Was born on January 15, 1917 in Baku. Father - Alexander Grigorievich Sedov (1887-1927), tanker commander of the Caspian oil tanker fleet. Mother - Sedova (Eremina) Natalya Vasilievna (1890-1971), daughter of the Astrakhan cooper. Wife - Sedova (Gurvich) Irina Mikhailovna (born in 1921), surgeon.
"As a person who owns his profession with the freedom of a true artist, harmoniously combining the ardor of Mozart with Salieri's ability to" believe harmony with algebra, "... he carefully played out all the situations that he could expect in the upcoming flight. The leading formula of his methodology is" if - then ". If something happens, it is necessary to act this way ..."
"The head of our department ... possessed a rare gift - the art of brilliant analysis. Here he knew no equal. No one else could so efficiently and accurately discern the behavior of a car in flight ... He literally laid the car on the shelves ..."
"Dyadka", the founder of the school of "Mikoyan" pilots, is a man of extraordinary destiny. An outstanding test pilot ... after being retired from flight work, he showed such an engineering talent that he rose to the position of deputy director of the MIG design bureau general designer..."
"He never reprimanded the unlucky, did not raise his voice, but silently annoyed that the issue was not well covered, not sufficiently worked out, while trying to help get out of the difficult situation ..."
"The technical staff treated him with great respect, everyone saw him as a friend, senior comrade, and not a boss ..."
"On one hand, you can list the pilots who organically combined such a strong will, professional skill, rich engineering experience and high creativity ..."
The above words were spoken at different times and by different people - test pilots, military and civil, ground specialists, designers, but they refer to the same person - Grigory Aleksandrovich Sedov.
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The city of Baku is named as the birthplace of the future pilot. This is not true. Gregory, like his older brother Valery, was born ... on board the tanker steamer Ignatius, commanded by their father. Children from an early age knew what a foresail, a mainsail, a mizzen ... By the way, Grigory Khrisanfovich, Sedov's paternal grandfather, was also a captain, commander of a small river vessel.
The Sedov family lived on ... a steamer, in two small cabins leading to the "salon". There is also an extensive library, already at the age of four Gregory read fluently. Mom graduated from the Mariinsky female gymnasium in Astrakhan and had a diploma of "home teacher"; she taught her children without leaving home. The Sedov brothers went to school when Valery was 12 years old, and Grigory was ten, the eldest went to the fourth grade, the youngest went to the third ... By that time the family had left the ship and settled in Astrakhan. Although father new government and awarded a silver personal watch for navigation in 1922, he was out of work, did not work anywhere, fell ill and, having been ill for four years, died.
Grigory Sedov always remembered Astrakhan street, the taste of baked potatoes, the game of rounders, which in Astrakhan was called "buoy and draft" ... And, of course, the school: its first teacher Glafira Iosifovna Ivanova, who took the "entrance" exam for the third grade, Fedor Alekseevich Serebryakov, who taught the children everything - from physics to botany ...
In that distant and hungry childhood, Sedov did not build any models of airplanes and gliders and did not think about aviation ...
1929 was the most difficult year for the family. The elder brother has already studied in Baku maritime affairs, little by little the dear of grandfather and father moved forward, mother and youngest son left Astrakhan and returned to Baku ... Mother, who taught her children to read and work with a book, insisted that Grigory graduate from the newly opened ten-year school and after her went to study as an engineer ... Sedov passed the exams at the local industrial institute, but did not want to study there, but moved to Leningrad and became a student at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1936.
This was the end of the pre-aviation period of Grigory Alexandrovich's life. At the institute, he once read an advertisement for recruitment to the flying club. Due to a certain liveliness of character and a nationwide love for aviation, student Sedov decided to try himself as an accountant.
His first teacher in flying was a woman - an aeroclub instructor Olga Nikolaevna Yamshchikova (later - a colonel engineer, first class test pilot). Under her leadership, in Kresttsy near Novgorod, Grigory Sedov made the first independent flight. Soon Yamshchikova "made her way" to the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, during the war she fought in the women's 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment. Shortly before the Victory, Olga Nikolaevna was sent to work at the Air Force Research Institute. The first of soviet women she flew there on a jet plane and ... met at the institute her pre-war "account" Grigory Sedov.
Sedov himself at the Air Force Research Institute turned out to be quite an intricate way. People in uniform suddenly arrived at the airfield of the St. Petersburg aeroclub with the aim of selecting several children for study at the Borisoglebsk flight school. Then an I-16 fighter landed, flew towards them from some exercises. Compared to the "maize", the Polikarpov "donkey" looked like a messenger from another planet.
