Aleksei Mikhailovich Isaev (also Isayev;

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

: Алексе́й Миха́йлович Иса́ев; October 24, 1908, in Saint Petersburg – June 10, 1971, in Moscow) was a Soviet engineer in the

Soviet space program The Soviet space program () was the state space program of the Soviet Union, active from 1951 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Contrary to its competitors (NASA in the United States, the European Space Agency in Western Euro ...

, working on rocket combustion and propellant. Aleksei Isaev began work under

Leonid Dushkin Leonid Stepanovich Dushkin (Леонид Степанович Душкин) (August 15, 1910 in the Spirove settlement of the Tver region – April 4, 1990), was a major pioneer of Soviet rocket engine technology. He graduated from Moscow ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, on an experimental rocket-powered interceptor plane, the

BI-1 The Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 was a Soviet short-range rocket-powered interceptor developed during the Second World War. Early design Soviet research and development of rocket-powered aircraft began with Sergey Korolev's GIRD-6 project in 1932. Hi ...

. In 1944 he formed his own design bureau to engineer liquid-propellant

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ge ...

s. After abandoning the heavy, complex and undercooled

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

engine designs, Russia's principal engine designer

Valentin Glushko Valentin Petrovich Glushko (; ; born 2 September 1908 – 10 January 1989) was a Soviet engineer who was program manager of the Soviet space program from 1974 until 1989. Glushko served as a main designer of rocket engines in the Soviet progra ...

turned to Isaev's innovations: thin-walled

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

combustion chambers backed by

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

support, anti-oscillation baffle to prevent chugging, and the flat injector plate with mixing-swirling injectors. The latter was an enormous simplification of the "plumbing nightmare" of the V-2 engine, because it avoided the need for separate fuel lines to each sprayer. Staged combustion (Замкнутая схема) was first proposed by Alexey Isaev in 1949. Although his inventions influenced the design of Glushko's large engines, Isaev was better known for building efficient small rockets. He designed engines for the Soviet anti-missile and anti-aircraft rockets, and in 1951, his engine powered the

R-11 Zemlya The R-11 Zemlya (), GRAU index 8A61 was a Soviet tactical ballistic missile. It is also known by its NATO reporting name SS-1b Scud-A. It was the first of several similar Soviet missiles to be given the reporting name Scud. Variant R-11M was acc ...

short-range missile, later named the

Scud A Scud missile is one of a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was exported widely to both Second and Third World countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name attached to the m ...

. He designed a series of course-correction engines for Soviet planetary probes, including the

KDU-414 The KDU-414 (''Russian Корректирующая Двигательная Установка'', Corrective Propulsion Unit), is a pressure-fed liquid rocket Propulsion Unit developed and produced by the Isayev Design Bureau (today known as ...

used in

Venera 1 ''Venera 1'' ( meaning ''Venus 1''), also known as Venera-1VA No.2 and occasionally in the West as ''Sputnik 8'', was the first spacecraft to perform an interplanetary flight and the first to fly past Venus, as part of the Soviet Union's Venera ...

Mars 1 Mars 1, also known as 1962 Beta Nu 1, Mars 2MV-4 and Sputnik 23, was an automatic interplanetary station launched in the direction of Mars on November 1, 1962, the first of the Soviet Mars probe program, with the intent of flying by the plane ...

up to

Venera 8 Venera 8 ( meaning ''Venus 8'') was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus and was the second robotic space probe to conduct a successful landing on the surface of Venus. Venera 8 was a Venus atmospheric probe and la ...

, the

KTDU-425 The KTDU-425 was a former Soviet liquid fuelled engine designed Aleksei Isaev Aleksei Mikhailovich Isaev (also Isayev; Russian: Алексе́й Миха́йлович Иса́ев; October 24, 1908, in Saint Petersburg – June 10, 1971, in ...

used in later planetary probes, KTDU-5 used in the Soviet lunar landers

Luna 4 ''Luna 4'', or E-6 No.4 (Ye-6 series), sometimes known in the West as Lunik 4, was a Soviet spacecraft launched as part of the Luna program to attempt the first soft landing on the Moon. Following a successful launch, the spacecraft failed to pe ...

Luna 13 Luna 13 (E-6M series) was an uncrewed space mission of the Luna program by Soviet Union. Overview The Luna 13 spacecraft was launched toward the Moon onboard a Molniya-M and accomplished a soft landing on 24 December 1966, in the region of Oc ...

. Isaev was a corresponding member of the

USSR Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (u ...

A.M. Isayev Chemical Engineering Design Bureau The A.M. Isayev Chemical Engineering Design Bureau (Russian: ), also known as KB KhimMash or just KBKhM, is a Russian rocket engine design and manufacturing company. It is located in the city of Korolyov. It started as the OKB-2 division of the N ...

is named after him. The crater Isaev on the

far side ''The Far Side'' is a single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Chronicle Features and then Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from December 31, 1979, to January 1, 1995 (when Larson retired as a cartoonist). Its surrealis ...

of 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.

References

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External links

Site dedicated to articles about Isaev (in Russian)International Space Hall of Fame entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Isaev, Aleksei Mihailovich 1908 births 1971 deaths Soviet engineers Soviet inventors Rocket scientists