

An-22 The Antonov An-22 "Antei" (, ''An-22 Antej''; English ''Antaeus'') (NATO reporting name "Cock") is a heavy military transport aircraft designed by the Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Powered by four turboprop engines each driving a pa ...

An-24 The Antonov An-24 (Russian/Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-24) ( NATO reporting name: Coke) is a 44-seat twin turboprop transport/passenger aircraft designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau and manufactured by Kyiv, Ir ...

An-26 The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986.Gordon, Yefim. Komissarov, Dmitry & Sergey. "Antonov's Turboprop Twin ...

An-32 The Antonov An-32 ( NATO reporting name: Cline) is a turboprop twin-engined military transport aircraft. Design and development The An-32 is essentially a re-engined An-26. It is designed to withstand adverse weather conditions better than the ...

An-28 The Antonov An-28 (NATO reporting name Cash) is a twin-engined light turboprop transport aircraft, developed from the Antonov An-14M. It was the winner of a competition against the Beriev Be-30, for use by Aeroflot as a short-range airliner. It ...

An-124 The Antonov An-124 Ruslan (; russian: Антонов Ан-124 Руслан, , Ruslan; NATO reporting name: Condor) is a large, strategic airlift, four-engined aircraft that was designed in the 1980s by the Antonov design bureau in the Ukrain ...

and the An-225 Mriya. Tolmachev was later the Technical Director at

Volga-Dnepr Airlines Volga-Dnepr Airlines, LLC (russian: ООО «Авиакомпания «Волга-Днепр») is an airline based in Ulyanovsk, Russia. It specializes in providing air charter services by operating a unique fleet of twelve Antonov An-124 (lar ...

, one of the main An-124 operators. There he managed the airworthiness of Volga-Dnepr's

heavy-lift An airlift is the organized delivery of supplies or personnel primarily via military transport aircraft. Airlifting consists of two distinct types: strategic and tactical. Typically, strategic airlifting involves moving material long distanc ...

fleet, and was involved in the planning for the successor to the An-124. Viktor Tolmachev has dedicated over fifty years of his life to the national aviation industry, contributing to design, development and production of nearly all Antonov airplane models and versions, including An-2, An-14, An-8, An-10, An-12, An-24, An-22, An-26, An-32 and An-28. He worked on An-124 project from design and development phase through the launch of production and entry into service. In 1983 Viktor Tolmachev was appointed Deputy Chief Designer and then took up the post of Chief Designer in Antonov An-124 Project in 1985. Later, he led the design of its six-engine version - An-225 Mriya. He initiated the process of application for certification of An-124 as a commercial aircraft, which resulted in successful certification of commercial version An-124-100 in 1992. Victor Tolmachev made a great contribution to the establishment and development of Volga-Dnepr Group. From 1991 to 2002 he was Technical Director and then, from 1997 to 2002, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Volga-Dnepr Airlines. From 2002 to 2016 he held the post of Chief Technical Officer of Volga-Dnepr Group. From June 2016, we worked as an advisor to President of the Group and as a mentor on engineering policy. Victor Tolmachev is the author of over 100 engineering research works and the inventor of a number of aeronautical devices. He was a member of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences and International Academy of Inventors.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tolmachev, Viktor 1934 births 2018 deaths Antonov aircraft Aircraft designers Russian aerospace engineers People from Kursk