On January 2, 1938, Sedov, who had a "grandiose" raid at 12 hours 44 minutes, was enrolled in the military flight school... Studying in Borisoglebsk turned out to be impetuous, like the flight of a bullet. After "high-speed" training on the U-2, the instructor Alexei Nikolaevich Pavlikov released the student Sedov on the I-16 fighter. And in October of the same 1938, Sedov, with the rank of lieutenant, was sent to a combat unit, or rather, to the 10th Fighter Aviation Regiment, stationed in Bobruisk. One of the three regiments of his air division was commanded by Ivan Petrovich Polunin. (After the war, Ivan Petrovich, from 1955 to 1961, headed the Test Pilot School of the Ministry of Aviation Industry).
The newly made lieutenant flew in Bobruisk on an I-16, flew well, but the craving for "engineering" laid down by his parents still made itself felt: Sedov wrote a report asking him to take him to the second year of the Zhukovsky Academy (the first, still "St. Petersburg" course of the university was already behind). Handed over entrance exams for admission to the second year of the Faculty of Engineering, but refused to study! I received a certificate, the contents of which should be cited in full - for a sense of the atmosphere of that time: "... At my own request I received a delay for one year due to the lack of the possibility of obtaining flight training at the Academy. Comrade Sedov was allowed by the Command of the Academy to conduct tests in 1940. for the 3rd year "(spelling and punctuation of the document are preserved). Sedov was sent to the combat unit "to fly for a year."
Exactly one year later, Sedov was admitted to the third year of the Academy. While studying, the war broke out, senior students were simply forbidden to even stutter about the front. Moreover, when in 1942 Sedov received a diploma (by the way, "red"), mechanical engineers who had previously had a flying specialty were sent not to the front, but to the State Red Banner Research Institute of the Air Force.
The Institute was evacuated from the Chkalovskaya station near Moscow, from the famous Shchelkovo airfield, to the Sverdlovsk suburb of Koltsovo. The extermination department was headed by Alexey Nikashin. An amazing pilot, Konstantin Gruzdev, who was recalled from the front, but who managed to shoot down more than twenty enemy aircraft in three months of combat "practice" worked in the department. Gruzdev tried to calm down Sedov, who was rushing to the front, trying to convince him that here, in the rear, the work was no less risky and no less responsibility. Sedov also made friends with Alexei Kubyshkin, the one who "opened the sky" for the LA-5 fighter, with Andrei Kochetkov, Fedor Demida, Afanasy Proshakov, "Afonya", with Pyotr Stefanovsky - famous, outstanding pilots. Grigory Bakhchivandzhi served in the "engine" department - he was the first to lift the BI-1 rocket plane into the air ... On it "Bakhchi" and laid his head, then Gruzdev would die on the notorious American "aircobra". Both of them are buried in Koltsov ...
The Air Force Research Institute returned to the Moscow region in the forty-third. By the end of the war, Sedov, absorbing like a sponge the experience of senior colleagues, took a strong position in the state tests of fighters, both domestic and Lendleut. Even then, four profile groups were formed in his department: the team of the leading engineer V.I. Alekseenko, "foreigners" - the brigade of I.G. Rabkin, "miami" - the team of A.S. Rozanov (Alexander Sergeevich later headed the School of Test Pilots, he replaced Polunin). As for Sedov himself, he headed the brigade that dealt with Yakovlev's planes, and led in two qualities - a leading engineer and a leading test pilot, an unprecedented case for the Air Force Research Institute ...
1945 for Grigory Alexandrovich became memorable not only with the Victory: that year he met a surgeon from the N.N. Burdenko as front-line soldier Irina Mikhailovna Gurvich, they got married, and since then they have been going through life together.
So, the second half of the forties, the war ended, but a new one flared up, without any respite. Politicians will call it "cold", and for those involved in arms and military equipment, it turned out to be literally "hot", and not only here, but all over the world, more precisely, in those few countries that dared to "correspond" to scientific and technological progress.
By the nature of his risky testing profession, Sedov buried many of his colleagues, but his own fate was preserved. Even in those post-war years, he conducted state tests of the Yak-15 and Yak-23, they were put into service, then the Yak-30 followed (which was not serially built), as a fly-over he participated in the tests of the first jet "MIGs" and "Lavochkin "...
Experienced jet fighters MIG-9 and Yak-15 took to the air for the first time on April 24, 1946, and the LA-150 was launched a little later. Without waiting for the end of factory and state tests, the planes were launched ... into mass production. The situation is extreme, and therefore responsibility. After all, the task was "simple" - to fly in a column on these fighters over Red Square during the traditional military parade on November 7. The Air Force Research Institute sent twelve of its best testers to the ceremonial event. They had practically no reactive experience - after the war, the institute had one trophy ME-262, and A.G. Kochetkov flew on it mainly, and his colleagues in the fighter department performed one flight each. Yes, and that plane was lost: on September 17, Fyodor Demida crashed on the Messerschmitt.
