This boat is shown even on the Google Earth, and I stopped the car to make a picture too:

And there are other picturesque views of similar subjecton Lulu Island:

But I continue my story. This time it’s about boats too. Stressmen 18

4. Transition period

At the end of 70s PRASAK was installed in 16 design bureaus throughout the USSR. Our software operated in the M-20 command computers belonged to the second generation. The hardware of these computers was based on transistors. Soviet government made a decision to introduce the third generation based on microchips and IBM/360 general software. It was planned to replace all old machines in several years. The first two computers of the third generation were installed in the KuAI building at Molodogvardeyskaya Street. They were the M-4030 and the ES-1020. DOS ES was operational system that copied DOS IBM/360. Such programming languages like RPG, COBOL, FORTRAN, PL/I and Assembler were available. Sasha Danilin, one of the NIG-1 researcher close to Chair Chief made a choice and PL/I became a tool for our software development for the next 20 years. I started my exercises in PL/I language programming with Sasha’s help and supervision.

Reading English language technical literature was one of my duties as a researcher. We were looking for good ideas for software development. Soviet Institute of Information issued references practically of all significant publications in the western world. I went throughout all of these abstracts and ordered copies of books and papers that looked interesting for me. John Robinson’s “Integrated Theory of Finite Element Methods” was one of them. His semimonocoque membrane quadrilateral element attracted my attention. I decided to modify it for fiber reinforced composite material simulation.

In May 1978 Experimental Plant of Sport Boats from Jurmala addressed to our lab with the request to help them in modern Olympic rowing boat design. The carbon fibers were strategic material in that time. Olympic sport committee addressed government for permission to use carbon epoxy and somewhere there they decided that our lab has experts who can really support such kind of design and do not waste expensive material.

On early morning of May 11 the Il-18 plane on the flight from Samara to Riga brought me to Latvia’s capital. I spent couple of hours in comfortable black leather chair in the waiting hall before public transportation stated working and I had a chance to go to the office. I liked this business trip from the very beginning. Victor Michelson, the Chief Engineer of the Sport Experimental Plant, provided me with all information that I could use in my analysis. He took care on my accommodation and feeding too. And of course he showed me Latvia from inside. It was unusually hot spring in Baltic that year. Every morning after short meeting in the office, answering my question and providing me with some more details related to boat structure and loads, we had an aperitif, small glass of good vermouth, took the motorboat and hit the Lielupe River. We visited many interesting places by river. Victor was very proud of Latvian culture and lifestyle. Food and beer are important items for better understanding of the other culture, therefore we stopped in every pub on the river and tasted different cultural samples.

After return home with thin folder of drawings and other technical papers I created finite element model of the four oars sweep rowing boat with a helmsman. My analysis showed that there is possibility to make the structure more rigid providing short cuts for load balancing via carbon epoxy reinforcements installed inside the hull on the skin and connecting thole with feet beam. It was done in PRASAK. The report issued proved that composite material usage as advised will make boat more effective for rowing due to avoiding parasitic deformations that exist in the initial structure. Soviet government allowed Experimental Sport Plant to use carbon fibers and the boat was built ant took part in Moscow Olympic Games 1980 with excelent results.

But what was more important than the Olympic boat is new stimulus to develop optimization tool for composite structure optimization. Robinzon’s formulas for semimonocoque element was programmed in PL/I, debugged and tested. Simple program that allowed analyzing quadrilateral panel, its constraints and loads was written too. Then I modified element for composite material descriptions in two ways: macro model, where every unidirectional layer is described as homogenous orthotropic plate; and micro mode, where fiber and resin parameters are used for material description.

As a result of my exercises I got a possibility to simulate composite panel, constrain it, load it, get displacements and stresses in every layer. Everything was ready to start optimization.

Flying Beaver in the clear sky:

Russian Snow Geese are following the metal bird:

The winter sun is going to horizon gently tinting harbor by yellowish colors:

Sunset is beautiful:

There is no continuation of my story today, but I published the first three chapters of the Stressmen as pages.

