Nikolai Alekseevich Rynin (Russian: Николай Алексеевич Рынин; 23 December 1887 – 28 July 1942) was a Russian civil engineer, teacher,

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astron ...

researcher, author, historian, and promoter of space travel.

Career

Rynin began his career in civil engineering, working in the railway industry. However, in 1906 he developed an interest in aircraft and manned flight. During his career he performed research in

aeronautics Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design process, design, and manufacturing of air flight-capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. While the term originally referred ...

, became a balloonist and aircraft pilot, taught aerospace topics as a professor in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, and wrote various books and articles on airplanes and space travel. In the April 1918 issue of the '' Byloye'' magazine, Rynin published

Nikolai Kibalchich Nikolai Ivanovich Kibalchich (; ; 19 October 1853 – April 3, 1881) was a Russian revolutionary and rocket pioneer who took part in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II as the main explosive expert for Narodnaya Volya. He was a distant cous ...

's description of a manned,

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

-propelled ship. It had been detailed in Kibalchich's final letter, and had languished in police archives until Rynin heard rumors of the design and fished it out. Between 1928 and 1932 he published a nine-volume encyclopedia of space travel called the ''Mezhplanetnye Soobschniya'' ("Interplanetary Communications"). He is known to have corresponded with peers in the West, including

Robert H. Goddard Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945) was an American engineer, professor, physicist, and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which was successfully lau ...

in 1926, concerning Russian rocketry activities. Rynin died from a combination of starvation and illness during the German

siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

, as did fellow spaceflight promoter

Yakov Perelman Yakov Isidorovich Perelman (; – 16 March 1942) was a Russian and Soviet science writer and author of many popular science books, including ''Physics Can Be Fun'' and ''Mathematics Can Be Fun'' (both translated from Russian into English). Lif ...

. The crater Rynin on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

is named after him.

''Interplanetary Communications''

Rynin's encyclopedia contains the following nine volumes: * Dreams, Legends, and Early Fantasies * Spacecraft in Science Fiction * Radiant Energy: Science Fiction and Scientific Projects * Rockets * Theory of rocket propulsion * Superaviation and superartillery * K. E. Tsiolkoviskii; life, writings, and rockets * Theory of space flight *

Astronavigation Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is the practice of position fixing using stars and other celestial bodies that enables a navigator to accurately determine their actual current physical position in space or on the surface o ...

; theory, annals, bibliography, index. They are available in English from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

as follows: * Rynin, N.A. ''Interplanetary Flight and Communication''. Washington, D.C.: NASA and NSF, 1970–71. (NASA TT F-640, TT F-642 through TT F-648) (Holdings: Vol. 1, Nos. 1 and 3; Vol. II, Nos. 4 and 6, Vol. III, Nos. 7, 8 and 9).

References

* B. F. Tarasov, ''Nikolai Rynin and Russia's Beginnings in Aerospace'', translated by John Decker, 2000.

External links

Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight entry

''Interplanetary Flight and Communication'' (NASA Documents)
1887 births 1942 deaths 20th-century Russian inventors Soviet engineers 20th-century Russian engineers Russian civil engineers Soviet inventors Soviet spaceflight pioneers Victims of the Siege of Leningrad Deaths by starvation {{USSR-engineer-stub