Vladimir Mikhailovich Petliakov

Born June 15 (27), 1891, in the village of Sambek, now under the jurisdiction of the Novoshakhtinsk city soviet, Rostov Oblast; died Jan. 12, 1942, in Kazan. Soviet aircraft designer.

Petliakov graduated from the N. E. Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School in 1922. In 1917 and 1918 he worked as a technician at the school’s aerodynamics laboratory under the direction of N. E. Zhukovskii. He worked at the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute under the direction of A. N. Tupolev from 1921 to 1936, whereupon he became the chief designer at an aircraft plant.

Petliakov took an active part in the organization and development of metal-aircraft construction in the USSR. In particular, between 1925 and 1935 he, together with the design engineer V. N. Beliaev, developed structural design methods and worked out a design theory for metal multispar wings. Petliakov headed the development and the introduction into lot production of the first TB-1 and TB-3 heavy bombers (1930 to 1935), the five-engine Pe-8 high-altitude long-range bomber (1935 to 1937), and the Pe-2 dive bomber (1939 to 1940).

Petliakov received the State Prize of the USSR in 1941. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin and the Order of the Red Star.