The mastering of the "serial" first-born jet aircraft MIG-9 and Yak-15 was organized in the following way: dismantled vehicles were delivered to the Ramenskoye airfield, assembled there, the pilots of the LII M.L. , having conducted, naturally, the appropriate classes. So twelve "parades" from the Air Force Research Institute became "reactive" ...
The air part of that parade was canceled - the weather was disgusting that day. The testers, however, were adequately thanked both morally and financially. An official group photo of the participants in the "failed" parade has survived, but it only shows eleven pilots, the twelfth, Sedov, not there.
It turns out that at the time of the historical shooting, engineer-major Sedov in full military uniform was walking around ... Paris.
In 1946, the first post-war air show was held there, and not at the airfield in Le Bourget, but in the Grand Palais, in the city center. The Soviet official delegation consisted of five people, only aviators and only military ones - General A.N. Ponomarev, two colonels, a lieutenant colonel and major Sedov ... The decisive factor for including Sedov in the delegation was, most likely, the fact that Grigory Aleksandrovich supervised the tests of Yakovlev machines at the Air Force Research Institute.
Prime Minister Georges Bidault and three men cut the ribbon soviet officers - General Ponomarev, Colonel Kulagin and Major Sedov ... Comments, as they say, are superfluous.
In 1947, the Soviet government decided to widely display jet technology at the air parade in Tushino. Pilots of the Air Force Research Institute also took part in many "numbers" of the extensive program. The testers of the fighter department were instructed, in particular, to pass over the Tushino airfield with three links on piston LA-11s, additionally equipped with the so-called pulsating air-jet engines (two "pipes" were hung under the wings of each aircraft, which, when turned on, gave some increase in speed, terrible at the same time, three-meter fiery tails rumbled and vomited). The sight was very spectacular! Engineer-major Sedov was also in the front nine ... A month later, all the participants in the parade were awarded orders and medals - so Grigory Alexandrovich became a knight of the order Patriotic War I degree ...
At the institute, Grigory Sedov quickly advanced in service, received the rank of engineer-lieutenant colonel, became "acting head of the fighter department". He was loaded with engineering work, according to him, on the entire piece of hardware and, most importantly, he flew, and no less than other testers. He liked this work, and he did not even think of going anywhere. Here, like many people, His Majesty Chance intervened!
In the late autumn of the forty-ninth Sedov ... was punished for failing to fulfill his "combat mission." The new head of the institute, and they changed very often after the war, ordered to immediately overtake the fighter from Chkalovskaya to the city of Engels on the Volga. There was no weather, as if it were a sin, and the urgent need for such a "run" was clearly not visible. And Sedov dismissed everyone to their homes. And in the morning an angry order was issued not to fulfill this very "combat mission" with a warning about incomplete official compliance.
Of course, Grigory Alexandrovich, after the order, worked as he did, continued, as he himself says, "incompletely conform." Literally on the same days, Sedov was given a rather curious request for an ordinary test pilot from ... Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan: the head of the OKB asked Grigory Alexandrovich to come to the design bureau at a convenient time for him. Sedov was not familiar with Mikoyan, however, he flew a lot on "flashes", but nothing more ... Artem Ivanovich suggested that he become a chief pilot of the OKB, organize a flight test station in such a way that it would be possible to conduct tests of the widest range, taking into account the experience of the Air Force Research Institute and the Flight Research Institute, create a permanent flight group, a new engineering service ...
Then Sedov lived in the air garrison at the Chkalovskaya station, and he was to work at the Otdykh station, there was the Yaroslavsky railway station, and there was the Kazan station ... Mikoyan, by the way, suggested sending a plane for Sedov, but the pilot who grew up in Bolshevik modesty politely refused ... And until that time, until he was given an apartment in Moscow, he wound up in Zhukovsky on electric trains, slept little, was deadly tired, but entered into business energetically.
And there were a lot of cases and problems. Viktor Yuganov, who lifted the first MiG-15, left the OKB for the Flight Research Institute (LII). Alexander Chernoburov was a great pilot, but not an aerodynamic expert. high speeds... Mikoyan needed not just a test pilot, but an analyst, an "academician," meaning the education received at the Air Force Engineering Academy, and who knew how to translate his feelings received in flight into the language of numbers, formulas, graphs. ..
Sedov's phrase, which has become a textbook, wanders through the pages of all post-war aviation books: "If a pilot feels before a test flight that he is going for a feat, then he is not ready for flight!" It may seem that these words, quoted, as a rule, without any reference to the time, place of action, environment, were pronounced at an anniversary party or pioneer gathering.
