Kondratyev twin-jet fighter

After graduating in 1952, the as-yet unknown designer Vladimir Kondratyev was sent to the newly created OKB as the leader of conceptual design team. This bureau was established to reverse-engineer and rebuild a captured American fighter F-86 "Sabre" and further develop this type of aircraft in domestic aviation.

Once started, the newly formed Kondratyev bureau faced a number of challenges, chief among which was the need to replace the American jet engine at home. It was suggested to give the "Sabre" a new Soviet engine, the AM-5, with a progressive axial compressor.

Kondratyev asked design project leader Eugene Adler to design a new fighter on the side. But where to start from? Remembering the Polikarpov's words about the fact that a fighter's success was 60% dependent on the choice of engine, Adler advised his boss to enquire about what motorists had to offer.

But where would Kondratyev get the industrial base? Indeed, Kondratyev had only a design bureau and no factory of his own.

Kondratyev was misled by Boris Shpitalniy, an elderly creator of machine guns and cannons who suddenly hit on the idea he had invented a molecular motor (MD), the principle of which he explained to Kondratyev and Adler. Adler soon understood that something was wrong,  and that both men would soon have to look for another job. Soon the Kondratyev-Shpitalniy project was taken from their hands, and the case taken to court. The subject of the hearings was not so much the feasability of the plane itself, of course, as the molecular motor supposed to power it.

All of Kondratyev's assets was transfered to the reborn Sukhoi OKB. Sukhoi settled on the Central Airport which previously hosted the now-defunct Polikarpov OKB. He inherited the remnants of his own design bureau, as well as what was left of the companies Yermolayev and Polikarpov after their demise. Pavel Sukhoi himself called Adler and offered him to come and work for him. Thus he stayed on at the Sukhoi Design Bureau as a crew chief conceptual design and worked on what would become the Su-7.

The illustration I did (above right) was redrawn using the original sketch (below right) as a reference.

For the whole story of the Kondratyev fighter, please see [link].