Tupolev - The Man and His Aircraft

The aviation industry in the Soviet Union was organised very differently to that of the West with the government essentially the producer and consumer, different ministries controlled almost every aspect of the industry The Ministry of Aviation Industry was responsible for everything to do with the design and production of aircraft, aero engines and components, and the Ministry of Defence plus tbe Ministry of Civil Aviation were' responsible foi the operation of these aircraft, and for aerodromes and maintenance facilities.
Thus, while the ministries maintained contact as necessary between each other, at lower levels this was not usual, sometimes even within die same ministries.
The Aviation Industry was divided into several specialist categories. Highest amongst these were the design bureaux, from where the ideas were developed into reality.
Each bureau had its own specialist workshop where it produced one, or sometimes two,
prototypes.
The prototypes were test-flown by the bureau and by a specialist government research and
test facility.
If all went well, then the bureau would pass over production drawings to a production factory
and send a team to the factory to ensure that any problems were solved;
while it kept an eye on the program, there were no commercial links with the factory or the operator.

So preparing a book about Tupolev was very different to writing about a Western producer, where the design and production facilities maintain close contact.
I was fortunate to be working with Andrei Kandalov.
Andrei has worked with Tupolev the man and the bureau for fifty-four years.
His approach to much of the work matched mine, although there were times when he told me that he couldn't understand why I wanted particular data;
nevertheless, he went searching for it.
And, even though he was first deputy to the general designer until 1991, much of the data
was difficult and occasionally impossible even for him to obtain.
With the consent of Tupolev, we asked permission to visit many of the production factories and repair factories.
Few replied, and all except one said no.
Fortunately, in my six years working in Russia and the Soviet Union I had made many of my own contacts, and thus was able to visit Ulyanovsk, where the Tu-204 is in production. My thanks to my friends at Aviastar for that, particularly Viktor Mikhailov, director general, and Nikolai Katchalov, commercial director, for their courtesy.
And Kharkov, where the Tu-124 and 134, along with some missiles, were built.
Anatoli Myalitsa, the deputy director for foreign economic matters, assisted me there. Repair factory N407 in Minsk, now called the Minsk Aircraft Repair Works, was also very helpful;
I would like to thank general director Arkadi Yamov and chief technologist Anatoli Igumnov for their friendliness and helpfulness.
They gave me an excellent insight into the Soviet system and the reasons behind the system.