In fact, this was preceded by tragic event: On March 20, 1950 on the I-330, the first prototype of the future MIG-17, a Hero crashed Soviet Union Ivan Ivaschenko ... At an altitude of five thousand meters, the pilot put the fighter into a deep dive and ... did not get out of it. The emergency commission was at a dead end, no clues were visible, but the designers instinctively felt that it was the transonic speed that was dragging some kind of "mine". Mikoyan decided to continue testing and entrusted them to Sedov. While the second copy was being built, Sedov simulated possible situations on the ground, came up with tests, looked for some particular solutions, combined them in different combinations. It was then that they began to look at Sedov, as at a person going to a feat, then Grigory Aleksandrovich tried to convince his new colleagues that he was not going to rush into the embrasure, but was trying to get to the bottom of the reasons for Ivashchenko's death.
On April 6, 1950, Sedov flew a second copy of the I-330. The mine went off when, on one of the flights, he approached transonic speed. The plane was struck by flutter - vibrations that can destroy any airplane in a matter of seconds. The pilot's ground training here played a key and happy role - he managed to land a fighter on the surviving rudder stubs and bring, as the testers say, the most valuable experimental material ...
The fifties (for almost the entire decade Sedov was a senior pilot of the MIG design bureau) went down in the history of world aviation with an unprecedented "battle for the skies", its former allies anti-Hitler coalition... Subsonic military equipment has prepared a springboard for the most famous leap in its development - breaking the sound barrier.
Front-line fighters MIG-17 by that time had adopted more than thirty countries, participants in its creation, including Sedov, were awarded the State Prize in 1952, numerous modifications of the aircraft appeared and the "seventeenth" were in service for a long time ... their time was rapidly running out.
In the meantime, a world air competition was being prepared in the "combat fighters" category. At the Edwards Air Force Base in the California Mojave Desert, one after the other, the brainchild of all leading firms entered for testing: North American presented the Super Saber supersonic F-100, McDonnell - Voodoo F-101, Lockheed - F-104 "Starfighter", "Republic" - F-105 "Thunderchif" ... The British, French, Italians and even "neutral" Swedes rushed in pursuit of the "older brother" ...
The Soviet Union became an active participant in that competition. Design Bureau A.S. entered their "home" competition. Yakovleva, S.A. Lavochkin, A.I. Mikoyan and P.O. Sukhoi. Historical paradox: the teams "Yak" and "LA", whose aircraft made a very noticeable contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany, lost to the "MIG" and "SU", whose wings were not so noticeable in the skies of the Great Patriotic War.
“The pilot, says Grigory Aleksandrovich, always strives to fly faster and higher - this is his element. The aircraft that we then tested gave us such an opportunity. For me, for example, such an aircraft was the MIG-19 - the first domestic supersonic fighter ... Of course, working on such machines was exciting for every tester ... "
The road to the MiG-19 turned out to be far from easy.
At first, they built an "emka" - an experienced fighter I-350 "M" with an experienced engine A.M. Cradle. Sedov took him into the air on June 16, 1951. On the ground, of course, many possible situations were lost, the engine was "driven", the pilot many times "ran" along the runway, performed several jumps, and in the air what was least expected happened: the engine stopped ... wings, their sweep was 55 degrees, the aerodynamic quality required for planning is probably the same as that of an ax. But here, most likely, the "bureaucracy" of the Sedov method of preparing for flights worked, when decisions are made faster than any supercomputer and they are carried out by micron-sized movements of hands, feet, eyes, fingers. Sedov successfully landed the "emka", which made even experienced pilots of the "Ramenskoye" airfield scratch their heads.
This was the first landing in the country with a failed jet engine. In total, Sedov will then have ten "non-motorized" landings.
The cautious Artyom Ivanovich Mikoyan understood that information was needed like air, but he could not recklessly risk the pilot's life. And yet he allowed four more "sharp" flights on the I-350 "M".
One of the eyewitnesses of those breakthrough days recalled that special conferences were held right at the airfield, about fifteen people gathered for them. Sedov reported on his own, still "lukewarm" material, immediately developed tapes with recordings of instruments, compared them with the pilot's impressions, analyzed them, and received data invaluable in scientific and technical terms ...
As a result, a year later the SM-2 appeared, already with two A.A. engines. Mikulin. Sedov tested it for more than a year, performed 132 flights ... Finally, on January 5, 1954, Grigory Aleksandrovich made the first flight on the SM-9, in March he reached a speed of 1.452 kilometers per hour ... After factory tests, the car was transferred to state tests in his native for Sedov Air Force Research Institute. The aircraft was launched into mass production under the name MIG-19.