The first winter days are surprisingly sunny even for this seagull:

The city looks fresh:

And even festive:

I continue my story. Stressmen 17

I woke up early next morning. The fishing rod near the door attracted my attention. I decided to check what kind of fish we have here. There were two big rusty hooks on the line. I caught two big gadflies that were sitting on the window and used them as bait. The laboratory hut was sitting on the small island on the side of Volga-Caspian channel. The shallow delta was covered by cane, but small lagoon with clear water was situated near the hut. I went there and throw bait into water. The gadflies were sinking when something big swallowed them. I pull the rod. The line was heavy. Something like a big silver hat with red ribbon was rotating in the water being hooked. It took me some time to pull this stuff out. It was not a hat but two huge rudds. I never saw such big rudds before. After taking them off the hooks I started to think, where to take other baits. Maybe there are more flies on the window? Before going back to the hut I throw empty hooks into water. To my surprise the effect was the same. Fish swallowed empty hooks while they were in motion. As a result two more fish were behind me on the ground. And I continued. In five minutes I had a pile of rudds and breams on the grass when Levin hailed me from the door:

“And what are you going to do with these fish?”

“Cook it. Why not?”

“Let’s I show you something” – Sasha went to the gang way and pull out the first fishpond. Three big carps were inside. Then he pulled out next. Beautiful stellate sturgeon tried to jump out of it.

“We have enough and do not need fine-mesh fish”.

This is the beginning of my life in delta. The diver tasks were simple. I had to collect samples of benthos which was investigated by Luba laboratory analyst. And of course I was a help for all other duties like baby fish accepting from aquarium boat and placing them in the yards for following research, mature sturgeon catching and checking if they have laser beam marks on the forehead what means that they were artificially hatched, and so on including hunting, cooking, fishing, fish and fish eggs processing into caviar and its preserving.

Lotus field was not far from our camp. Ducks, loons, gees, cormorants, pelicans and swan nests were around.

There was no electricity in the camp, what means no fridge too. One day we found that several loafs of bread we had in stock molted from inside. You cut the bread and it is blue on the shear. Fish and caviar were our only food for several day after which Levin told me:

“Go to the channel and trade caviar for bread”

“Yes, Sir!” – was my answer.

Luba gave me one liter glass container filled with high quality pressed caviar and big piece of smoked sturgeon. I switched on Veterok engine of our Dnepr boat and headed upstream.

It was not a simple task to find living soul in South delta of Volga river. But I was lucky and after several miles in winding channels I saw an aft of big rusty barge. It was not abandoned, but ridded at anchor surrounded by high reeds. Several sailors were on the deck watching my arrival with curiosity:

“What are you doing here?” – they asked me.

“I live in delta” – I answered and continued: “Do you have bread? I would like to exchange”. And I showed caviar and fish to them.

“Sorry, lad, we ourselves are in trouble. Our tugboat broke the screw, left us here and went to Makhachkala for repair. We do not know when they’ll be back”.

They started to ask me what particular I am doing here when big woman, who was a cook, appeared on the deck:

“Will you change this for crumbs?”

“Yes, no doubts”.

“One bucket will be enough?”

“I think so”.

She disappeared for a second and was back with big bucket filled to the top by crumbs. I took the bucket, emptied it into boat box and returned it back to the barge with caviar and sturgeon.

After short leave-talking I switched engine on and was off. Of course I took one crumb and bite it. Only then I paid attention that the crumbs were dried pieces of bread which cook collected from the unfinished plates. My crumb had a specific tracks of teeth bite and rice garnish. But this didn’t stop me from eating.

There were many other interesting events and meetings during my working in delta. And during this vacation I never remembered my structural analysis problems. Some new skills attained in delta are still very helpful, for example, fish eggs processing. I still can prepare caviar in three styles: granular caviar, pressed caviar and royal caviar.

Local mountains are covered by snow:

And the rain forest is soaking:

Last boat is heading home with the hold full of sockeye:

And my story is continued with the episode where another boat is involved. Stressmen 16

Some of summers I spent in expeditions. For example, in 1978 Kostya Cedric arranged my work as a diver for the Laboratory of Sturgeon Efficiency in the Central Institute of Sturgeon Fishery in Astrakhan.

