Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov

Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov (Russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Полика́рпов) (July 8 1892 – July 30 1944) was a soviet aircraft designer, known as "King of Fighters".

In October 1929 Polikarpov was arrested and sentenced to death. In 1931, after two years of exprectation for execution he was transferred to Special Design Bureau of OGPU (CKB-39 OGPU) set at Butyrka prison and the sentence changed to 10 years of forced labors. Fortunately, after a successful demonstration the sentence was changed to a conditional one, and in July 1931 he was amnested together with a group of other convicts.

Polikarpov was a recipient of numerous awards, including the State Stalin Prize (1941, 1943)

Polikarpov Peak in Pamir was named after him.

References

• Russian "Holidays" site [1]