For the sake of fairness, it should be noted that in the 1950s the MIG Design Bureau was engaged not only in the modifications of the MIG-17 and the development of its first supersonic aircraft, the MIG-19. The OKB participated in the "atomic project" - the details of that top-secret work were made public only in the 90s. Mikoyanists made aircraft - missiles "K" (nuclear missile complex "Kometa"), they were hung under the wings of strategic bombers, and, naturally, they developed manned analogs of the shells. Flight tests at the 71st Air Force training ground in Crimea were carried out by Amet-Khan Sultan, S.N. Anokhin from LII and V.G. Pavlov from Research Institute-17.
Life also dictated the need for more high-speed and maneuverable fighters than the MiG-19, with a new wing, new engines, new weapons, new control systems and the aircraft itself, and a combat missile system. Therefore, the Design Bureau launched work on the "E" project. The first variant, E-2 with the usual swept wings, took off on February 14, 1955, piloted by Georgy Mosolov. And on June 16, 1955, Sedov raised the E-4, the country's first delta-wing fighter ... So the epic began with the famous MiG-21, an airplane - a soldier. At that time there was even a joke at the airfield: "Mikoyan began the game with the move E-2 - E-4 ..."
After Sedov became the chief pilot of the OKB, Mikoyanists stopped, with rare exceptions, to entrust the lifting of new experimental machines to the "Varangians", all this was done by their own "branded" pilots. This is understandable: gradually, step by step, brick by brick, the "own" flight test system was rebuilt, later called the "Sedov school".
The "director" of this school also turned out to be a brilliant breeder. At first, he called under the Mikoyan banners of the graduates of the second graduation of the School of Test Pilots (SHLI) Georgy Mosolov and Vladimir Nefedov. Five years later, in 1958, Alexander Fedotov, Petr Ostapenko and Igor Kravtsov came from the same SHLI to the "firm", in 1965 - Boris Orlov and Mikhail Komarov, in 1967 - Aviard Fastovets, in 1969 - Valery Menitsky ... Honored names.
Like no one else among the leaders of the design bureau, Sedov understood the pilots. “Sometimes the most difficult thing happened, says Grigory Aleksandrovich, an experimental plane crashed. The pilot remained unharmed, but from the plane -“ firewood. ”I had to be in this situation twice. internal state a tester considering "his" debris is simply impossible ... "
A peculiar result of Sedov's flight practice was the conferment of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on May 1, 1957, and two years later - the title of "Honored Test Pilot of the USSR". Sedov headed all flight research work at the OKB, and ten years later became the chief designer of the MIG-23 and MIG-27 airplanes with variable sweep wings in flight. And only at the end of the twentieth century did he become an advisor. As before, he is a member of the presidium of the famous Methodological Council of the LII, without whose blessing not a single new one can take off in the country. aircraft, designers, engineers, testers are still crowding in his office ...
Lives and works in Moscow.
Hero of the Soviet Union, Honored Test Pilot of the USSR, Laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes, Major General of Aviation, Advisor to the General Designer of the Russian Aircraft Corporation "MIG"
Was born on January 15, 1917 in Baku. Father - Alexander Grigorievich Sedov (1887-1927), tanker commander of the Caspian oil tanker fleet. Mother - Sedova (Eremina) Natalya Vasilievna (1890-1971), daughter of the Astrakhan cooper. Wife - Sedova (Gurvich) Irina Mikhailovna (born in 1921), surgeon.
"As a person who owns his profession with the freedom of a true artist, harmoniously combining the ardor of Mozart with Salieri's ability to" believe harmony with algebra, "... he carefully played out all the situations that he could expect in the upcoming flight. The leading formula of his methodology is" if - then ". If something happens, it is necessary to act this way ..."
"The head of our department ... possessed a rare gift - the art of brilliant analysis. Here he knew no equal. No one else could so efficiently and accurately discern the behavior of a car in flight ... He literally laid the car on the shelves ..."
"Dyadka", the founder of the school of "Mikoyan" pilots, is a man of extraordinary destiny. An outstanding test pilot ... after being retired from flight work, he showed such an engineering talent that he rose to the position of deputy general designer on the steps of the MIG design bureau ... "
"He never reprimanded the unlucky, did not raise his voice, but silently annoyed that the issue was not well covered, not sufficiently worked out, while trying to help get out of the difficult situation ..."
"The technical staff treated him with great respect, everyone saw him as a friend, senior comrade, and not a boss ..."
"On one hand, you can list the pilots who organically combined such a strong will, professional skill, rich engineering experience and high creativity ..."
These words were spoken at different times and by different people - test pilots, military and civilian, ground specialists, designers, but they refer to the same person - Grigory Aleksandrovich Sedov.