Early morning one day in July the Yak-40 took off Kurumych runway. The Grushinsky festival field looked as a dirty patch on the green Volga’s meadows. After couple of hours we landed in Astrakhan with its cholera. We were very careful and didn’t eat in the cafes or restaurants. On the first day in the river port we took our Kazanka motorboat, bought big sac of vobla and eat only this dried fish in day time, avoiding public places and public transportation using our boat for reaching different places in this city with many water branches and canals inside. In the evening we had hot homemade food, like soup, supplemented by glass of vodka. After several days of my contract negotiations and signing it in the Central Institute of Sturgeon Fishery I got my paper for field work in the Laboratory of Surgeon Efficiency. The laboratory was analyzing efficiency of seven artificial hatcheries in Astrakhan. The goal was to define which technology of feeding is better and what age and size the baby fishes have to be when they are freed for wild life.

The “field” was on the last Volga delta island in the Caspian Sea. Initially Kostya planned to put me on the aquarium boat that cruised between hatcheries and Caspian Sea transporting baby fiches there and providing field camp with samples. Unfortunately aquarium trip was scheduled only in the end of month. Therefore Kostya using all his links in Astrakhan managed to arrange my trip aboard Academician Lomonosov boat that belonged to another research institute, Caspian Scientific Institute of Fishery. They were going to South Caspian for analysis of sprat catching efficiency.

10 a.m. of the 9th of July Kostya and I were staying on the bridge of the Academician Lomonosov vessel. The captain, head of the expedition, navigator and radioman had a morning drink there discussing last events. Kostya reacted to this very positively and proposed our bottle of vodka to their table. It was accepted and the Russian mariner’s breakfast was continued. I described the reason of my presence aboard and the place of my destination. The beacon #95 is the place where boat has to stop for my landing to the lab camp. Kostya made simple sketch of the camp area and pinned this pies of paper on the window frame. This saved me in 12 hours.

Lomonosov managed to push off only after 11 a.m. when the crew refilled their vodka stock in liquor store which was opened at 11 a.m. and not a minute earlier. The sailing by Volga-Caspian channel was blind drunk. The boat moored and several villages on the way where crew had a quick trip to local liquor store for additional vodka supply. By my fortune there were several trainee sailors whom vodka was not allowed. One of them was steersman and I explained him why I am here and where I would like to escape from this vessel.

After sun set captain was on the bridge looking at the water ahead. The beacon #84 happened to attract his attention.

“Stop engine!” – he commanded and changed engine order telegraph to STOP position – “Dinghy overboard!” – and then, addressing to me – “Slavka, I know this place!” – fingering to open water around the boat.

Knowing well how stubborn the captain is and difficulties to take off his command I decided to play by his rules:

“Steersman! Report the number of the beacon we pass!” – I demanded by very loud command voice.

“Number eighty four, Sir!” – young sailor supported my game.

“What is the number of the beacon of my destination?”

“Number ninety five, Sir!”

“Full speed!” – I commanded and steersman changed telegraph for FULL SPEED position.

Captain left the bridge and I didn’t see him again.

It was dark when we approached beacon #95. There were only two sober guys on the boat: steersman and I. And I started to act. I put telegraph into VERY SLOW and switching on loud-hailer started to outcry:

“Levin! Dingy to the boat! Levin! Dingy to the boat!”

And I used search light, beaming to the camp shack that was seen on the right.

I was so lucky that Sasha Levin, the head of the lab, was in place, jumped to the dinghy, switched motor and managed to catch the boat.

Being under overboard, looked at the deck he asked without big surprise:

“All are drunk, of course”.

“Yes, take my backpack, please” – I replied and jumped to the dinghy.

It took us close to one hour to be back to the camp.

Strange title? Not really. The November 19th as the “Missile Force and Artillery Day” existed as a holiday in the Soviet Union since 1964. I remembered about this occasionally through my Russian blog. And I marked this event with a walk and several photos which look nostalgic like they could be made in Russia, at least the fist two of them.

The birch alley:

The slough in golden decoration:

But two other are returning to the Lulu Island.

Golden November delta in sunny day:

Great Blue Heron takes a nap on the willow:

And the piece of my story today has several nostalgic notes too. Stressmen 15

The structural research wasn’t the only thing we were doing. And I will try to show some details of the lifestyle we had in those times. Of course this is individual subject, but there are some general facts that can be interesting for the reader. The working week had 40 working hours and two days for the weekend in average. Leisure time can be filled with cinemas, theaters, exhibitions, libraries, concerts, swimming pools, gyms, restaurants, dancing clubs and bars. Even so expensive activities like downhill skiing, sailing, scuba diving, paragliding, tennis, aviating, were affordable and mainly free of charge. If you had a wish, for example, for aviating, you had to become a member of aviation club, attend all training lessons and show good test results.

