Utkin Vladimir Fedorovich is a well-known figure in the field of Soviet and Russian rocket science. He devoted most of his life to the Yuzhnoye design bureau (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine), rising to the position of its head.
Childhood of a scientist
On October 17, 1923, Utkin Vladimir Fedorovich was born in the now defunct village of Pustobor in the Ryazan region. His family was large - his parents raised four sons. Mom Anisiya Efimovna devoted all her time to children, being a housewife, and father Fyodor Dementievich was first a factory worker in his native village, and then worked as a planner-economist at an iron foundry in the village of Lashma, where the Utkin family moved shortly after the birth of Vladimir.
The future rocket engineer graduated from a secondary school in the ancient town of Kasimov with an honors student. Utkin received his matriculation certificate in June 1941. And then the Great Patriotic War began…
War
Utkin Vladimir Fedorovich, whose biography began in the twenty-third year, belonged to that generation of Soviet men,who went to the front almost immediately after graduation. In October 1941 he was supposed to turn eighteen years old, and in August the young man was drafted into the Red Army.
Having mastered the profession of a military telegraph operator, Utkin found himself in the thick of the war. First, he defended his homeland as part of the 21st separate communications regiment. After some time, he was transferred to the 49th separate communications company. From 1942 to 1945 he fought on different fronts: the First Ukrainian, Third Belorussian, Southern, Fourth Ukrainian, North Caucasian and Volkhov. Came to Berlin. Awarded with various orders and medals.
Student years
Returning home with a victory, Utkin Vladimir Fedorovich hurried to realize his dream - to get a higher education. Following the example of his older brother Alexei, he goes to the city on the Neva and enters the military-mechanical institute, which forged personnel for the country's military industry. The best representatives of the industrial and technical intelligentsia of the Soviet Union studied here.
Despite the fact that Vladimir graduated from school with honors, institute knowledge was given to him with difficulty. Five years have passed since the graduation ball, and much has been forgotten. In addition, the student had to earn extra money to provide for himself. And this is not the best way to study. At first he unloaded wagons, and in his senior years a place was found for him in the research sector of the institute, where he underwent a very important practice. Utkin received a specialist diploma in 1952.
Design Bureau Yuzhnoye
As noted above, Vladimir Fedorovich Utkin devoted most of his life to working at the Yuzhnoye design bureau at the machine-building plant in Dnepropetrovsk, where he was assigned immediately after graduating from high school. This plant was built by the whole country, and the bureau was considered one of the leading in the Union, so this distribution could be considered a great success.
Initially it was planned that the enterprise would produce cars, but at that moment the space campaign was gaining momentum in the Soviet Union, and the management decided to use the factory facilities for the production of rockets.
Utkin Vladimir Fedorovich began his career in the bureau as a design engineer, and continued as a senior engineer, head of a group, deputy head of a department, deputy chief designer and, finally, general director of Yuzhnoye Design Bureau.
In 1986 Yuzhmash was headed by the future President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. And at the same time, Utkin Vladimir Fedorovich was appointed director of the bureau. Photos, which depict two prominent figures side by side, can be found in the archives of the enterprise, in newspapers of those years.
Professional achievements
During his work in the design bureau, Utkin proved himself to be a talented scientist and a wise leader who was able to find alternative scientific and technical solutions with minimal resource and time costs. This strategy was the main one in the activities of Vladimir Fedorovich.
When he was the chief designer, and then the director of Yuzhnoye, he distinguished himselfthe creation of spacecraft and carrier rockets of the modern type. Under the strict guidance of Utkin, four rocket systems were developed, produced and put into operation, which compared the space achievements of the Soviet Union with similar American ones.
The real pride of the bureau was the Zenith rocket, which is highly efficient, environmentally friendly and capable of launching up to twelve tons of payload into orbit; as well as the RT-23 solid-propellant unit and the super-powerful R-36M rocket, which has no analogues in the United States of America and is known as “Satan” among international military experts.
Here are the achievements that a person named Vladimir Fedorovich Utkin is involved in, briefly. His biography, relating to the period of work in the design office, is actually much richer and deserves a whole book.
International cooperation
Vladimir Fedorovich devoted a lot of time and effort to various international projects. One of the most productive was the large-scale Interkosmos program, in which scientists from different countries worked together to explore near-Earth space. You can also remember the Arcade project, implemented together with the French.
Central Research Institute
Utkin Vladimir Fedorovich gave the last decade of the twentieth century and his life to work at the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the Russian Space Agency, where he served as director. In this periodThe scientist saw the transfer of the country's rocket and space sphere to new "economic tracks" as the main goal of his activity. Utkin did a lot in this direction.
He made a huge contribution to the development of programs of experiments and applied research on board the ISS and Mir orbital stations. Under his strict guidance, research was carried out in various sections of the Federal Space Program of the Russian Federation. Research and design work was carried out to create special-purpose vehicles. Thanks to an agreement with the United States, technical support was provided for various problems associated with the operation of the ISS station.
Memory
Utkin Vladimir Fedorovich - scientist, leader, author of many scientific articles and books, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, twice Hero of Socialist Labor - left this world on February 15, 2000.
In his memory, medals (Gold and Silver) were established, which are awarded to talented scientists for achievements in the field of rocket science.
Utkin's outstanding contribution to the development of rocket and space technology and science is evidenced by his scientific and state awards, academic degrees and titles. Behind them is the enormous work and achievements of Vladimir Fedorovich.
In the settlements where Utkin spent his childhood, his busts were installed. There is a similar monument in Ryazan. And on the buildings of the school that graduated the talented scientist, and the house in which he lived, there are memorial plaques in memory of Vladimir Fedorovich. He was buried in Moscow at the Troekurovsky cemetery.
