Isaev, Aleksei Mikhailovich

Born Oct. 11 (24), 1908, in St. Petersburg; died June 25, 1971, in Moscow. Soviet designer; specialist in the field of aviation and rocket engines. Doctor of technical sciences (1959) and Hero of Socialist Labor (1956). Member of the CPSU from 1951.

Upon graduating from the Moscow Mining Institute in 1932, Isaev worked on the country’s largest new construction project and in design organizations. He began working in the aviation industry in 1934. Together with A. Ia. Berezniak and V. F. Bolkhovitinov, he created the first Soviet airplane with a liquid-propellant rocket engine, which was flown for the first time by G. Ia. Bakhchivandzhi on May 15, 1942. Beginning in 1942 he worked on developing rocket engine designs, becoming chief designer of a design bureau in 1944. Isaev directed the development of a series of engines for rockets and spacecraft used in the manned spacecraft Vostok, Voskhod, and Soyuz and in unmanned interplanetary space probes.

A recipient of the Lenin Prize in 1958 and the State Prize of the USSR in 1948 and 1968, Isaev was awarded four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and medals.