TsAGI Honours Victory Day
5 May 2017
On May 5, a meeting celebrating the 72th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War (World War II) was held in the Central AeroHydrodynamic Institute named after professor N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI, part of the National Research Center “Institute named after professor N.E. Zhukovsky”).
Participating in the event were veterans, employees and executives of TsAGI, representatives of non-governmental associations and youth organizations. Those attending the meeting honoured with a minute of silence the memory of the heroes killed during the Great Patriotic War and laid flowers at the memorial. In congratulating the audience for the holiday, Director General of TsAGI and Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Chernyshev noted: “We are proud that the Institute’s staff played an important role in the glorious chronicles of the Victory. Every year, it is with a feeling of deep sorrow that we gather here at the memorial on which the names of the TsAGI employees who were killed in battle and in prisons, who died from injuries or went missing. It is with special respect and admiration that we honour our veterans who, despite the suffering and the hardship of war time, continued, and some of them still continue, to work actively for the future good.”
The Institute made a significant contribution to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. Scientific activities in those years did not stop. Work was performed not only for aviation, but also for artillery, infantry and navy. TsAGI’s wind tunnels were used for testing the Yak-7, MiG-3, Pe-2, La-5, Il-2 planes and many others. In the years of war, employees of the Institute managed to reduce significantly the dispersion of rocket projectiles for the Katyusha multiple launch rocket systems. Following the research they were able to increase air circulation in the firing compartment of the T-34 tank and improve the navigability of torpedo boats. The Institute issued recommendations on safe operations on the ice of Lake Ladoga over which the Road of Life connecting besieged Leningrad with the rest of the country was built.