The city of Baku is named as the birthplace of the future pilot. This is not true. Gregory, like his older brother Valery, was born ... on board the tanker steamer Ignatius, commanded by their father. Children from an early age knew what a foresail, a mainsail, a mizzen ... By the way, Grigory Khrisanfovich, Sedov's paternal grandfather, was also a captain, commander of a small river vessel.
The Sedov family lived on ... a steamer, in two small cabins leading to the "salon". There is also an extensive library, already at the age of four Gregory read fluently. Mom graduated from the Mariinsky female gymnasium in Astrakhan and had a diploma of "home teacher"; she taught her children without leaving home. The Sedov brothers went to school when Valery was 12 years old, and Grigory was ten, the eldest went to the fourth grade, the youngest — to the third ... By that time, the family had left the ship and settled in Astrakhan. Although the new government rewarded his father with a silver personal watch for navigation in 1922, he was out of work, did not work anywhere, fell ill and, having been ill for four years, died.
Grigory Sedov always remembered Astrakhan street, the taste of baked potatoes, the game of rounders, which in Astrakhan was called "buoy and draft" ... And, of course, the school: its first teacher Glafira Iosifovna Ivanova, who took the "entrance" exam for the third grade, Fedor Alekseevich Serebryakov, who taught the children everything - from physics to botany ...
In that distant and hungry childhood, Sedov did not build any models of airplanes and gliders and did not think about aviation ...
1929 was the hardest year for the family. The elder brother had already studied maritime business in Baku, was gradually moving along the path of his grandfather and father, mother and youngest son left Astrakhan and returned to Baku ... Mother, who taught her children to read and work with a book, insisted that Grigory graduate from the newly opened ten years and after that I went to study as an engineer. Sedov passed the exams at the local industrial institute, but did not want to study there, but moved to Leningrad and became a student at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1936.
This was the end of the pre-aviation period of Grigory Alexandrovich's life. At the institute, he once read an advertisement for recruitment to the flying club. Due to a certain liveliness of character and a nationwide love for aviation, student Sedov decided to try himself as an accountant.
His first teacher in flying was a woman - an aeroclub instructor Olga Nikolaevna Yamshchikova (later - a colonel engineer, first class test pilot). Under her leadership in Kresttsy near Novgorod, Grigory Sedov made the first independent flight. Soon Yamshchikova "made her way" to the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, during the war she fought as part of the women's 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment. Shortly before the Victory, Olga Nikolaevna was sent to work at the Air Force Research Institute. She was the first Soviet woman to fly there on a jet plane and ... met at the institute her pre-war "registration" Grigory Sedov.
Sedov himself at the Air Force Research Institute turned out to be quite an intricate way. People in uniform suddenly arrived at the airfield of the St. Petersburg aeroclub with the aim of selecting several children for study at the Borisoglebsk flight school. Then an I-16 fighter landed, flew towards them from some exercises. Compared to the "maize", the Polikarpov "donkey" looked like a messenger from another planet.
On January 2, 1938, Sedov, who had a "grandiose" raid at 12 hours 44 minutes, was enrolled in a military flight school. Studying in Borisoglebsk turned out to be impetuous, like the flight of a bullet. After "high-speed" training on the U-2, the instructor Alexei Nikolaevich Pavlikov released the cadet Sedov on the I-16 fighter. And in October of the same 1938, Sedov, with the rank of lieutenant, was sent to a combat unit, or rather, to the 10th Fighter Aviation Regiment, stationed in Bobruisk. One of the three regiments of his air division was commanded by Ivan Petrovich Polunin. (After the war, Ivan Petrovich, from 1955 to 1961, headed the Test Pilot School of the Ministry of the Aviation Industry).
The newly minted lieutenant flew in Bobruisk in an I-16, flew well, but the craving for "engineering" laid down by his parents still made itself felt: Sedov wrote a report asking him to take him to the second year of the Zhukovsky Academy (the first, still "St. Petersburg" course of the university was already behind). I passed the entrance exams for admission to the second year of the Faculty of Engineering, but I refused to study! I received a certificate, the contents of which should be cited in full - for a sense of the atmosphere of that time: "... At my own request I received a delay of one year due to the lack of the possibility of obtaining flight training at the Academy. Comrade Sedov was allowed by the Command of the Academy to conduct tests in 1940. for the 3rd year "(spelling and punctuation of the document are preserved). Sedov was sent to the combat unit "to fly for a year."
Exactly one year later, Sedov was admitted to the third year of the Academy. While studying, the war broke out, senior students were simply forbidden to even stutter about the front. Moreover, when in 1942 Sedov received a diploma (by the way, "red"), mechanical engineers who had previously had a flying specialty were sent not to the front, but to the State Red Banner Research Institute of the Air Force.