Dacha is another very peculiar time spending tool. Dachas (piece of agricultural land with country house) were affordable for every family in the Soviet Union. Starting from April and till November agricultural works could take all your spare time. Camping was alternative to dacha and there were many so called “tourist bases” providing simple services for those who prefer more active even than dacha way of leisure time style.

We used all these opportunities. I was a member of two sport clubs, scuba diving and sailing, and had two vessels under my command: six rows yawl and centerboard of M class. Yawl belonged to divers club and we used it for Volga river tours. And sail club centerboard was a good mean to get some adrenalin if the wind is strong. My family had a dacha but not spend all our spare time there.

As a researcher in academic institution, I was lucky to have one and half month of vacation every year in July-August. Four weeks of this time my family and I prefer to spend on the Volga islands, just 40-50 kilometers upstream from Samara, with famous Shiryaevo and Solnechnaya just villages across the river. The Rainbow tourist base of my wife’s company provides us with spacious cottage equipped by fridge, stove and TV, small boat “Ruff” and coupons for base’s dining.

The life on the island was intensive: pleasant jogging in the morning with short swimming after morning exercises; forest walk and berries picking after breakfast; boating to the sand island in the middle of the Volga River after lunch, bathing, swimming, playing badminton till evening there; dinner and different kind of sport games till the sunset. Fishing, sailing, crawfish hunting, excursions to the villages and Ghiguly Mountains cross the river, meeting with the friend that visited us on the island have to be added to the list. Several times during these four weeks we visited our dacha to collect ripe tomato, cucumbers, apples, black currant, carrot, peas and other 100% organic fruits and veggies that were growing at our land without big attention from our side.

The fall forest is beautiful:

And we have second shot of honey mushrooms:

They are very tasty as fried and marinated.

Stressmen 14 is still about my PRASAK time.

PRASAK was a real software product with appropriate user’s manual including installation package. We had sixteen clients from defense design bureaus mostly. What is interesting from today software industry problem viewpoint the first software pirating in the USSR happened in the end of seventies with our program. One of our clients, from the “Universal” factory if I remember the name correctly, used PRASAK for their air-deployed heavy equipment platforms design. The stress leader in this organization, Mr. Khitrov, was good engineer and even scientist in his soul. He had his own ideas related to finite element method realization and he was not bad in M-20 programming. As a result of such combination of knowledge, experience and analysis demands in his area he started his own modification of the PRASAK software without informing NIG-1 authority. Modification was not significant but Mr. Khitrov called it PRASAK-M and began his own marketing campaign. Fortunately the finite element analysis world was so small in those times that we knew about this unsanctioned sale intention very soon and stop it. Mr. Khitrov became NIG-1 official partner and distributor after this.

Many interesting airplanes and other flying machines were analyzed and improved with the help of PRASAK. For example, the Be-30, one of very effective regional turboprop; the M-15, agricultural jet, effective duster designed and manufactured in Poland; windows reinforcement for the Tu-154; antenna pylons for the A-50; missiles launch equipment created in Kovrov; something that they are still producing in Arazamas-16, which is known as Sarov today; modifications of the R-7; ecranoplans; the Tu-160. I wasn’t involved in all of these analyses but had a chance to watch at least some of the results.

Tupolevs didn’t have ability for wing-body blend structure analysis during their Product 70 (known as the Tu-160 today) design. And they had no even appropriate BESM-4 or M-220 computer in their possession for PRASAK installation. Therefore two Tupolevs engineers arrived to KuAI with secret mission for wing-body simulation and analysis.

One night I arrived to Building #1 where our computers were installed to continue my analysis of the Il-76 structure. The BESM-4 was still occupied by the Tupolevs team under Sergey Rychkov’s supervision. Plotter was busy with drawing something very familiar. The B-1 contours of the central airframe with wing hinge were on the paper. The Tupolevs engineers looked confused by my presence. They didn’t want somebody had a look at what are they doing here. My time started at ten, but after short discussion and Sergey’s explanations of the priority and their plan to free computer for me in couple of hours, I decided do not insist on my privilege.

It was 10 pm of the nice late August night. Windows in the computer hall situated on the first floor were opened, night city beckoned by after hot day freshness.

