Nikolai Borisovich Delone

Born Jan. 21 (Feb. 2), 1856, in Moscow; died Mar. 20, 1931, in Leningrad. One of the pioneers of gliding in Russia and a publicizer and popularizer of the science of aviation.

Delone was a pupil of N. E. Zhukovski and graduated from the physics and mathematics department of Moscow University in 1878. From 1895 he was a professor at a number of institutes, including the Kiev Polytechnic Institute from 1906 to 1928. In 1908-09 he constructed several biplane gliders, with which numerous flights were made. At the same time he organized at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute an aeronautic group, many of whose members later became prominent figures in the field of aviation. Delone wrote a guide to gliding, The Construction of a Cheap and Light Glider and the Method of Flying It (1910), as well as a number of textbooks on mechanics.