The Institute was evacuated from the Chkalovskaya station near Moscow, from the famous Shchelkovo airfield, to the Sverdlovsk suburb of Koltsovo. The extermination department was headed by Alexey Nikashin. An amazing pilot, Konstantin Gruzdev, who was recalled from the front, but who managed to shoot down more than twenty enemy aircraft in three months of combat "practice" worked in the department. Gruzdev tried to calm down Sedov, who was rushing to the front, trying to convince him that here, in the rear, the work was no less risky and no less responsibility. Sedov also made friends with Alexei Kubyshkin, the one who "opened the sky" for the LA-5 fighter, with Andrei Kochetkov, Fedor Demida, Afanasy Proshakov, "Afonya", with Pyotr Stefanovsky - famous, outstanding pilots. Grigory Bakhchivandzhi served in the "engine" department - he was the first to lift the BI-1 rocket plane into the air ... On it "Bakhchi" and laid his head, then Gruzdev would die on the notorious American "aircobra". Both of them are buried in Koltsov ...
The Air Force Research Institute returned to the Moscow region in the forty-third. By the end of the war, Sedov, absorbing like a sponge the experience of senior colleagues, took a strong position in the state tests of fighters, both domestic and Lendleut. Even then, four profile groups were formed in his department: the team of the leading engineer V.I. Alekseenko, "foreigners" - the brigade of I.G. Rabkin, "miami" - the team of A.S. Rozanov (Alexander Sergeevich later headed the School of Test Pilots, he replaced Polunin). As for Sedov himself, he headed the brigade that dealt with Yakovlev's planes, and led in two qualities - a leading engineer and a leading test pilot, an unprecedented case for the Air Force Research Institute ...
1945 for Grigory Alexandrovich became memorable not only with the Victory: that year he met a surgeon from the N.N. Burdenko as front-line soldier Irina Mikhailovna Gurvich, they got married, and since then they have been going through life together.
So, the second half of the forties, the war ended, but a new one flared up, without any respite. Politicians will call it "cold", but for those who were engaged in arms and military equipment, it turned out to be literally "hot", and not only here, but all over the world, more precisely, in those few countries that dared to "comply" scientific and technological progress.
By the nature of his risky testing profession, Sedov buried many of his colleagues, but his own fate was preserved. Even in those post-war years, he conducted state tests of the Yak-15 and Yak-23, they were put into service, then the Yak-30 followed (which was not serially built), as a fly-over he participated in the tests of the first jet "MIGs" and "Lavochkin "...
Hero of the Soviet Union (05/01/1957), Honored Test Pilot of the USSR (02/17/1959), Major General of Aviation (1968).
Born on January 15, 1917 in the city of Baku (Azerbaijan). Lived in Astrakhan 1923 - 1929. In 1936-1937. studied at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute. In 1937 he graduated from the Leningrad Aero Club.
In the army since 1938. In 1938 he graduated from the Borisoglebsk 2nd Military School. Until 1940 he served in combat units of the Air Force. In 1940 he passed exams as an external student and entered the 3rd year of the Faculty of Engineering of the VVA named after V.I. NOT. Zhukovsky. In 1942 he graduated from the Higher Military School named after N.E. Zhukovsky. In 1942-1943. - Assistant Lead Engineer of the Military Flight Test Institute aviation technology Research Institute of the Air Force.
In 1943-1950 - test pilot and leading engineer of the Air Force Research Institute; conducted state tests of the first jet aircraft of the A.S. Yakovlev Yak-15, as well as Yak-23 and Yak-30.
June 1950 to February 1959 - senior test pilot of the OKB A.I. Mikoyan. After the death of I.T. Ivaschenko on the first prototype of the MiG-17 continued testing the aircraft. The first to fly into the sky and test aircraft (I-350M) (06/16/1951), I-360 (SM-2), SM-9 (MiG-19) (01/05/1954), E-4 (06/16/1955), E-2A (17.02.1956). As a leading test pilot, he tested the first Soviet supersonic fighter, the MiG-19.
On March 24, 1954, for the first time in the country, on the MiG-19 aircraft No. 1, he reached a speed corresponding to the number M \u003d 1.34 (speed exceeding the speed of sound at flight altitude by 1.34 times).
In 1958-1970. - Deputy Chief Designer of the Design Bureau A.I. Mikoyan's flight tests, the "uncle" for test pilots of the MiG design bureau, laid the foundations of the Mikoyan school of test pilots, later called "Fedotovskaya".
1970-1998 - theme leader, chief designer of the OKB im. A.I. Mikoyan. Chief Designer of MiG-23, MiG-27, MFI.