“Okay, I’ll be back at noon. Do not lock the window” – I told to Sergey and escaped through the window.

I had intention to walk to Volga embankment and maybe had a swim. But my plans were changed by Dima Chegodaev and Valya Sabilo whom I met soon on the Krasnoarmeiskaya Street.

“What the hell are you doing here?” – Dima asked me.

“Killing time before my night shift starts” – was my answer.

“Nice, we are on same way. Let’s go and drink vodka”.

I accepted this invitation. Dima was very interesting and popular person who had huge amount of friends. Every meeting with him was a bright event.

We went to Ghiguly restaurant. It was busy time and all tables were occupied. Doorman waited some cash from us but we didn’t pay attention to his expectations and headed inside. No way, this guy looking like ex-KGB sergeant stopped us showing to me and saying:

“I do not allow you to go inside because you have no socks!”

This was true. I really had no socks, only light summer sandals. Valya who was wearing shoes told me:

“Let’s go out and I will give you my socks”.

We went out and I showed them café Sneghinka (Snowflake) on the opposite side of the street:

“I think that this is a better place. Let’s go there”.

My proposal was supported and in a minute we were greeted by waitress in this more democratic place. Two hours were spent in warm conversation and in quarter after noon in the morning I was back at the BESM-4 room.

Oval is opened and ready for the 2010:

The doors are really opened and you can come in:

Nice modern facilities inside but I prefer my outside exercises in the places like this:

Then it’s great to watch pilots landing skills together with eagles:

Or other pilot technique to navigate this huge bulker through our delta:

The story is continued with Stressmen 13

There were many other interesting problems in the Ilyushin Design Bureau in the end of seventies. One of them, analysis of the Il-102 frame, gave me a chance to look at very unusual structure. Ground attack aircraft had armor panels as fuselage structural elements. The wing had huge landing gear what left nothing except leading edge for torsion balancing. But it worked and only small modifications of the initial project were done on the base of our analysis and airplane was built. Looking ugly with its humped fuselage it was sitting in the assembling rig close to the Il-86.

Same time Volodya Peresypkin was looking for the effective wing structural scheme for the future Il-96. Solovov’s sandwich element was used for this purpose. Analysis of internal forces and theoretical material distribution gave good hint for the new scheme. Different backswept wing boxes with landing gear beam were analyzed too. All of them including Il-86, Boeing-707, Boeing-747, A-300 showed that there is undesirable interaction between landing gear beam and wing box in the area where beam is attached to the rear spar. The new scheme was found with small triangle thin-wall box behind the spar between spar and beam, which makes this interaction softer. The scheme was protected by patent and really implemented in the Il-96 wing structure.

Trips to Moscow were often. I liked Ilyushin Design Bureau and used every opportunity to walk through its experimental plant to see what new they have in production. Huge rigs for the Il-86 and small for the Il-102, the riveting, cutting, stamping, machining, assembling – I still remember sounds and smells of this walk. During lunch time we visited very nice canteen with good food that was much diverse and tastier than we had in KuAI. Moscow was announced as a “city of communist style of life” and Muscovites really lived better life than people from the provinces.

Ilyushins used not only PRASAK in that time, but Systema-4 which was TsAGI’s production, created by Vitaly Chuban’s team. It was written in FORTRAN for the BESM-6, Soviet super computer. I liked to go to BESM-6 hall to see this giant alive. But Our M-220 was situated on the B territory, 15 minutes walk from main facilities. And we liked this too as it gave us a chance for shopping and even drinking couple of beers on the way from one place to another.

There were several places for beer drinking in vicinity of Central Aerodrome area. The most popular between us was a very simple beer-bar in Petrovsky Park near Petrovsky Palace which was occupied by Air Force Academy named after Ghukovsky. Great Russian history is presented here everywhere. It was pleasant to drink the bear in the place that is surrounded by Russian aviation historical artifacts and discuss current aviation problems that really face us. Many solutions were found here during friendly conversations supported by Ghigulevsky beer and pickled herring on the piece of black bread.

Rainy day in Vancouver is what we got used too. And I like such days and my walk in Kitsilano Beach and Granville Island in rainy weather.

The harbor is very quiet:

Downtown looks attractive from under the bridge:

Aquabus has rainbow colors what makes it cheerful:

This boat had a very high tide one day:

Granville Island is wearing fall colors:

And I continue my story, Stressmen 12

One morning at the end of November 1977 Ekaterina Alekseevna told me that I have to go to Moscow and resolve the problem of the Il-86 nose landing gear box collapse.

