Central Aerodynamic and Hydrodynamic Institute

Central Aerodynamic and Hydrodynamic Institute 

(full name N. E. Zhukovskii Central Aerodynamic and Hydrodynamic Institute), an institute that elaborates questions of aerodynamics and hydrodynamics with a view to their practical utilization in different branches of technology. It is under the Ministry of the Aviation Industry. It was founded on Dec. 1, 1918, upon a decision of the Supreme Council of the National Economy. The first director of the institute was N. E. Zhukovskii, and S. A. Chaplygin was director from 1921 to 1942. In 1925–29 the institute set up the country’s first experimental base with a wind tunnel, which was at that time the largest in the world; a hydraulic laboratory; a towing basin; and other installations. The work of the institute laid the basis for the technical aviation disciplines. As early as 1926, several outstanding flights were made with Soviet-designed airplanes created at the institute’s experimental plant under the direction of A. N. Tupolev. In 1930–32 several scientific departments of the institute were set up as independent research institutes: the All-Union Institute of Aviation Materials, the Central Institute of Aviation Engine Design, the All-Union Institute of Hydro-dynamic Machine Building, and the Central Wind-Power Institute. The Central Aerodynamic and Hydrodynamic Institute has a mighty experimental base and unique installations: full-scale, model, transonic, and supersonic wind tunnels; a spinning tunnel; and stands for investigating the dynamics and strength of airplanes. The institute has specialized laboratories for aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, acoustics, industrial aerodynamics, helicopters, instruments, and computer machinery; it also has a complex of structural design laboratories, an experimental workshop, a scientific information bureau, a publishing department, and the N. E. Zhukovskii Scientific and Memorial Museum. From the very beginning the institute has been a multiproblem institute and has been closely linked with industry. The chief problems which the institute works on are questions of aerodynamics and the dynamics and strength of airplanes and other aircraft. The institute’s publications are Trudy (Works, since 1925), Tekhnicheskie zametki (Technical Notes, since 1932), Tekhnicheskie otchety (Technical Reports, since 1941), Uchenye zapiski (Scientific Notes), collections on special problems, monographs, and information material. The institute has a graduate school. It has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1926), the Order of the Red Banner (1933), and the Order of Lenin (1945).

G. P. SVISHCHEV