Kalinin, Konstantin Alekseevich

Born Dec. 17 (29), 1889, in Valuiki, in present-day Belgorod Oblast; died Apr. 21, 1940, in Voronezh. Soviet aviation designer. Became a member of the CPSU in 1927.

Kalinin graduated from the Odessa Military School in 1912, the Gatchina Military Aviation School in 1916, and the Kiev Polytechnic Institute in 1925. During the Civil War of 1918–20he was a Red Army pilot. In 1926 he organized and headed an aviation design bureau in Kharkov. The K-4 and K-5 passenger aircraft, which served Soviet airlines in the 1930’s, were builtunder his direction. In addition a number of experimental air-craft were constructed, including the seven-engine K-7 plane, one of the largest aircraft of the time. Typical of Kalinin’s air-craft were the elliptical shape of the wing and the horizontal tail.Kalinin was one of the founders and first teachers of the Khar-kov Aviation Institute. He was awarded the Order of the RedBanner of Labor.