“Last night Abramov gave a call and informed me that during towing test they turned the nose leg inside out. Ghenya Makeev and Nina Kell will go with you. You have to create the model, simulate the test, understand well the reasons of the failure and find repair variants in two weeks” – was the order.

In the next day morning Aeroflot’s Tu-154B brought our team to Domodedovo airport. We took the bus outside the terminal and in one and half hour arrived to the Ilyushins Design Bureau check-point. Our passports and so called warrants were examined and recorded, the First Department (State Security) certificates taken out to be returned on our way back. Only after this we got our passes to enter inside the fence.

The Airframe Strength team was situated on the second floor of the old design office building. Valery Ivanovich was glad to see us:

“Let’s go and have a look at the airplane” – was his proposal after several words of greeting.

“OK, but let’s take our hotel orders on the way” – I answered, knowing well, that if we do not do this now, later they will close the service office and we will sleep on the street.

“Yes, let’s do this too. But sorry, guys, all rooms on Pilot Nesterov Street are occupied now, therefore we booked your rooms in Zarya.

“Holly smoke! Have you ever been there yourself?” – Ghenka exclaimed. We had the experience of staying in these Altay, Vostok, Zarya row of hotels that were built for 1957 World Youth Festival and well known now as a chip places that are very popular between people from Caucasus and Middle Asia Republics.

“What can I do, guys! I have no hotel and my two bedroom apartment is not good for your staying too”.

“OK, we will survive this time as did this before” – I put a period into discussion.

And the work started.

The front leg niche (thin wall box type of structure) is pressurized as it is situated in the fuselage pressurized area. The thin wall structure was stiffened by ribs, positioned inside the fuselage, leaving outside wall surfaces smooth. The stiffening of the box was designed to prevent buckling of this thin wall structure under internal fuselage pressure. Working very closely with designers, who provided us with geometrical and material data, we created finite element model during the first week. Then, through calculations, we found that ground towing load case leads to high compressions in some areas of the box structure, which never happens in flight conditions with pressurized fuselage. This compression was a reason of buckling and structural collapse. The effective repair variant was found too, what was reinforcement of the existing system of stiffeners in particular area.

It was a nice walk in the neighborhood. What the impressive colors around! Look at this:

And at this:

The bays are covered by thin veil of mist:

And forest is really golden:

And this is continuation, Stressmen 11

My first scientific public presentation happened at TsAGI’s “Young Scientists Conference”, which Sergey Rychkov and I attended in 1978. I reported on the issues of the Il-76 wing-fuselage interface and its modification, Sergey presented problems of the Il-86 rear fuselage structure and fuselage-empennage interaction.

We arrived to Moscow week earlier with our usual tasks at Ilyushins. The conference placards were prepared in the company’s hotel room on the 7 Pilot Nesterov street at night time after our main work in design office. The conference took place in the TsAGI’s Palace of Culture in Ghukosky downtown. Electrical train was common means of transportation to this place from Moscow. You have to take it on Kazansky railway station and in one hour of pleasant trip in Moscow suburbs the Otdykh (The Rest) platform surrounded by pine forest is a place of your destination. I like the walk from railway platform to TsAGI through pine forest and quiet small town streets.

The personnel of the TsAGI’s third department were our major listeners, reviewers, referees and critics. Vladimir Fedorovich Kutyinov, the Head of this department, paid attention to the event and asked his people to take part in the conference actively. Therefore it was a chance for me to make acquaintance with Georgy Zamula, Eugeniy Lipin, Victor Biryuk and other TsAGI leads. There were many questions to the presentation, our illustrations of structural behavior were really interesting for audience. Georgy Zamula stressed importance of detailed structural analysis on the base of finite element calculations. He praised our reports and told that these are examples of structural analysis he would like to see his guys provided him.

Conference banquet was very impressive by its excellent buffet with big amount of food and drinks. But, what was really important, there were many young engineers and researchers, not all of them mails, good music and very good new acquaintance.

