Viktor Bolkhovitinov

Who was Viktor Bolkhovitinov?

Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov was a Soviet engineer, team-leader of the developers of the Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 aircraft.

Bolkhovitinov was one of the first graduates of the Zhukovsky Academy. In 1934, he designed a modernized version of the Tupolev TB-3 bomber called the DB-A. On August 12 of 1937, a DB-A attempted to fly over the North Pole to the USA, but the crew perished.

In 1937, he designed the "S" or "Spartak", a small sleek high-speed bomber with a long greenhouse canopy. Two contra-rotating props were driven by a pair of Klimov M-103 V-12 engines. Development of the aircraft and its planned variants was discontinued when the war began.

In 1940, Bolkhovitinov became head of his own experimental design bureau OKB-293. Based on a plane design by Bereznyak and Bolkovitinov a few years earlier, and inspired by the attempt of NII-3 to build a ramjet powered plane, Bolkhovitinov decided to build a rocket-powered short-range interceptor. This was the BI-1.

In 1944, A.G. Kostakov was arrested. NII-3 and Bolkhovitinov's OKB-293 were merged into NII-1, a new jet propulsion research institute. Bokhovitinov was head of research in NII-1. In 1946, his division was turned over to Matus Bisnovat, forming Zavod 293.