Currently - Advisor to the General Designer of the OKB im. A.I. Mikoyan. Lives in Moscow.
Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1952) and the Lenin Prize (1976). He was awarded 2 Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, 2 Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, 2 Orders of the Red Star, medals. Honorary Member of the International Association of Experimental Aircraft Test Pilots (USA).
L. S. Popov
Sedov Grigory Aleksandrovich - test pilot of the OKB A.I. Mikoyan, engineer-colonel.
Born on January 2 (15), 1917 in the city of Baku, Baku province (now the capital of Azerbaijan). In 1922-1931 he lived in the city of Astrakhan, from 1931 he again lived in the city of Baku. In 1935 he graduated from the 10th grade of the school. In 1935-1936 he worked as a laboratory assistant at the Baku Physical Laboratory, in May-September 1936 - as an accountant at the Baku Carriage Repair Plant. In 1936-1938 he studied at the Leningrad Industrial Institute (now St. politechnical University). In 1937 he graduated from the Leningrad Aero Club.
In the army since January 1938. In October 1938 he graduated from the Borisoglebsk Military Aviation Pilot School. Until September 1940 he served in the Air Force as a pilot in a fighter aviation regiment (in the Belarusian Special and Baltic Military Districts).
Participant of the hike soviet troops to Poland in September 1939 as a pilot of the 10th Fighter Aviation Regiment.
In July 1942 he graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.
From July 1942 to January 1950, he served at the Air Force Research and Testing Institute: Assistant Lead Engineer (1942-1944) and Lead Engineer (1944-1950). Simultaneously with engineering work, from August 1943 he was engaged in flight test work. As a leading engineer, he conducted state tests of various modifications of the Yak-9P and Yak-3 fighters, as a test pilot - state tests of the Yak-23 and Yak-30 jet fighters. He took part in state tests of La-9R, La-11, Yak-15 and Yak-17 fighters.
In January 1950 - February 1959 - senior test pilot of the A.I. Mikoyan Design Bureau. Raised into the sky and tested the country's first supersonic fighter MiG-19, various modifications of the MiG-17 jet fighter, experimental supersonic aircraft I-350, I-360, E-4 and E-2A. Participated in tests of jet fighters MiG-15, MiG-21 and other aircraft. On June 16, 1951, for the first time in the country, he performed a non-engine landing on a supersonic aircraft (on an I-350 prototype aircraft).
For courage and heroism shown during the testing of new aviation technology, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 1, 1957, Colonel Engineer Sedov Grigory Alexandrovich awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
In 1958-1972 - Deputy Chief Designer of the Design Bureau A.I. Mikoyan for flight tests. In 1972-1998 - chief designer of the A. I. Mikoyan Design Bureau, supervised the development of supersonic fighters MiG-23, MiG-27 and MFI ("1.44"). Since November 1977, Major General-Engineer G.A. Sedov is in reserve. Since 1998 he worked as an advisor to the general designer of the Russian aircraft-building corporation MiG.
Honored Test Pilot of the USSR (02/17/1959), Major General of the Engineering Service (1968; Major General of Aviation - 1984). He was awarded 2 Orders of Lenin (05/01/1957; 11/10/1974), the Order of the October Revolution (04/26/1971), 2 Orders of the Red Banner (02/05/1947; 04/20/1956), the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree (09/20/1947), 2 orders of the Red Star (07/01/1944; 11/03/1953), the medal "For Military Merit" (06.24.1948), other medals.
Lenin Prize (1976, for the development of the MiG-23 supersonic fighter), Stalin Prize of the 1st degree (1952, for testing the MiG-17 jet fighter).
Military ranks:
Lieutenant (10/16/1938)
Senior Lieutenant Technician (2.07.1942)
Engineer-Captain (04/17/1943)
Major Engineer (5/11/1944)
Engineer-lieutenant colonel (01/20/1949)
Colonel Engineer (22.07.1955)
Major General of the Engineering and Technical Service (02.19.1968)
Major General Engineer (11/18/1971)
Major General of Aviation (04/26/1984)
Sources
Balakov I.B., Simonov A.A. MiG testers. Zhukovsky, 1999 Vorobiev V.P., Efimov N.V. Heroes of the Soviet Union: ref. - St. Petersburg, 2010. Heroes of the Soviet Union: krat. biogr. words. T.2. - Moscow, 1988. Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia, full cavaliers Order of Glory of the Northern AO of Moscow. M., 2003 Private bussiness Testimony of relatives or the Hero himself Simonov A.A. Honored Testers of the USSR. - Moscow, 2009. Shelest I.I. I'm flying for a dream. M., 1989