The work of the designer of machines and mechanisms is akin to creativity. To create a car or an aircraft, natural abilities are required. Such abilities were possessed by Mikhail Mil, the Soviet designer of helicopters.
Starting conditions
It is already impossible to imagine modern life without planes and helicopters. At a certain stage of development, the youth of the Soviet country enthusiastically and enthusiastically sang a song saying that the mind gave us steel arms-wings, and instead of a heart, a fiery motor. The creation of "iron birds" was directly related to aircraft designer Mikhail Leontyevich Mil. 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. Father served on the railway. Mother worked as a dentist. The older sister and brother were already growing in the house.
In Irkutsk, there were all 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 could pick up a pencil, it became clear that the artist would grow out of him. At school, the boy studied well. In that chronological period, young people became interested in aviation. At schools, aircraft model clubs and clubs were created. Miles was also involved in such a club and was able to produce a working airplane model.
Professional activity
After school, Mikhail decided to get a higher technical education at Tomsk Institute of Technology. But after the first year he was expelled as a representative of the bourgeois class. Miles survived this trouble and a year later became a student in the Department of Aircraft Engineering at the Novocherkassk Polytechnic Institute. Here he received information about a new type of aircraft gyroplane. And immediately began to study the theory of flight of this rotorcraft. After some time, he performed basic calculations and even conducted tests of the prototype in a wind tunnel.
Active behavior and creativity allowed Mikhail to promote his ideas and plans before implementation in metal. Prototype helicopters showed good flight performance, but this was not enough. It was necessary to optimize again and again the design of certain units and assemblies. Before the war began, the construction of the country's first helicopter plant began. When hostilities began, Mil's design bureau was evacuated to the Urals. But still, he often drove into the front line to personally observe the tests of aircraft in combat conditions.
