Leonid Selyakov

Leonid Leonidovich Selyakov (; 22 April 1916 – 16 October 2002) was a Soviet aircraft designer, a laureate of the Lenin Prize and the USSR State Prize (1972).

Biography Selyakov was born on 22 April 1916 in Kiev into the family of a land surveying engineer. After finishing seven years of school in 1930, he began working in his father’s expedition and subsequently at the Kiev Central Aviation Repair Base of Dobrolyot.

From 1932 to 1941, he worked at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in the brigade of Vladimir Petlyakov. He participated in the development of the ANT-20 Maxim Gorky and the and ANT-42 (TB-7) aircraft.

In 1938, Selyakov became head of the technical design group and deputy head of the fuselage brigade at OKB-16, which was created after the arrest of Andrei Tupolev on the basis of his design bureau. Despite lacking a formal higher education, he became one of the leading specialists in Soviet aircraft construction.

He died on 16 October 2002 in Moscow and was buried at the Khimki Cemetery.

Awards In 1957, Selyakov was awarded the Lenin Prize for the creation of the M-4 strategic jet bomber, and in 1972, he received the USSR State Prize for the creation of the Tu-134 and its modifications.

Publications Ternistyy put v nikuda: Zapiski aviakonstruktora (A Thorny Path to Nowhere: Notes of an Aircraft Designer). Moscow, 1997. Chelovek, sreda, mashina: Zapiski aviakonstruktora (Man, Environment, Machine: Notes of an Aircraft Designer). Moscow, 1998. Maloizvestnyye stranitsy tvorcheskoy deyatelnosti konstruktora V. M. Myasishcheva (Little‑known Pages of the Creative Work of Designer V. M. Myasishchev).