Alexander Nadiradze

Aleksandr Davidovich Nadiradze (, ; 2 September 1914 – 3 September 1987) was a Soviet engineer of Georgian ethnicity who was instrumental in the militarization of the former Soviet space program.

Early life and career

Born in the town of Gori, Georgia, Nadiradze was raised in a teacher's family in Tbilisi. Initially working as an assistant in a small Georgian aerospace faculty, he made his first invention in May 1934. After finishing at the Transcaucasian Industrial Institute in 1936 he moved to Moscow and applied to the Moscow Aviation Institute. Two years later Nadiradze began working in the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in which he led a team of engineers engaged in theoretical and experimental research of aircraft landing gears based on the principles of air cushions. He was also involved in the development of the Tupolev Tu-2 and early Soviet turbojet fighters. In 1941 he was appointed a chief designer in the Moscow OKB (Experimental Design Bureau) plant 22 (Gorbunov). The new system was adopted by Soviet Strategic Missile Forces on 28 April 1981. On 29 December 1981 Nadiradze was elected a full member (academician) of the USSR Academy of Science in the Department of Mechanics and Control Processes (theoretical and applied mechanics, mechanical engineering and engineering science). He was also awarded second Hero of Socialist Labour and fourth Order of Lenin by Presidium of USSR Supreme Soviet. When Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Reagan signed the Intermediate to Short-Range Missiles treaty on 8 December 1987, the USSR had to destroy 728 of its Pioneer missile complexes. The RT-2PM Topol whose development started by Nadiradze in 1977, was put into active service in 1988, and to this day remains a primary nuclear strike capability of the Russian Federation. The main challenge of the Topol project was to create a suitable battle management system, which was Nadiradze's main focus throughout the entire development. For this last project, Nadiradze received the USSR State Prize in 1987. His work was continued after his death by Boris N. Lapygin. This last achievement in mobile ICBMs stemmed from Alexandre Nadiradze's very first inventions. He wrote over 100 articles in scientific journals and registered over 220 inventions and operating guidelines. His work would prove to be vital for subsequent developments. He principally established a scientific base for missile systems which would be used by his followers and successors.

Awards

Lenin Prize (1964) Four Orders of Lenin (1968, 1974, 1976, 1982) Honoured Inventor of the RSFSR (1973) Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1974) Twice Hero of Socialist Labour (1976 and 1982) Order of the October Revolution (1984) USSR State Prize (1987)

In 1993 the Cosmonautics Federation of Russia and the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering established a medal named after academician A.D Nadiradze. On the backside of the medal a mobile ICBM launcher is engraved.

Commemorative plaques in honor of A.D Nadiradze are installed in front of the main building of the same institutes.