After successful presentation in TsAGI I had another public affair: examination on the Marxist Leninist Philosophy. We had it on Tuesday of the week after our return from Moscow. Of course I was not prepared but something told me that this test can’t be serious. The event took part in the philosophy classroom in the first building of KuAI. Docent Taller met us and we got our questions. I read them and then started to look on the walls which were covered by placards with major dogmas and communist leaders’ citations. Of course I found several of them that suited to my questions. And when docent asked if somebody is ready I raised my hand.

Robert Taller looked at my piece of paper and understood the situation clearly. But instead of asking additional questions and digging dipper into my knowledge of the subject he started conversation about my research work. I told him the fresh story of my participation in the conference and what kind of research I reported there. He was really interested and asked many questions about the Il-76 structure, the situation in the Ilyushin design bureau and my future career in structural analysis field. We spend ten minutes in this conversation when Docent Kwitnoy entered the room. Robert took my student record-book and announced:

“Excellent”

But Mr. Kwitnoy stopped him by saying:

“Wait, wait, let me have a look”.

He took my paper, had a look, understood everything and acted in a wink:

“Tell me, what else Vladimir Ilyich told about class definition except what you rewrote from the wall?”

I had no answer to this question ant to three other questions he asked me after first one.

“Very bad” – was his verdict and he tried to take my record-book from Robert’s hands. But Robert kept it and asked to step out for negotiations. They went out the room and in couple of minutes returned back. Robert announced:

“Passably” – and put mark into examination log and into my record-book.

I do not know what kind of discussion they had, but of course I was mad about Kwitnoy uprising in examination room. It was upset event but I forget about this in fifteen minutes after returning to my routines of NIG-1 research duties.

It was hot and dry summer this year. September and half of October were unusually dry and warm too. But finally rain came back and we have usual weather which still pleasant for cows in Delta:

And it still pleasant to walk in parks like this:

And of course, in the forest:

Such walks helps to remember some events, therefore I continue, Stressmen 10

The Il-76 was not the only problem that NIG-1 had in hands in those times. Sergey Rychkov analyzed the rear fuselage of the Il-86, Russian “respond” to the A-300. The first assembled airframe of the Il-86 was tested for static load cases in the Inlyshin’s huge testing facilities close to assembling shop and there were several problems with the structure. Volodya Peresypking managed engineering aspects, Katya Ivanona provided administrations. She pushed Volodya to start writing his PhD thesis. And in parallel to this very important problem of the future Il-96 wing to fuselage interface was under analysis and optimization in the NIG-1 too.

Our travels to Moscow were often. We prefer to take train as a mean of transportation. It took us 18 hour by “Ghiguly” speed train to reach Moscow. You board the train in Kuibyshev in the afternoon and next early morning step off on the platform of Kazanskaya Station in Moscow. Comfortable enough compartments gave you a chance to have good chat, informal information exchange, and even some rest and good sleeping. There was one other reason why we liked railway better than air transportation. There was shortage of the food and goods in the USSR in that time. But Moscow, as a city of communist style of life, was supplied much well than other cities and regions of the country. Therefore every trip to Moscow was the trip for shopping. For example, I had special 60 liter backpack for my Moscow travels. And every time on my way back it was filled up with such things like apples, oranges, meat, coffee, candies, cheese, bananas, sausage, bottles of vines and other similar stuff. The weight of such loaded backpack can be heavier than 40 kilograms, but Aeroflot, the only airline in the Soviet Union, allowed you to take 20 kilograms aboard and the price for extra weight was high enough.

NIG-1 as a scientific research group had to have personnel with highest level of qualification. There were two doctorate degrees in the USSR and still are two in Russia: Candidate of Science, what is equivalent to the Western PhD, and Doctor of Science, what is higher than PhD and has no equivalent in North America, but has something similar in Germany and France. Being researcher we were motivated to get doctorate degree, but this was not simple. First of all we had to attend two courses: English language and Marxist Philosophy and then, finishing them, took two examinations on these subjects. We were assigned to this course together with Sergey Rychkov. English language lessons were very interesting for me. I understood importance of English for my career. But it was obvious for me even in the middle of 70s that Marxist Philosophy was absolutely inapplicable to real life. I attended only one lesson of Professor Taller and understood well that he has same opinion.

And of course, being researches we had to take part in conferences with our own reports. Publishing of our articles was compulsory too. One of my first scientific papers was written in collaboration with Valery Mischuk and Volodya Peresypkin. It is based on the analysis of the Il-76 wing to fuselage interface.