Kalinin
A former Ukrainian nationalist air commander built the Soviet Union’s most numerous airliner and a seven-engined giant with passengers in its wings — then Stalin’s purge took him in a ten-minute trial.
Kalinin: the company and the aircraft that made its name
A pilot with a dangerous past
Konstantin Kalinin, born in Warsaw in 1889, was a First World War aviator who after 1918 commanded an air division of the Ukrainian People’s Republic — a past that would later cost him his life. After studying at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, he set up and led a design bureau at a repair works in Kharkiv in 1926, and he helped found the Kharkiv Aviation Institute.
Backbone of Aeroflot
Kalinin’s signature was the high, elliptical-winged monoplane, and his K-5 eight-passenger airliner was the triumph. First flown on 18 October 1929, it was built in larger numbers than any other Soviet airliner of its day — about 260 — and displaced German Junkers and Dornier types to become the backbone of Aeroflot’s domestic network until 1940. The Soviet Air Force used it as a transport until 1943.
The giant and the purge
Then came the K-7, among the largest aircraft of the pre-jet age: twin booms, seven engines and wings 2.3 metres thick meant to seat passengers. It first flew on 11 August 1933 and crashed on 21 November when a tail boom failed, killing 15. Kalinin was arrested in Voronezh on 1 April 1938, condemned after a ten-minute closed hearing and shot. He was rehabilitated in 1955.
Kalinin in numbers
Şirket
- Kısacası
- Founded 1926
- Design bureau set up by Konstantin Kalinin in Kharkiv
- Ended with Kalinin’s arrest and execution in 1938
Üretme
- En çok bilinen yönü
- Kalinin K-5
- About 260 K-5 airliners
- K-1 to K-4 light airliners
- K-7 seven-engine giant, one built
- K-12 tailless bomber prototype
Bugün
- Şimdi
- Feshedilmiş
- Kalinin rehabilitated posthumously in 1955
Sayılar
- K-5 airliners built
- about 260
- K-7 crash deaths
- 15 (14 aboard, 1 on the ground)1933
Every notable Kalinin aircraft
| Uçak | Rol | İlk uçuş | İnşa edildi | Durum | Not |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kalinin K-1 | Three-passenger airliner | 1924 | Emekli | ||
| Kalinin K-4 | Multipurpose transport | 1928 | Emekli | ||
| Kalinin K-5 | Eight-passenger airliner | 18 October 1929 | about 260 | Emekli | Most numerous Soviet airliner of its time |
| Kalinin K-7 | Heavy bomber and airliner prototype | 11 August 1933 | 1 | Emekli | Seven engines; crashed 21 November 1933 |
| Kalinin K-12 Firebird | Tailless bomber prototype | 1936 | Emekli | ||
| Kalinin K-13 | Uzun menzilli bombardıman uçağı | Emekli | Cancelled as inferior to the Ilyushin DB-3 |
Where Kalinin built, who led it, what it achieved
Fabrikalar
- Kharkiv design bureau · Kharkiv, Ukraine — Set up in a repair works in 1926
İnsanlar
- Konstantin Kalinin · founder and chief designer — 1889–1938; executed in the Great Purge, rehabilitated 1955
- Mikhail Snegirev · test pilot — First flew the K-5
Kalinin, year by year
K-1 airliner
Kalinin design bureau formed in Kharkiv
K-5 first flight
K-7 construction begins
K-7 first flight
K-7 crash kills 15
K-7 follow-on prototypes cancelled
Kalinin arrested in Voronezh
Sentenced to death and executed
Posthumous rehabilitation
Everything people ask about Kalinin
What was the Kalinin K-7?
What was Kalinin’s most successful aircraft?
What happened to Konstantin Kalinin?
Where was the Kalinin bureau?
Around Kalinin
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Doğrulama tarihi: 2026-10-03.