Grigorovich
A Kiev-born journalist repaired one damaged French flying boat, reinvented it, and became Russia’s flying-boat master, then designed a fighter while a prisoner of the OGPU.
Grigorovich: the company and the aircraft that made its name
One broken flying boat
Dmitry Grigorovich came to aircraft sideways. Born in Kiev in 1883 and educated at the Kiev Polytechnic and in Liège, he moved to St Petersburg in 1911 and edited an aviation journal. From 1912 he was technical director of S. S. Shchetinin’s First Russian Aeronautics Company. In 1913 a Donnet-Lévêque flying boat arrived for repairs to its nose. Grigorovich studied it, and his improved copy became the M-1, the first of a long line of Russian flying boats.
The M-series
The M-5 of 1915 was the first flying boat mass-produced in Russia, with about 300 built for the Baltic and Black Sea fleets. The heavier M-9 followed, about 500 strong; in September 1916 naval pilot Jan Nagórski looped one, the first loop in a flying boat. Grigorovich’s M-11 was the world’s first flying-boat fighter. In July 1917 he took over a works split off from Shchetinin’s, only for it to be nationalised in 1918.
Designing in a prison
Under the Soviets he designed the I-1 and I-2 fighters at Moscow’s Factory No. 1 and organised naval prototype work in Leningrad. On 31 August 1928 the OGPU arrested him; sentenced to ten years, he worked with Nikolai Polikarpov in a prison design bureau, the TsKB-39, where in April 1930 they produced the I-5 fighter. Amnestied in 1931, he went on designing attack aircraft and teaching at the Moscow Aviation Institute until his death from cancer in 1938. He was rehabilitated in 1993.
Grigorovich in numbers
La empresa
- En breve
- Designer bureau, 1913–1938
- Technical director at Shchetinin’s St Petersburg works from 1912
- Own works from July 1917, nationalised 1918
- Soviet design offices in Moscow and Leningrad
Producción
- Más conocido por
- M-5 and M-9
- M-5: about 300 built
- M-9: about 500 built
- I-5 fighter, with Polikarpov, 1930
Hoy
- Ahora
- Ended with his death, 1938
- An M-15 survives in the Polish Aviation Museum
His M-9 also flew with Finland until 1922.
Los números
- M-5 built
- about 300
- M-9 built
- alrededor de 500
- M-11 delivered to the navy
- 61
- M-15 built
- 871916–1921
Every notable Grigorovich aircraft
| Aeronave | Role | Primer vuelo | Construido | Estado | Nota |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grigorovich M-1 | hidroavión | 1913 | 1 | Jubilado | Improved Donnet-Lévêque |
| Grigorovich M-5 | hidroavión de reconocimiento | 1915 | about 300 | Jubilado | First mass-produced Russian flying boat |
| Grigorovich M-9 | Reconnaissance / bomber flying boat | 1916 | alrededor de 500 | Jubilado | First loop in a flying boat, 1916 |
| Grigorovich M-11 | Flying-boat fighter | 1916 | 61 | Jubilado | World’s first flying-boat fighter |
| Grigorovich M-15 | hidroavión de reconocimiento | 1916 | 87 | Jubilado | |
| Grigorovich M-16 | Winter seaplane | 1916 | 36 | Jubilado | Could land on ice and snow |
| Grigorovich I-2 | Combatiente | Jubilado | Among the first Soviet fighters | ||
| Polikarpov-Grigorovich I-5 | Combatiente | 1930 | Jubilado | Designed in the TsKB-39 prison bureau |
Where Grigorovich built, who led it, what it achieved
Fábricas
- Shchetinin works · St Petersburg — First Russian Aeronautics Company of S. S. Shchetinin
- Factory No. 1 (ex-Dux) · Moscow — Design bureau from 1922
- Krasny Lyotchik · Leningrad — Former Gamayun works, from 1924
Gente
- Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich · designer — 1883–1938
- S. S. Shchetinin · factory owner
- Jan Nagórski · naval pilot — First loop in a flying boat, M-9, 1916
- Nikolai Polikarpov · fellow prisoner-designer — Co-designed the I-5
Récords y primicias
- First loop in a flying boat, M-9, 17 September 1916
- M-11: world’s first flying-boat fighter
Grigorovich, year by year
Grigorovich becomes technical director at Shchetinin
M-1, based on a Donnet-Lévêque, flies
M-5 enters production
M-9 first flight at Baku
Jan Nagórski loops an M-9
Grigorovich takes over his own works
Heads design at Moscow’s Factory No. 1
Arrested by the OGPU
I-5 fighter created in the TsKB-39 prison bureau
Amnestied
Dies in Moscow
Everything people ask about Grigorovich
Who was Dmitry Grigorovich?
What was the Grigorovich M-9?
Did Grigorovich design aircraft in prison?
Why are Grigorovich boats sometimes called Shchetinin?
Around Grigorovich
Todos los datos, verificados
- Grigorovich, Dmitry Pavlovich, Russian Wikipedia
- Grigorovich M-5, Wikipedia
- Grigorovich M-9, Wikipedia
Verificado el 3 de octubre de 2026.